Gateway Gallery

NOW SHOWING AT THE GATEWAY GALLERY

David Lowther

David trained at Luton, Nottingham and Goldsmiths Colleges of Art and taught art in Bedfordshire for 25 years. He took early retirement from teaching in 2002 and has spent most of the time since then painting.

David says ‘ This set of paintings is a combination of work freely based on Seamus Heaney’s poem "Storm on the Island." and on the line from the same anthology "All I have known is a door into the dark" I wanted to relate their evocation of mans struggle and vulnerability` to a more personal interpretation of things being out of balance, threatened and disturbed. They have been developed from combinations and re-workings of small imaginative drawings, and jottings, and have evolved into paintings which hover between reality and abstraction. They exist in an in-between place, on the edge of recognition, more ambiguous and interesting because of it, and more concerned with evoking different sensations and feelings. ‘ You can see David’s work on show until the end of September 2010.

PREVIOUS ARTISTS

Caroline Kirton

My work has developed into a series of snap shots of how I view the ups and downs of teenage life, by observing my daughters and their friends. It is an ongoing study of my relationship with my daughters as they progress through their teenage years, and considers how this relationship is always evolving. My work is also concerned with the issues of control and how young people often feel they have no real control over their lives because of parental and official boundaries. In addition I am trying to come to terms with the issues associated with letting go, as I try to rationalise my own thoughts and feelings, of having to allow my children to grow up and become independent people in their own right.

In my practice I use a combination of fabrics, free machine embroidery, appliqué, and screen-printing to create a moment in time through large-scale drawings. My pieces start with a saying or an overheard conversation and can be titled or left to the audience to interpret what the starting point may have been.

Emma Barry

Recent University of Bedfordshire graduate Emma Barry is the new artist to display her work at the Gateway Gallery.

Emma says: My work explores ways in which the paint can be used and is combined with the exploration of imagery that has been sourced from popular household decoration. I class my work as being playful yet considered as each layer of the painting is planned. The juxtaposition of graphical and gestured marks creates a visual journey across the surface of the painting for each viewer to experience.

Isla Woiwod

Isla says "My paintings are inspired by many visual images that I come across in my everyday life: a visit to the beach; a fleeting sight of distant people on a windy day; the structure and lines of the fields I pass every day; a visit to a nature reserve providing a different landscape; a walk in a wood, sun rays through the trees; or just walking over the fields in the snow.

Exotic trips abroad also provide inspiration, from colourful plants of the rain forest to the green sands of Tenerife's volcanic hills. There are so many subjects to paint; the one constant thing about my work is the colour. I love colour and all its many combinations. I use it to express an emotional response to a time and place. It’s very exciting and uplifting when the piece `works`."

James Falvey
James says that he paints "In between the day job, decorating and fending off the family".

A childhood obsession with Marvel comics led to years of doodling and, ultimately, an Arts Foundation Course in the bohemian surroundings of Barnfield College, Luton. 

Opting for a career in Product design - to 'help people and make the world a better place' - he embarked on years of designing rivet machines, novelty boxer shorts and milk bottles. But creativity isn't that easily crushed and the doodling continued in the form of cartoons which were variously published, bought or used on the boxer shorts. It was only a matter of time before they mutated into Pop Art and found their way onto canvas.

 
David H Jones
David lives and works in the Berkshire village of Lambourn. He was born in Wallasey, Merseyside and studied painting at Bristol West of England College of Art in the 1970’s. 

Colour and pattern are the dominant elements of David’s acrylic paintings, exploring themes of circulation and rotation. Visits to Turkey and Tunisia in 2006/7 had an important influence on the work. In Turkey he was mesmerized by Islamic ceramic tiles. In Tunis he visited the Archeological Museum to see the collection of Roman Mosaics. The tessellated surface patterns of the mosaics and repetitive motifs of tile patterns initiated experiments which developed into this series of paintings. Ideas combining these influences provided working structures for paintings, enabling a sequence of explorations, evaluations and continuous change, until the painting was finally resolved.

