Hannah Frank news Nov 2017

Hannah Frank, Glasgow artist and sculptor 1908-2008 COLLECTABLE PRINTS ON SALE TO BOOST FLOODED SYNAGOGUE FUNDS APPEAL Sales of some of Hannah Frank’s highly collectable prints are now available to help raise urgent funds for a Scottish synagogue. Aberdeen Synagogue and Jewish Community Centre, in the city’s Dee Street, have had to raise £10,000 towards repairs. Members have been forced out of their synagogue after a major flood that was caused by a faulty washing machine. The amount is the shortfall from what the congregation expects to receive from its insurer.  Total repair costs are expected to be £30,000. The prints we have made available are 'In thoughts from the visions of the night' and 'Night' which usually retail at £200 for each print. We are offering them at £100 each, with all proceeds going to the synagogue appeal. My aunt signed a limited number of prints during her lifetime which makes these collectable.  She completed these drawings, signed ‘Al Aaraaf’, her pen name, in 1930  while studying simultaneously at Glasgow University and at the Glasgow School of Art.  The prints are signed ‘Hannah Frank’ in pen or pencil. Hannah was deeply involved in the Jewish community throughout her life and illustrated many materials for Jewish organisations.  Just before her 100th birthday she said: “In spite of being born in Glasgow, I regarded myself then as Jewish rather than Scottish. It was something you could not escape.” We feel sure that she would want to help the Aberdeen Synagogue and Jewish Community Centre. To buy the collectable prints and help the synagogue please visit www.hannahfrank.org.uk Aberdeen Synagogue and Community Centre, 74 Dee Street, Aberdeen, AB11 6DS. Art Bronze Foundry, London We are sorry to hear that the Art Bronze Foundry, London, has temporary closed due to illness of its director, Philip Freiensener. When Hannah turned to sculpture in 1952, studying under Benno Schotz, she had most of her sculptures cast at the Art Bronze Foundry.  She worked with Philip's predecessor and great uncle, Michael Gaskin, to ensure the very best quality bronze casting.  We have always had really great service from them and our thoughts are with Philip for a full recovery. 2018 EXHIBITION PLANS  .     Plans for a major commemorative Hannah Frank exhibition in Glasgow next year are coming together. The exhibition will take place in the year in which my aunt would have been 110.  It will run from 2 October 2018 to mid January 2019  at Glasgow University.  During the opening weekend there will be a dinner and other surprises – please plan to be around Glasgow at that time!  We will of course let you know  more information as it arises. We’re looking out for other spaces to exhibit too so please go and speak to your local public art institution about a show in 2019 and beyond; we may be in a position to gift some sculpture at that time to public art institutions too, so please get in touch to know more.   Please contact me with your stories and memories of my aunt and her art (and don’t forget to use the website to buy prints and books; the sales keep this project going, and they make great Christmas and Chanukah presents). NB: new on the Hannah Frank website - a downloadable leaflet giving info about the signed prints and notelets available.  best wishes Fiona Frank niece of the late Hannah Frank, and director of the Hannah Frank Art Project tel +44 (0)7778 737681 e fionafrank@gmail.com www.hannahfrank.org.uk

HANNAH FRANK NEWS DECEMBER 2016

HANNAH FRANK NEWS DECEMBER 2016

Welcome to our annual roundup as we head towards Chanukah and Christmas. Promoting the art of my late aunt over the past 15 years has been a labour of love with much excitement and many surprises. This year was no exception. And we have some great Chanukah and Christmas present ideas for you too.

HANNAH FRANK’S WORK PART OF PIONEERING EXHIBITION

For much of the year we were focused on the exhibition, Modern Scottish Women - Painters and Sculptors, 1885 to 1965. This ran at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, from 7 November 2015 until 26 June this year. The exhibition featured Hannah’s sculpture, 'Woman and Bird' (1955), which was beautifully displayed.

This exhibition, opened by Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, and the accompanying catalogue, were especially important because they revealed and celebrated the contribution made by Scottish female artists to this chapter of Scottish art history for the first time. We were delighted to contribute an in-depth article for the sumptuous catalogue. This is one of the most challenging writing jobs that we've tackled and it was well worth it because the catalogue sold out!

HANNAH THE ILLUSTRATOR

Hannah's drawings were also featured in a smaller exhibition within the Keiller Library at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.  This focused on Scottish women illustrators and book designers and ran until March 2016.

