We are pleased to welcome you to The Bullpen - a family-run rural arts centre in the Vale of the White Horse in South Oxfordshire. The arts centre comprises gallery, studios and workshop room. Wesley & Helen Jacobs and Keith & Beth Jacobs began creating the Vale's contemporary arts centre in 2003, in partnership with local businessman John Logan. It has since grown steadily, with funding from grant awarding bodies and support from the local community.
What's New
Arts Council Funding
We recently received the news that we have been granted substantial Arts Council funding to run metal-casting workshops for artists and visitors over the coming year. Watch this space!
Read the press release here (PDF).
Meanwhile, we welcome visitors to our next Iron Casting Sculpture Workshop:
Iron Casting Event at The Bullpen
1st August 2009
In the 1800s, the iron casting industry was thriving in the Vale of White Horse. The specialist craft of agricultural iron casting died out in this area as it did throughout the country... and yet over the past three years, artists in Stanford in the Vale have revived the craft by hosting metal casting sculpture courses at The Bullpen Foundry.
Since being awarded substantial grant funding by Arts Council England, The Bullpen is able to offer creative practitioners and visiting community groups the opportunity to make cast iron sculpture this summer. A 9-day workshop is being run for artists, who will create sand moulds for their sculpture and prepare the cupola furnace for the 'Pour Day'. The Bullpen re-uses scrap iron for this work - (broken up old farm machinery parts, old fireplaces and baths) along with coke and forced air to fuel the furnace, which will then melt enough iron, continuously, to fill the artists' moulds of their sculpture. Professor Daniel Hunt from Kansas State University will be teaching alongside Wesley Jacobs, director of The Bullpen Foundry.
Interested artists should contact Helen Jacobs for an application form as soon as possible, and note that the whole course runs from 25th July - 2nd August.
Visitors are invited to see the exhibition of cast iron sculpture in The Bullpen Gallery, to watch artists at work, to see the tools and equipment used in the foundry, and to take part in a taster workshop to create a cast iron tile (between 20th - 30th July).
The 'Pour Day' is a performance in itself, and well worth coming to watch - there is nothing like it in this area! Visitors welcome: 1st August at approximately 3pm.
Interested visitors should contact Helen Jacobs before arriving for the pour: delays are possible. There will be a hog roast and local ale to enjoy while you watch... and the event takes place on the Open Weekend at Mill Farm, where The Bullpen is situated. Talk to the farmer about his future projects, visit the animals and see contemporary sculpture in the making.
Please contact Helen Jacobs for an application form, or for further information: helen@wezjacobs.com or telephone 01367 718 722.