A Year in Lockdown...

The Memory Book: A Year in Lockdown

– words & images from TLC Arts and Drop-in

Over the last few months I’ve been working on putting together The Memory Book, an anthology that documents what TLC Arts participants have been doing while we’ve all been in lockdown, and that gives us a chance to share the words and images we’ve produced with our friends and families and the wider community. I’m pleased to announce it has just been published by Slap-Dash Publishing and is available to order for £6.99 (+ postage) please click here to buy

– with all contributors receiving a free copy.

Last year Rae had the idea of putting together a book that would document this extraordinary period we’ve been living through and I was asked to coordinate the project and edit and design the book. I’ve really enjoyed working on the project, which gave me a chance to look at and enjoy everyone’s work as it came in, and also to practise my design skills and lay the book out in a way that (I hope) does justice to all the contributions we received.

The result is a full-colour paperback, measuring 7.5” by 7.5”, containing art works, poems, photographs, stories, diaries, collages and more from 44 different contributors. It includes examples of the various mail art projects that were going on while the usual studio sessions had to be put on hold, such as the postcard and placard projects that Alison coordinated, plus work people were doing via phone, Zoom and letters with Emily and Naomi and me, along with all sorts of other things that participants were creating at home on their own. It serves as portable exhibition of what TLC Arts is about and is a great testament to the resilience and creativity of everyone involved as we all tried to find ways to cope and live our lives as best we could during a very difficult year.

We’re having a book launch for The Memory Book at 3pm on Tuesday July 13th in Swinton Grove Park. This will give us all a chance to meet up and catch up in a safe and socially-distanced way and for us to give contributors a copy of the book. It would be great to see everyone there, so hope you can make it (but don’t worry if you can’t come – we’ll send a copy to all contributors who are unable to be there on the day).