EXHIBITION’S CURATOR REWARDED

We were thrilled when Alice Strang, curator of the whole Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art exhibition, was made a Saltire Society Outstanding Woman of Scotland for her work on the project which received extensive media coverage, including in UK national daily newspaper, The Telegraph and in The Scotsman. See these links for the reviews:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/modern-scottish-women-scottish-national-gallery-review/ 

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/art/art-review-modern-scottish-women-edinburgh-1-3948351

Thank you to all Hannah’s fans who made it to the exhibition.

SEVEN ARCHES

Another huge honour came on Friday 24 June with the unveiling of a magnificent project – a public art installation by WAVEparticle and the Gorbals Art Project and made by Liz Peden. This art, covering the wall of three massive arches under a railway bridge at Cleland Street, in the Gorbals, Glasgow, commemorates three people who were born in that district who had played important roles in the world. They were Allan Pinkerton, founder of Pinkerton's Detective Agency, Benny Lynch, world flyweight boxer, and Hannah Frank, artist and sculptor!

Alison Thewliss, MP for Central Glasgow, launched the event. I was privileged to unveil the Hannah Frank arch, aided by a schoolchild from St Francis primary school. David Barcelo from Glasgow City Council has done a terrific job reclaiming the site, turning it from a tip to a beautifully landscaped area full of art. The arches are illuminated after dark making this time of year a terrific one to view. We hope to work further with WAVEparticle and host a larger exhibition in the arches area in 2017. 

SOUTHSIDE GALLERY

The Southside Gallery, Glasgow, is now selling Hannah Frank prints - signed and unsigned. There will be a Hannah Frank exhibition there too. We will keep you posted.

Find the gallery at 26-28 Battlefield Rd, Glasgow G42 9QH. Tel: 0141 649 8888. www.southsidegallery.co.uk

2CANVAS

We love seeing Hannah Frank works on canvas. Therefore, we were especially pleased that 2canvas held an exhibition this year, celebrating our collaboration which brings  large scale Hannah Frank reproductions, on canvas, of every one of the images. 2canvas, 155 Stockwell St, Glasgow G1 4LR.  Tel:  0141 552 0005. www.2canvasart.co.uk

The gallery is at 26 – 28 Battlefield Road, Glasgow, G42 9QH. Call 0141 649 888 and see www.southsidegallery.co.uk

HANNAH FRANK FOR MADAME ECOSSE

Hannah Frank's 'Out of the Night a Shadow Passed' (1928) forms the cover image of a new book due out in February 2017. Madame Ecosse by Marion McCready, an award-winning Scottish poet based in Argyll, will be published by Eyewear Publishing.

The poet has been a fan of Hannah’s for some years. She says: “Madame Ecosse is a very Scottish collection of lyrical, and at times political, poems ranging in theme from Mary, Queen of Scots to Trident, but always with a focus on the natural world. Female experience is expressed through mythical and historical characters and includes a sequence exploring the way childbirth has been viewed by the medical establishment over the last century.”

Marion won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award in 2013 and won the Melita Hume Poetry Prize (2013). Her poems have been published in Poetry, Edinburgh Review and The Glasgow Herald as well as in Be the First to like This: New Scottish Poetry (Vagabond Voices, 2014). 

CHRISTMAS AND CHANUKAH GIFTS

We think that for this time of year the print ‘Moon Ballet’ makes a wonderful seasonal gift. A signed lithographic print is available for £200.

Other signed prints are available from between £100 and £400.

A full range of digitally reproduced unsigned prints make excellent, distinctive gifts. The ones that were produced before my aunt died are £25; we can also have prints made to order of any other of my aunt’s prints, for £75, or on canvas or blockmount (see website for prices). We still have some of the notelets available, for £5.99 for six different designs.   The beautiful black book ‘Hannah Frank, A Glasgow Artist, Drawings and Sculpture’ is also available, reduced to £10.50. All from the webshop on www.hannahfrank.org.uk   

Sculptures are available at between £1500 and £3000 – there’s been quite a lot of interest in recasts of sculptures this year, I wouldn’t be without mine….  

Ordering is easy and don’t forget all funds go back into the project to bring Hannah’s name and work to a wider audience, covering the costs of the website, keeping the works safe in Glasgow, setting up new exhibitions etc.

