Welcome to Culture in Kent

Jill Holder is an artist living and working in the south east of England.  Brought up during the austerity following World War II she learnt to amuse herself with the things she found around her – A discarded matchbox, pebbles, scraps of paper, beads etc.  Her favourite Christmas present ever was given to her by her father when she was 13.  It consisted of a box full of odd bits of mirror, cogs, a small engine, tiny light bulbs, bits of wire, and more.

Following school, she joined the foundation course at Croydon College of Art where she was lucky enough to study under Clive Barker and Bruce McLean.  Then, as family pressure insisted, she studied “something worthwhile” choosing Fashion at St Martin’s in London.

She worked in fashion, interiors, even floristry, before giving up everything to concentrate on her work as an artist.

She is still doing what she did as a child. She says “Primarily, I make things.  With paint, paper, clay, found objects and glue and anything else that stays still long enough.  I also like interfacing with the public through my work.  So often a chance remark about a piece of my work will start a whole new chain of thought.”

In “Open the Box” in 2012, (Creek Creative, Faversham) she did just this.  One hundred boxes filled with treasures each set, closed, on a shelf for the viewer to open and explore.

In 2014, interested in the human passion for collecting, she enjoyed collaborating with fellow artist Bob Lamoon as part of Holder and Lamoon. Their show, “The Essence of Memory”, following their Artist’s Residency at the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, Canterbury, was packed with comments and thoughts about the subject, all packaged in an odd juxtaposition of boot market finds, painting and sculpture.  Both scholarly and humorous the show delighted visitors.

In 2015 she was involved in an artist led show “A Handful of Dust”  (Pie Factory, Margate), a hard hitting collection of new work by eight artists who wanted to raise awareness of the hundreds of thousands of children caught up in the adult world of war.  This has set a precedent for more serious work from this artist on a subject that still occupies her thoughts.  “For me,” she says “there is no glory, nothing to wave flags about, only destruction and decay.  Caught in the middle of every conflict are children. Children. They are starving through associated famine, losing limb or life in attacks, losing their families and their security, losing their innocence and grace as they are taught to use weapons to kill.”

There have been other exhibitions in between but recently Jill has been concentrating on family affairs.  Although she has only taken part in shows in a small way she has built a new studio, continued with her practice and is now turning her thoughts towards exhibiting again.

A photographer, writer, explorer and philosopher, Andreea was born in 70s Romania and made England her home in the early noughties. Andreea has a Masters in Photography from Falmouth University and a BSc in Philosophy from the University of Bucharest. Her creative practice explores questions of personal identity and memory especially through the lens of her dual cultural heritage. Andreea is also a photography tutor and runs a photography tour business with her photographer partner Matt.

Andreea’s most recent project The Fabric of Memory was produced during the final year of her MA studies and is being exhibited at the Horsebridge Art Centre in Whitstable in February 2023.

For this project Andreea traveled back to her native homeland in an attempt to rediscover and reconnect with her roots. Marcel Proust said ‘the past is hidden somewhere outside the realm, beyond the reach of intellect, in some material object’. Andreea’s visual story explores this notion, driven by place, and is a constant dialogue between past and present, familiarity and estrangement.  New images, all produced using old family film cameras and expired period film, are interspaced, and sometimes juxtaposed with family archive images and snippets of discursive memory in a visually coherent way. Andreea creates an atemporal space where there is deliberate ambiguity about what’s past and what’s present, and where empathetic connections are made with older family members as individuals, rather than in their familial roles.

Hello, I’m Megan from Creative Frames in Faversham. I undertake all types of picture and object framing, with a focus on sustainable materials and FSC certified frames.
A printmaker and potter myself, I take a creative approach to each project, working with you to design a frame that will best present and preserve your artwork. Everything is made to order, by us, in the Faversham workshop.

A ceramics market at Turner Contemporary.

Did you know that poor framing can damage your artwork, reduce its life expectancy and profoundly devalue it? Quality framing avoids disappointment, elevating artwork to another level. It increases its perceived value, prolongs its life and raises the reputation of the artist.

As a member of the Fine Art Trade Guild we use professional materials and techniques. Much has been adopted from the conservation industry and become best practise giving artwork a chance of longevity from day one.

Writing is nothing but the representation of speech; it is bizarre that one gives more care to the determination of the image that to the object’
JJ Rousseau, Of Grammatology (1967) – Derrida