ABOUT US - TEXT ONLY
''In 2005, I was asked to come up with a project to try and raise the profile of several towns on the windswept coast of Lincolnshire, UK. The towns had been traditionally visited by working class holidaymakers from the coalfields of the East Midlands. The numbers of these visitors had decreased over the years and I wanted to create a regeneration scheme that would help to reverse this trend and help bring a new audience to this attractive coastal landscape. It was clear that we had to change people’s perceptions of the area and help bring it into the twenty first century. I felt that a regeneration scheme with a strong and contemporary public art element was the way forward. After a lengthy selection process I was fortunate enough to find an artist who perfectly fitted the bill. Michael Trainor soon came up with a scheme that we thought would help to kick start the regeneration of these communities. What we didn’t predict was the way it captured the imagination of architects and artists from all over the world and lead to the creation of a series of unique buildings, an annual festival, a touring exhibition and thousands of new visitors''
Peter Fender, Principal Projects Officer, Lincolnshire County Council
The Bathing Beauties® project was conceived and curated by Michael Trainor, a professional artist based in Manchester, UK and promoted worldwide by Lesa Dryburgh, director of Stop The Pigeon communications consultancy.
Michael has been involved in over 70 temporary and permanent works of art in public spaces including ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’, the world’s largest mirrorball for Blackpool seafront, UK. www.greatpromenadeshow.co.uk. Michael’s most recent project is ‘Garston Embassy’, a major new temporary artwork for Liverpool Capital of Culture 2008 and Liverpool Biennial, which sees a disused Edwardian school transformed into the headquarters of a mini independent state. The Embassy launched on 31 May 2008 and a number of automated features will operate at advertised times throughout the rest of 2008. www.liverpool08.com - www.biennial.com
The Bathing Beauties® project includes a number of strands:
Bathing Beauties®, Art Meets Architecture on the Lincolnshire Coast, UK www.bathingbeauties.org.uk
The Bathing Beauties® project was conceived and curated by Michael in 2005 in response to his appointment as lead artist on the Lincolnshire coast UK and includes:
Bathing Beauties®: Re-imagining the Beach Hut for the 21st Century: An international art, architecture and design competition, to ‘Re-imagine the beach hut for the 21st century’. One of the most popular architectural competitions this century, over 240 scale model entries were received from 15 countries for consideration for 4 full-scale commissions. Winning commissions, ‘Jabba, Eyes Wide sHut, Halcyon Hut, and Michael’s own Bathing Beauty ‘Come Up and See Me’ are now permanent installations available for daily hire from the owners, East Lindsey District Council, in late Summer 2008. Another winning commission, A Hut for Gazing and Canoodling’ plus two further commissions ‘Oyster Pleasance’ and ‘Round and Round House’ will be installed on the Lincolnshire Coast in 2009. A new attraction for Mablethorpe, The Camera Obscura has also resulted from the original competitions and the UK’s first Cloud Bar, for cloud-viewing with pleasure, by Michael Trainor will be launched in Autumn 2008. The Bathing Beauties® project has received extensive news, arts, architecture and tourism media coverage worldwide (see Media Information pages of the Bathing Beauties website for details) and has additionally resulted in two further programming strands: Hub Touring Exhibition in the UK and internationally – a tour of up to 100 selected 1:15 scale exhibition models received in the international competitions, co-curated by Michael Trainor and The Hub: National Centre for Craft and Design and The Festival of Bathing Beauties®, the UKs only Beach Hut Festival on the Lincolnshire Coast, UK two years running over two days at the end of September 2007 and 2008.
Contact Details: For further information/ images/ interviews, please contact: Lesa Dryburgh, Press Manager for Michael Trainor, post@stopthepigeon.co.uk +44 (0)161 248 6405