Wishing you health and happiness.

Best wishes

Fiona Frank (niece of the late Hannah Frank, and curator of the ‘Hannah Frank Art’ project). 

Many thanks for wordsmithing to the indefatigable Judith Coyle, 

Hannah Frank Art News November 2015

HANNAH FRANK NEWS November 2015

Dear Loyal Hannah Frank Fans!
I can't believe it's been nearly a year since our last newsletter....there's lots to report this year! starting with.....

HANNAH FRANK INCLUDED IN PRESTIGIOUS EXHIBITION AT SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART
We are delighted that Hannah’s art will feature in a new exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. This major exhibition is called ‘Modern Scottish Women: Painters and Sculptors, 1885-1965’. It runs from Saturday 7 November to Sunday 26 June 2016. The exhibition includes Hannah Frank's sculpture 'Woman and Bird.’  

• Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 75 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DR. See www.nationalgalleries.org for more information.

‘Modern Scottish Women’ is accompanied by a lavishly-illustrated book based on new research, to which we contributed an article. The book, with the same title as the exhibition, was edited by Alice Strang, and you can find it here.   I’ve just received my copy – and having read the biographies of the 60 or so women included in the exhibition (and the book), I’m finding it amazing that any women ever managed to produce art at all, given that they had to give up work on marriage, they weren’t encouraged to study, they had to give up their studios to their husbands….. Hannah Frank’s husband Lionel Levy was always immensely supportive.  Hannah like all other Scottish women of the time had to give up teaching on marriage, though she continued to work as an artist till her nineties…

HANNAH FEATURES IN EXHIBITION OF SCOTTISH BOOK DESIGNERS AND ILLUSTRATORS
At the same time as the Modern Scottish Women exhibition, there’s an exhibition of Scottish Women Illustrators and Book Designers, in the Keiller Library at the  Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. It runs from Saturday 7 November to the end of June 2016, with a print from Hannah Frank coming in the second hanging starting in March 2016.

REPEAT SHOWING IN INVERNESS – 11 YEARS LATER!
When Hannah’s work was first exhibited at the Riverside Gallery, Inverness, in 2004, her art had just embarked on this new, exciting journey of discovery by a whole new audience. As regular readers will know since then her work has been exhibited extensively across the UK and in America, receiving public and critical acclaim and much media coverage.
This year her work returns to The Riverside Gallery. This came about because some members of Inverness’s tiny Jewish community were very interested in hearing more about Hannah Frank’s life. We’re really pleased that the gallery welcomed the opportunity of a repeat show in the city. 

• Hannah Frank, A Glasgow Artist, Riverside Gallery, 11, Bank Street, Inverness, IV1 1QY.

RIVERSIDE GALLERY RECEPTION BUFFET AND TALK
On Thursday 26 November there will be an opening reception buffet at 5 pm sponsored by the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities followed by a talk by Fiona Frank at 7pm. The subject will be "Hannah Frank: Art, Religion and the Environment" and forms part of Scottish Interfaith Week.  There will be ample time for discussion – about the representation of the environment in different faith traditions….

SIX PAGE FEATURE IN  “NORTH MAGAZINE”
We wrote a 1000 word, illustrated, six page article about Hannah for the North Magazine, based in Inverness. This accompanies the upcoming Hannah Frank exhibition at the Riverside Gallery. (See story above.) Look out for it! 

SPECIAL OFFER ON PRINTS UNTIL JUNE 2016
To celebrate this flurry of Hannah Frank activity we are offering two for the price of one prints (cheaper print free) until June when the fantastic exhibition in Edinburgh closes.  Go to the Hannah Frank website www.hannahfrank.org.uk, click on the gallery, choose any two prints – the offer applies to the more expensive signed prints as well as the digitally reproduced prints – put your first choice in the order form and your second choice in the ‘notes’ (email first hannahfrankart@gmail.com to check availability).

PARTNERS WANTED
We’re looking for a café, gallery or art shop – or even an upmarket charity shop – in Glasgow or nearby, to partner with in 2016.  We’d supply Hannah Frank framed prints, you would show them, and encourage print sales; and you’d get a commission on sales – please contact Fiona Frank for more info.

For more details on all the above see the website www.hannahfrank.org.uk or contact Fiona Frank, hannahfrankart@gmail.com or tel 07778 737681

Hannah Frank Art, December 2014 - a new website and a new era!