The sensuality and excitement of the visual experience and his response to it drives this work. The paintings play upon the viewer’s cognitive response to rhythmic pattern and contrasting colour. The sequences of colours on a common ground create a restless and often alarming visual response as patterns emerge from seemingly random marks. The paintings are further enriched with a high build of paint and textured surfaces.

Deidre Porter-Hanson
Deidre is a Bedfordshire artist who during her adult life has lived and worked in the UK and Africa. Since 2000, however, has made her home in Bedfordshire and has come to love and greatly enjoy the history and landscape of the area. 

Deidre explains “Traditionally human societies have identified with their location, with a sense of belonging to the land they occupy. These paintings are an exploration of identity with, of and through our local landscape.

Bedfordshire, this area of understated, quiet beauty was once subject to the powerful forces of earth movements, tidal deposition and glacial erosion throughout an unimaginable vastness of time. Its history can literally be unearthed in the geology of the area.

These paintings make reference to some of the processes and formations associated with these periods of upheaval and the on-going developments in the physical landscape”.

Ben Hodson
Ben’s bespoke Airport exhibition, named Lutopia, is composed of large-scale striking photomontages (up to 1m x 2.2m) which were created by photos taken in rapid succession and show a whole scene caught in the equivalent of one second of time. Ben supplements these montages with black and white still images, similar to those of the street photographers of the mid 20th Century and suggests that these two elements give the viewer an insight into London Luton Airport through different eyes. 

Ben, who lives in Dunstable, said “this project looks at Luton as a whole although this exhibition will specifically centre on the Airport. I’m interested in the passing of time and photography's ability to fragment it and freeze a brief moment. I cannot think of a better subject than the Airport when considering time; the operation of the Airport is time critical and it one of the few places where almost everyone is aware of what the time is.”

All of the pictures for Ben's exhibition were taken at London Luton Airport and focus on the Airport employees, passengers and landscapes.
 

Cindy Olsen
Cindy is a teacher and art co-ordinator at local school, Dallow Primary.Cindy runs workshops with a fellow artist for adults and children in a variety of settings and said ‘I have been involved in painting, printing and photography for many years, most recently I have moved into the area of 3D Art working on sculpture and I am developing the skills related to jewellery making’.
 

Paul Francis
Paul, who lives in Ampthill, said "I was born in Luton and lived about 10 mins from the Airport. We used to come up here a lot when we were kids to watch the planes. When we were older we used to cruise through in our cars. The airport was small then and things have changed a lot. I’m not keen on describing my paintings in detail – they are whatever you think they are. What I will say is many of them, like the airport and any dynamic environment, reflect constant change and renewal".  Paul paints mainly in acrylics on large canvases that aim to dominate rather than blend into the background.
 

Jill Taylor
Jill Taylor, who is a member of the Artists Network Bedfordshire, was the second artist to exhibit at the London Luton Airport Gateway Gallery. For the last 14 years she has been a practicing artist both in the Netherlands and the UK, and now works and lives in Ampthill. Her unique London Luton Airport exhibition was called ‘Bits and Bobs’ focused on bold colours, symbols and mixed media, employing a rough feel to the paintings.
 

Janis Coles
Janis Coles, who is a member of the Artists Network Bedfordshire, was the first artist to exhibit in the Gateway Gallery. Her exhibition work consists of photographs of flowers and plants. She likes to explore effects of light, which in nature are often transient or overlooked. These are either captured in natural light by waiting for the correct lighting conditions or she replicates these in a studio, often finding more detail using macro photography and unusual perspectives.

To view Local-News.tv's report of the Gateway Gallery opening please visit our video library section.

Pride in Luton Awards

Flying for Success

Norton Road Primary and Farley Junior Schools also took part in the scheme in November and December 2008.

