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Born in 1960 in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, Simon Thackray left
school at seventeen to work in the family business of agricultural
engineers. He held his first one-man show of ink drawings at
York University in 1978 and went into his shed in 1987 to make
sculpture, paintings, drawings and prints. In 1992 he photographed
his shed door and founded The Shed.
The Shed is a pint-sized arts
venue on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors, renowned for
presenting world-class music and poetry - from Katia Labeque
to Carol Ann Duffy, Les Murray to Lau - and Simon Thackray's
own unique live-art events that are the 'essence of Shedness':
The Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race ®, The Fish and Chip Van
Tour, and Lol Coxhill in a skip are just a few of his 'weird
and wonderful' gigs entertaining audiences from across the UK.
Simon Thackray co-founded the
Pied Piper Project with Sarah Derbyshire MBE in 1997 to bring
professional musicians and poets to North Yorkshire to work with
young people in youth centres, village halls and schools. Annie
Whitehead, Jan Kopinski, Gwyneth Herbert, Snake Davis, Jackie
Kay and Ian McMIllan are former Pied Piper workshop leaders.
The Shed (with Pied Piper) is supported by Arts Council England
and Ryedale District Council.
THE PRESS, YORK 22.3.10
Alan Tomlinson and the River Seven,
Dale Head Farm, Rosedale, North Yorks Moors
Review by
Charles Hutchinson
"HOW did you spend
your Sunday? How about driving for an hour into ever hardier
Yorkshire country; following intermittent improvised signs to
the River Seven, down the narrowest of moorland lanes; then watching
cars being pushed up a muddy incline to park in a field, before
a cross-country trek to a babbling brook." Read the
review:
GUARDIAN - TRAVEL 20.3.10
The insiders guide to the world's best small music venues.
Musicians,
DJs and authors reveal their favourite hangouts.
"The Shed was the inspiration for my tour of village
halls around Britain, which I am currently writing up as a book.
And, after 235 villages, The Shed is still the loony best."
Hank Wangford, Guardian. Read
the whole article:
"He's a strange'un alright,
but the art world could do with more of his kind of far-reaching
woolly thinking."
Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph. More
press
The
Shed, Shed Bitter and the Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race are Registered
Trade Marks
of Simon Thackray. Copyright © Simon Thackray 1992 - 2010.
All rights reserved. |
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