HANNAH FRANK NEWS – DECEMBER 2014

Our main news this month:

WEB EVENT: SPECIAL OFFER!

If you would like to give Hannah Frank prints as Christmas presents (or even to welcome in the New
Year) then we have a very special offer for you. Our beautiful clean new website launches at midnight UK time on Wednesday 10th December this week.

 To celebrate we’re offering a two for one offer on orders of prints right up to the end of the year.  (Cheapest print free of course).  Just choose your first print then write in the name of your second print choice in the comments box in the order form.

The new website will be at the same address as the old one, ie www.hannahfrank.org.uk, but will have the gallery much more accessibly laid out, lots of lovely poetry links, and will be easier to keep updated.

I'm very pleased to have support from Tony Haslam at Reliable Green Web, and from Fiona McKinnon, our new Web Intern. Fiona is a Dundee based art student (see below for how she arrived on the scene). Thanks to Lauren Pass for designing the new look of the site.   Also sending many thanks to Fiona Fahlin for years of fantastic service - wishing Fiona lots of success in the new things she's doing. There seems to be a 'Fiona' link here - if you're called Fiona and would like to come and help with the Hannah Frank art project, get in touch!

And please have a look round the site and let us know if you find any glitches - I'll be happy to send you a set of Hannah Frank notelets for your troubles if you find any problems, missing links or discrepancies on the site.

CULTURAL CONNECTIONS SUCCESS

The Cultural Connections Festival at Rozelle House, Ayr closed with much celebration after a packed summer. The main focus was an exhibition of work by Hannah Frank, her teacher and mentor, Benno Schotz, and Joseph Herman plus photographs of Scots Jews in the 21st century by Judah Passow. Many events ran throughout the festival including art classes, guided tours, storytelling,
stained glass workshops, dance workshop and a final concert and dance.    As part of the festival, we held a conference on Scottish Jewish Life and Scottish Jewish Arts, 1914 to 2014: filmmaker Sarah Thomas (pictured below) came to introduce 'Hannah Frank, The Spark Divine'  - the beautiful film she made about my aunt to mark her centenary.

An education pack for upper primary children was developed as part of the festival, and teachers can download the pack for free from our new website (go to the 'poetry' tag).

HANNAH FRANK INTERNS DISPEL NOTION OF WORK FOR FREE

Our five talented interns, who worked with Hannah Frank Art this Summer, have helped dispel the
notion that graduates have no choice but to work for free to get a career foothold in the highly
competitive creative industries sector.

I was delighted to be invited to give a presentation at the Glasgow School of Art on 1 October. It was organised in partnership between Glasgow School of Art and Adopt an Intern and was called ‘Being an Intern in the Creative Industries’.

Originally, I’d planned to take on two interns through the Adopt an Intern programme, which is a
spin-off organisation from the Centre for Scottish Public Policy’s think tank and finds paid internships for graduates. In the end I took on *five* interns who all worked on the Cultural Connections Festival.  Catherine Williamson, from Adopt an Intern, said: “It was great to hear from all of our speakers, including Fiona’s input about her drive and involvement in setting up the Hannah Frank project, as well as the other projects she is involved with, including the MacLaurin galleries internships. Historically, internships in the creative sector are often unpaid, making that essential first foot on the career ladder unattainable for many.”

Angela Short, whose internship involved archiving and research plus a curatorial role, has already
secured a full-time job with Low Parks Museum, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire. Angela was sponsored by the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, Glasgow.

“Working on the Hannah Frank project gave me so much more experience and confidence which
really helped in the interview. I am over the moon,” Angela said.

Lauren Pass, illustrator, who created a two dimensional timeline to depict events and milestones in
Hannah's life and career, said: “The internship showed me how my skills can contribute to
collaborative projects like this.”

The other interns working on the project over this summer were Maria Simou, working with Hannah Frank Art, on social media and in a curatorial role, and Marzanna Antoniak, events, who worked with the Maclaurin Gallery. Additional support from the gallery meant that award-winning photographer, Claire Maxwell, was offered an internship. Her photographs were exhibited during the last two weeks of Cultural Connections.

Other speakers at the event were Sarah Drummond, co-founder of Snook, Keith McIvor, DJ and founder of Optimo Music/Optimo Espacio and Dylan Paterson, Business and Events Officer at the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.