To view Local-News.tv's report about the F4S project please visit our video library section

Local News TV

Liftshare

Festival of Flight 2008

Luton Mela

Fit for Business

Summer Scheme

Summer Fun For Local Kids Thanks To London Luton Airport

 Over the summer period London Luton Airport provided funding for the Ashcroft High School Summer Scheme.

As well as being a fun way to spend the summer holidays, the scheme aimed to increase pupils’ skills and creativity whilst helping to raise standards and aid personal development to improve the participants’ quality of life. The scheme also offered opportunities and support for volunteers, including training and accreditation for student volunteers.

Meet the Buyer

Black History Month

Black History Month (BHM) has been celebrated across the UK every October for over 30 years. 

Working in Partnership with the African Caribbean Arena, London Luton Airport hosted the launch event for Black History Month 2008 in the Main Arrivals hall at the airport.

The launch event included Caribbean Dance and Poetry performances and also a vocal performance from Brenda Edwards, best known for her performances on TV's "X Factor".

Slip End Youth Centre

 The Slip End Youth Centre was founded in 2007 and now has over 55, 10-16 year old members and is run by a group of volunteers.

Luton Borough FC

Dallow Creative Arts

London Luton Airport supported the Dallow Creative Arts Ltd in their community wellbeing project. The project aimed to carry out activities that promote physical and mental wellbeing for individuals, such as improving people’s confidence and self esteem through life skills training, healthy living and exercise activities. 

Working alongside Team Beds and Luton (County Sports Partnership) Dallow Creative Arts introduced several activities and training sessions (5 per week) that were primarily aimed at women from BME and Asian communities in the Dallow area of Luton.

These included leadership awards for young people, culturally appropriate badminton sessions for mothers and young girls, exercise classes such as Pilates, Volleyball, FOOTSAL (indoor five a side football) and Brazilian Soccer School, with these activities all being supplemented with talks by health professionals on general health, fitness, nutrition and wellbeing.

Phoenix Players

London Luton Airport offers a lifeline to local theatre group

London Luton Airport are on standby to rescue one of Luton's oldest and best loved amateur dramatic societies, The Phoenix Players, to save them from extinction.

For the first time in 52 years The Phoenix Players have had to shelve their latest production at The Library Theatre due to lack of funds. Since rehearsals stopped for their November show they have been energetically fund raising but still have a shortfall to put on a new show in May 2009.
 

LUBYA

The Luton & Bedfordshire Youth Association (LUBYA) is a County Association in Bedfordshire affiliated to UK Youth, which is the largest non-uniformed youth organisation in the United Kingdom. LUBYA services 25 affiliated clubs in Luton and Bedfordshire which are sustained by mainly adult voluntary workers. 

London Luton Airport supported the LUBYA ‘Trip to Scotland’ project that focuses on building self confidence and self esteem of young people. The project will see 10 local young people, many of which will not have flown in an airplane before, travel via London Luton Airport to Scotland. Once in Scotland, they will meet up with another youth organisation to meet like-minded youths, exchange information about their lives, and share experiences.

Employee Volunteering

Airport Volunteers Get Stuck In

London Luton Airport staff rolled up their sleeves recently and got stuck in to two local volunteering challenges as part of the Airport’s commitment to its Community Engagement Strategy.

Field of Dreams

The Field of Dreams is a project that looks to target young people, from the ages of 15 - 19 years, who are not fulfilling their potential. Whether it is because they are involved in crime, drugs, have issues at home or are simply lacking motivation at school e.g. not achieving their expected grades. It is in essence a personal development programme that utilises rugby to promote that development. 

Run by Active Luton, Luton Borough Council, Youth at Risk, Saracens & Luton Rugby Football Clubs and supported by London Luton Airport, Field of Dreams will run over two years and will be operated by local youth professionals, e.g. social workers and youth workers, identifying and referring young people onto the programme whom they feel would benefit from it.

