Things we have been involved in
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptAlongside the uniersity, we helped the Christchurch Green Neighbourhood Group with a grant towards designing and installing a heritage information board on Christchurch Green, at the junction with Shinfield Rd and next to the Whiteknights campus. The board will show those new to the neighbouhood something of the area’s history and the people who lived …
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptWe are supporting a project led by Professor Yota Demitriades of Reading University’s Institute of Education on Reading Old Cemetery. Our trustee, Jenny Halstead, is illustrating a book on the cemetery edited by Yota and to be published by Reading’s very own publisher, Two Rivers Press, in 2024. RG Spaces is providing a grant towards …
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptIn 2023 we supported Art in the Community’s project to cover Whitchurch bridge with butterflies representing promises made to support sustainability in the face of climate change and other environmental factors. The installation then moved to a venue on the Whiteknights Studio Trail in support of Reading’s Climate Change Festival in 2024 we are working …
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptWe are pleased to be able to support this project to convert the Salvation Army Hall on Kings Road to a community theatre. Our grant will enable the publicly accessible cafe/bar area to be used for exhibitions with lighting and hanging system. Find out more about the theatre project on the Reading Rep website
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptFor Reading Children's Festival 2020 you can make your own games. Try them out at: https://rgspaces.org.uk/games
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptThe iMuse Bayeux Tapestry web app (https://ahweb.org.uk/games/tapestry/make-your-own-bayeux-tapestry-scene/) lets you move figures from Reading Museum’s Victorian copy of the Bayeux Tapestry to create your own scene. As a fun lockdown activity during the 2020-2021 COVID pandemic, an RG Spaces volunteer extended it to produce some simple animations. See: Easter card (https://youtu.be/UG3apB2ZX1c) May morning in lockdown (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5smySsVvPjg) …
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RG Spaces is proud that one of its founding trustees, Jenny Halstead, has edited the book to mark 20 years since she co-founded the Whiteknights Studio Trial. The book will be published by Reading's very own publishing house, Two Rivers Press, in June 2020.
We are helping this project by giving a grant towards its production.
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptRG Spaces supported this project with a small grant for materials. Local artists created new relics with Reading themes which were shown in a Reliquary in Reading Minster to accompany the Reading Between the Lines production of a new play, Henry II. The Reliquary transferred to Reading Museum and was exhibited during Spring 2019. To help keep the memory alive, and as an experiment in showing an exhibition catalogue in a more interactive way, RG Spaces' iMuse programme created online versions using commonly available IT see http://relics.rgspaces.org.uk Reading based artist Thérèse Lawlor created the frieze for the Reliquary which we show on our website header. You can learn more about the spaces it portrays here.
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptWe attend events usually with our gazebo and/or info tricycle. Here is the tricycle as a mini cinema in Reading Old Cemetery for 3 Bees Fun Day 2019. During the Covid19 pandemic the events we normally attend have been cancelled or postponed for Summer 2020. We are waiting to hear whether Heritage Open Days will take place in some form (possibly online) in September. This page will be updated as more information becomes available.
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptWe helped Junction Arch Arts and Heritage CIC at the start of their project to convert the Old Cemetery arch into a community hub by providing them with a grant for professional help with fund-raising. We helped raise awareness of the project with a special competition at East Reading Festival and decking the info tricycle in a new Junction Arch livery.
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptA community sculpture coordinated by Whitchurch based artist Gill Williamson. Hundreds of people creating a Fibonacci spiral on Pangbourne Meadow. We provided some operational support and created the quiz equinox.rgspaces.org.uk
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptLocal artist Liz Kelly created paintings around Reading which we mapped. See http://100.rgspaces.org.uk. We showed them at various events during 2018 - and ran a hotly contested 'spot the spaces' competition.
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptTo celebrate universal suffrage and Vote 100 we ran Equaliteas in June 2018. Free tea and cake for around 100 visitors who viewed the exhibition of an artist's year with Berkshire's High Sheriff, Victoria Fishburn, seen here with local MPs Matt Rodda and Alok Sharma and the artist Jenny Halstead. Try our Equalitea quiz
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptHeritage Open Days 2018 - we coordinated volunteers from the Friends of the University of Reading, the Women's Club and Two Rivers Press to Open this Grade II listed building to the public with exhibitions on Edith Morley, first female professor, and the Palmer family.
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptWe led a project in Reading Central Library to refurbish their exhibition space and make it better known. It now has new spot lighting and hanging system. The Library offers the space for local artists and others for a rolling programme of exhibitions. While management of the space has passed to the Library, we continue to help by running the website holybrook.gallery which has information on exhibitions and how to book the space.
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptAdvised by 15 Reading scientists, we co-ordinated an exhibition at the Turbine House to overlap with Heritage Open Days and the new Reading-on-Thames Festival 2017
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptThis project was run by Reading Museum as part of the Abbey Revealed restoration project. We helped with our info tricycle going along to events with our tile-painting activity, encouraging visitors to create tiles inspired by those from the Abbey and to handle real artefacts from 900 years ago. We passed the activity on to the Museum who ran it as 'Medieval Tile Painting' - encouraging people to look closely at Abbey artefacts while providing an absorbing activity.
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptDuring 2017 we ran project ‘Turbo Charged’ evaluating uses of the Turbine House which is made available through Reading Museum for community exhibitions. turbocharged.rgspaces.org.uk We submitted a report to the Museum with recommendations in October 2017.
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptWe joined in this ambitious project to network the whole of Reading with an internet of things free community run network. Our info tricycle one of the first things to be on it.
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptWe ran a mobile information point around town with the support of and supporting Reading's Year of Culture 2016 as well as helping to spread the word about other local events. The tricycle was modelled on those manufactured by Warricks in Reading which made the 'Stop me and buy one' tricycles for Walls icecream. Since then it has had various liveries - the Turbine House, the Abbey Gateway, the Old Cemetery Junction Arch - and has been at many events.
- thumbnail-divpost_titleexcerptA project to encourage experimentation with creating online trails around interesting Reading area spots. iopener.org.uk