STUDENT VOLUNTEERS SERVICES AFTER THE TALK 

One workshop attendee contacted me the very next day to offer her services! She is Fiona
McKinnon, currently studying Fine Art and Philosophy at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee - she didn't want a full time internship but has been doing a few hours a week ever since, helping to migrate the website to its new site.

HANNAH FRANK ART COMES FULL CIRCLE AT NAIL FACTORY

Hannah’s art is getting a second showing at The Nail Factory, Dalbeattie, Dumfries & Galloway. Still time to visit as the show ends on 19 December. Hannah’s drawings and sculpture comprised the
little gallery’s biggest ever exhibition in summer 2013 and enthralled visitors. Nail Factory curator, Rupinder Dulay, said: “This new Hannah Frank exhibition follows on from the Glasgow Girls exhibition in Kirkcudbright which ran this summer. We will showcase a number of original Hannah Frank prints and a greater range of sculpture than we did last year. Visitors were absolutely enchanted by her work and asked to see more.”

Bringing my aunt’s work to this gallery in for a second time is a real honour. I am in no doubt that
even more people in this part of Scotland will come to love her work as much as her other fans.

The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC) will host an evening gathering at the end of the exhibition for Chanukah on Thursday 18 December  from 6.30pm.

 Hannah Frank Exhibition, Until 19  Dec 2014, Nail Factory, 56 Southwick Road, Dalbeattie,
DG5 4EW Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Tel: 01556 611686. Opening hours 11am - 6pm,
Tuesday to Sunday.  www.hannahfrank.org.uk

HIDDEN HANNAH FRANK POSTERS FOUND AFTER 18 YEAR SEARCH

This story was a real bolt from the blue! Steven Hill contacted us by email, saying: "About 18 years ago I bought an old loudspeaker in a charity shop in Oban.  As I've done since childhood, I proceeded to take it apart to see how it works. When I took the back off there was a ‘corrugatedly’ folded piece of wadding material, some old newspaper pages and two posters of your aunt's design rolled up, scroll fashion.” He added: “It was love at first sight.  Sadly, I no longer have them.  Life got in the way and I guess they are in a loft in Taynuilt with some of my other lost items.  I wish I could remember the details of the poster's design, aside from the fact that there was a woman in a long flowing dress.”

Steven tried to trace the design, which he thought featured as a poster for an art exhibition, but
without success.  “Do you know of the poster I found?” he asked.

I immediately suspected that it was the poster for the exhibition Hannah Frank: Drawings of Thirties.
It was held at the Charles Frank shop on Forrest Road, Edinburgh, from 21 August - 9 September
1972 as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

This is the image we have subsequently used on our paper Hannah Frank shop catalogue and it was
in a conference brochure some years ago.

I sent Steven a picture. His response: “THAT IS IT!!!  The very one. I am tingling all over! No kidding. Wow.  There were two copies of it in fairly pristine condition.  I very much regret being such a numbskull to leave such things behind.  Thank you so much.  You've really made my
day/week/month/year."

I told a story about Hannah Frank at the first Sparks Preston Storytelling evening earlier this week.
Have you got a Hannah Frank coincidence or a Hannah Frank story to tell us? Let us know!

AND FINALLY  - a surprise - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to wordsmith JUDITH COYLE

Judith has been behind the scenes, wordsmithing for me since 2003 - probably my longest and most successful relationship! thank you so much Judith for all your support, help and encouragement, you have been wonderful and helped so much with all our newsletters, press releases and anything else that involved words.

See Judith centre back, in black, in this 2008 pic of the 'Hannah Frank team' of the time, working up to Auntie Hannah's centenary celebrations! (others include Steve Landin who designed our very first website, Olabopo Lanre-Phillips who helped me with management and organisation as part of a Lancaster University consultancy project, Eddie Hams who designed the Hannah Frank book, Gill Ormond who has given me personal and professional support for years, Andy Hornby our graphic designer, and Ed Horwich who filmed lots of the process in the early days.) And me of course, centre front with 'Sorcery'.

Wishing you all a very happy Hanukah and Season’s Greetings - and please watch out for our new website from midnight this Wednesday!

Fiona

Fiona Frank
07778 737681
hannahfrankart "at" gmail.com