A mandatory four day workshop helps them to identify why they haven't been achieving their potential and to start a process that will bring about a positive change. This is followed by a 9 month programme that involves weekly rugby training sessions, run by Saracens RFC in partnership with Luton RFC and monthly development days that follow on from the work started on the four day workshop.

The project asks the young people involved to identify three goals that they wish to achieve over the 9 month period and then help/supports them in achieving those goals. These goals are based on healthy lifestyles, relationships and confidence and education or employment.

To assist the young people in achieving their goals each young people gets a personal life coach to support them. The life coaches are mainly from local businesses and communities and meet with their young person twice a week - once face to face and once over the phone - to ensure that they remain engaged in the programme and are continually working towards their goals. They also provide invaluable support for when it all becomes too much. With some of the issues and problems faced by some of the young people on the project, additional, outside support is invaluable and essential if they are to succeed now and in turn, in life.

The project is drawn to a close at the end of year one by a full contact rugby match between the young people at Vicarage Road Stadium, Watford. There is also hope of a touch rugby match between the young people and celebrities at Twickenham on the Rugby Premier League's Finals day in May. However, the latter has yet to be confirmed.

Innovation Day 2009

Dr Abdul Al-Jibouri, the University’s Innovation Director, commented that ‘the launch of Butterfield Enterprise Hub for the region offers local companies the opportunity to work with experienced professionals who can offer guidance, practical assistance and ideas covering a range of business needs. The Young Innovator Programme is designed to encourage natural creativity and inquisitiveness in school children, through the application of science, technology, engineering and mathematics so that we build strong foundations of creativity and nurture the digital generation to create a knowledge-based economy.“

Luton Carnival 2009

National Car Share Day 2009

The Car Share scheme is one part of a larger sustainable transport programme, which includes improvements in public transport links for both passengers and staff.

Simon Earles, General Manager, Planning and CSR, London Luton Airport said;
‘Car Share has proved very popular with staff and the logical next step was to roll out the scheme for passengers. We are committed to developing sustainable transport options to the Airport. The Grand Prix in the terminal has been a great draw for passengers and has given us the opportunity to tell people about the new scheme’

"National liftshare Day is a great day to introduce friends, colleagues and staff to the idea of car-sharing," said liftshare's founder Ali Clabburn. "June is the time of year when car-sharing is really in the headlines, and more people than ever are signing up and searching for others to share with to save money and do their bit for the environment.’
"I would encourage everyone simply to register their journey and do a search. No matter where you live, you'll be surprised to find how many other people are going your way!"

For further information please call the London Luton Airport Press Office on: 07714 728035

Pictured l to r: Glyn Jones, Managing Director, London Luton Airport, Ali Clabburn founder and CEO of liftshare.com, Simon Earles, General Manager, Planning and CSR London Luton Airport.
 

Festival of Flight 2009

The Luton Festival of Flight project, which launched in May 2008, saw two youth ambassadors chosen to participate in a once in a lifetime opportunity to fly in a light aircraft and then use these exciting flight experiences to inspire young people at a selection of schools workshops in Luton. The project has been recognised as a fantastic example of successful partnership work by London Luton Airport and Luton Borough Council’s Community Development Service.

During the evening the chosen youth ambassadors recounted their experiences and the project team presented on the work completed by the ambassadors and the schools they visited. Glyn Jones Managing Director, London Luton Airport and Councillors Bailey, Malik, Khan, and Riaz, Major of Luton, were in attendance as well as pupils from Denbigh, Sacred Heart and Leagrave Primary Schools. Artwork created by the schools was on display and prizes were given to the participating children.

Glyn Jones, Managing Director, London Luton Airport, commented;
' With the aviation theme there was a clear fit for the Festival of Flight with the Airport and we are delighted that the local participating schools have grasped the project with such vigor, speaking with some of the pupils this evening it is clear that the project and the ambassadors have truly provided inspiration.'

