Barry Cooper studied philosophy at UCNW Bangor and painting at the Royal College of Art. He has worked with Rambert Dance Company, London Sinfonietta and has collaborated with writers, composers and artists. He has exhibited in London (The Roundhouse, 1977; The October Gallery, 1980 and 1983; The National Theatre, 1982 and The Hellenic Centre, 2002), Bath (Bath International Festival, 1985) and Kenya (U.N. Protection Agency 10th anniversary of the Stockholm Peace Conference). As a sculptor he has produced a large body of work in stone including Syrens (a series of waymarkers for Sustrans' Wells/ Glastonbury pilgrimage route with sculptor/musician Laurence Parnell) and 7 carved boundary stones for the village of Aldeby in Suffolk. In 1989 he initiated and designed ECOS (1989) a gathering of 12 monoliths, from the original 1992 members of the European Community, around an amphitheatre in Frome Somerset. Related projects have included Songs of the Stones which involved a short film for Channel 4 with 72 Frome schoolchildren (1976), and Hieroglyphs - Serendipity, an installation at the Demarco European Arts Foundation (Edinburgh International Festival,1997); both with composer Nigel Osborne. He completed a 4 metre high Portland stone Tree of Life, surrounded by 11 Holm Oak trees, on the ECOS site in 2004. Collaborating artist for Round and Round.
Alastair Goolden - Head of Sound, Bristol Old Vic (1974-77), freelance Sound Designer (1978-92) for Royal Shakespeare Company, Old Vic Theatre, Royal National Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Young Vic, Almeida Theatre, Cambridge Theatre Company, Manchester Royal Exchange and others. Assistant Production Manager, Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith (1981-85), where he later worked as Assistant Director and, with the playwright Bernard Kops, founded a Community Theatre Workshop in Hounslow. Project Sound Consultant for The Old Laundry Theatre in Windermere (opened in 1992). Between 1987 and 1992 he directed a number of fringe productions in London and Bristol. Since 1984 he has also worked as a performer for the Natural Theatre Company, for whom he wrote a play about Ealing Studios in 1993. Academic posts include Senior Lecturer in Sound Design, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (1995-98) and Lecturer in Sound and Lighting Design, Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama (1999). In 1999 he became the Technology Consultant for Artmusic. Technical collaborator for Footprints, Lachrymae, Thin Air, Line dances and The Opera Room.
Fiona Haser studied at Bath Academy of Arts and Brighton Art College. She works in a wide variety of media producing large scale and miniature installations and sculpture, collage and photography. Her work has been shown internationally including several solo and group exhibitions in Germany (1993-9) and London (Whitechapel Open 1993). From 1996-8 she was the artistic director of BOAMAD (Bradford on Avon Music Art and Drama) and as a member of Art Spark she has led several community arts projects in Wiltshire. Her recent work has been an exploration of pinhole photography. Examples of this work appeared in one of the Books of Trees as part of Salisbury Festival's major arts project In Praise of Trees (May/June 2002) and featured in an exhibition to launch a new gallery in Bradford on Avon (September 2002). Collaborating artist for Intergenerational Project and commissioned artist for Palace Intrusions.
1936 - 2003
Al Morrison was born in Liverpool. He trained as a painter and has taught at all levels first as an art specialist. In 1980 he wrote Photo Finish, subsequently translated into seven languages. From then until 1996 he was consultant and photographer for Which? magazine. After a short period in educational television (1976-8) he became senior lecturer in photography, film and television at the University of Westminster where he specialised in animation and electronic imagery. He took early retirement in 1998 to concentrate on developing his own activities as an artist and experimental video maker. He worked full time as a freelance artist and animator using electronic imagery until his untimely death in November 2003. In 1999 he produced Dancing Spirals, a video of art collaboration between Motionhouse Dance Group and Jan Truman, a local sculptor. In 2000 the Nunney Jazz Café hosted his exhibition of surrealist drawings and paintings. In 2002 he worked as the Mendip area representative for Somerset Art Week open studios project. Al was a member of the British Association of Mosaic Makers
Al was extremely generous with his time, energy and creativity. Whoever he worked with he supported and encouraged. As an artist in his own right he was prolific, working in many fields from painting to video. Whether creating video art, leading workshops or producing publicity material his approach was always original, never predictable and he tackled everything with a real enthusiasm. We miss his friendship, his quiet artistry and his ability to see through to the heart of things.
Helen Ottaway - Performer/musician with Lumiere & Son, I.O.U., Graeme Miller and Insomniac, touring nationally and internationally. Founder member of new music/performance groups Regular Music and 3 or 4 Composers. Commissions include String Quartet No.1 (1998) for Nottinghamshire County Council, Millennium anthem and other pieces (New Year's Eve, 1999) for Salisbury Cathedral, title and incidental music for The River (1999) for BBC2. She was associate composer for In Praise of Trees, a major arts project curated by Annette Ratusznuak, in association with Salisbury Festival and English Nature (2001-02). This included the commissioning of The Echoing Green (tenor, marimba, double chorus and string orchestra) which was premiered at the opening concert of the 2002 Salisbury Festival in Salisbury Cathedral. Founded Artmusic in 1999 and, as artistic director, has worked on all projects to date. Collaborating with Franko B, 2009.
Rowena Pearce attended classes in etching and painting in London from 1984. She moved to Somerset in 1990 and made her home at Shave Farm, near Bruton in Somerset, where she hosts a variety of arts events and residencies. From 1991 to 1997 she ran Shave International Artists' Workshops. Shave artists have also worked with school students (including those with learning difficulties) and with their teachers from Somerset and London. Rowena continues to work in collaboration with younger artists, offering the facilities of Shave Farm. She also draws, paints and makes prints. More recently, she has turned to paper and cast glass, with some of her work-in-progress shown during Somerset Art Week in 2000 and 2002. She took part in Salisbury Festival's In Praise of Trees (May/June 2002) contributing to the Books of Trees. Inspired by this project and following research and development during the summer of 2002, she developed her installation Charcoal (Somerset Art Week, September 2002). Collaborating artist for Footprints and Lachrymae.
Deborah Thomas - Designer for theatre and dance companies (Hesitate & Demonstrate, Rational Theatre Productions, Diversions Dance Company), also produced her own live art works (Serpentine Gallery, South Bank Centre, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham) Exhibitions include Whitechapel Open (1990; winner of the Unilever Prize); The Craft Council's Recycling, Forms for the Next Century (1996) and Glass, Light and Space (1997-8), the V&A's The Cutting Edge (1997: commission) and Christie's The Light (2000). Collaborating artist (with Helen Ottaway and others) on 3 or 4 Composer' trilogy of performance installations (Cherry Red Heat, (1993), Ring (1994: South Bank Centre) and Still Ringing (1995-7: Barclays New Stages regional Festival, Nottingham and Arnolfini, Bristol). Her glasswork chandeliers can be seen in buildings throughout the world (in the UK, other European countries and the USA). Her work has been featured in two Sotheby's exhibitions (Sotheby's - New York, The Unexpected Too, 2002 and Sotheby's - Bond Street, Waste to Taste, 2003). Collaborating artist for The Opera Room.
Melanie Thompson is a visual performer living in Glastonbury in Somerset. She has extensive experience creating site specific work and has been lead artist for a number of public art projects. She was artistic director of Tor Dance, a dance festival in Glastonbury. Artistic collaborator for Palace Intrusions (see www.palaceintrusions.org.uk).