The Mayor of Luton, Cllr Mohammed Riaz added: “This is such an innovative concept and I can ensure you that it wasn’t just the children that were inspired. Hearing experiences like this first hand is an excellent way of raising the aspirations of all young people, irrespective of their race, culture, gender, wealth or religion.”

Visit our image library for more photos of this event.
 

Meet the Buyer 2009

‘Meet the Buyer’ is part of London Luton Airport’s commitment to work closely with local business networks, the local authorities and partners across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire to enhance local supply chain activity. The event has shown the benefits of procuring goods and services on a more local basis, helping local businesses and employment levels, as well as potentially bringing additional environmental benefits. It has also highlighted the breadth and quality of small businesses present in Luton and the wider region.
 

Glyn Jones, London Luton Managing Director said “London Luton Airport is committed to making a positive contribution towards regeneration and growth across the region. We believe that our success has been built, and is most sustainably maintained, on a foundation of strong relationships between the airport and its communities. We have been delighted with the reaction of the local business community to ‘Meet the Buyer’ and in it’s 2nd year feel that the Meet the Buyer continues to add great value to the local economy. We look forward to the event generating real financial value for all parties involved.”


 

Heroes of Uganda

London Luton Airport was proud to support a group of Luton Sixth Form College students on their trip to Africa this summer to create a community link that will last for years to come. The thirteen students, spent two weeks in Jinja, the second largest town in the east African nation of Uganda and one with a population roughly the same as that of Luton.

Football Tournament 2010

On the 10th of May London Luton Airport hosted its fourth annual Community Football Tournament in partnership with Active Luton, Hatters Study Centre and Luton Town Football Club. The tournament gave local children the opportunity to display their football skills at the Kenilworth Road Stadium, the home of Luton Town FC. Over 350 children from local schools took part. The morning programme involved year two pupils taking part in a fun filled fair play festival. This was then followed by a separate boys and girls year five competition in the afternoon. 24 teams battled through a series of qualifying rounds, semi-finals and two exciting finals. After a fantastic display of local football talent the boys’ trophy was won by Farley Junior School with St Margaret of Scotland Primary Schools taking the first place in the girls’ competition.

Bedfordshire Business Awards

In May 2010 London Luton Airport was the proud sponsor of the The Federation of Small Businesses, Small Business Awards 2010. The Awards showcased the very best of small enterprises in Bedfordshire.

London Luton Airport’s sponsorship of the awards demonstrated our commitment to supporting the development of the local economy, in line with its Community Engagement Strategy objectives.

London Luton Airport’s category, ‘Self Employed Person of the Year’ was won by Michelle Shulman from ‘Cakes by Shelly’.

Luton International Carnival 2010

London Luton Airport was a proud sponsor of the Luton International Carnival held on May 31st.

In addition to sponsoring the event Airport staff volunteered to support the float for London Luton Airport's Charity of the Year, Keech Hospice Care.

To compliment the sponsorship package London Luton Airport ran a competition for local people hosted on the London Luton Airport Community website. The competition provoked a very positive response with over 15,000 people visiting the website to enter.

Support for the carnival demonstrated London Luton Airport’s commitment to showing practical support for local events and activities that enhance the local community.

Big Dance 2010

On Saturday 3rd July passengers arriving at London Luton were treated to dance displays in the terminal and asked to join the Big Dance 2010.

Big Dance at the airport is a celebration of dance and is part of a nationwide event, and part of the wider Big Dance celebrations which took place in Luton. London Luton’s Big Dance was performed in the airport’s arrivals area where six dance groups performed stunning displays of contemporary, Hip-hop, street and Classical Indian dancing for passengers and staff.

Big Dance 2010 is part of a national celebration of dance, as part of the Cultural Olympiad, with the objective of getting people of all ages and backgrounds involved with dance and dancing. The event formed part of the London Luton Airport commitment to support the arts and culture as set out in the Vibrant Neighbourhood section of the CES Strategy.