IMAGINE

Cleo Evans – Artist & Producer

Cleo Evans is a UK based site specific artist who often works on temporary installations in the public domain. In 2009 Cleo was commissioned by Futuresonic festival to develop and produce her concept of ‘Imagine’ at Liverpool Cathedral.  Along with Dennis Hopkins, the Co- Curator of the festival and in collaboration with members of the Liverpool Guild of Change Ringers led by Sam Austin, they overcame the challenge of using a musical technology thousands of years old, to peal one of Lennon’s most popular and secular songs.  In 2008 was nominated for the UK National Women of the Year Awards.

Her background includes a body of work that specifically addresses groups that do not easily access the arts. Her practice has always been concerned with socially engaged issues and her MA in Art as Environment for which she achieved a distinction, led her to working in San Francisco with the internationally renowned activist artist Suzanne Lacy. She is currently part of the Amonite Cultural Leadership Programme in the UK and has experience in collaborative projects with international partners, working with the voluntary sector, delivering high profile projects needing significant PR management and developing important funding partnerships and sponsorship. She has also just produced the Inside Out festival which was a 10 day program of outdoor performances across Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole in the UK. The festival included a large participation program with people who do not usually engage in the arts, as well as career and professional development for artists.

Dennis Hopkins – Curator & Producer

Dennis Hopkins is an independent curator and project manager who works with artists using moving image, sound, and electronic media. Between 2001 and 2007 he directed Lumen an Arts Council England Regularly Funded Organization supporting artists using technology and producing the Evolution festival. The festival provided a platform for many new artists alongside key figures in film and electronic art such as Woody and Steina Vasulka, Vito Acconci, Dan Graham and overlooked pioneers such as Billy Kluver and Gustav Metzger. Significant commissions he has overseen include Sound Lines, a public sound artwork by Bill Fontana (US), Midtown by Wolfgang Staehle (GE) and Antenna by Robert Whitman (US). Primal Soundings, a second commission with Bill Fontana was curated with the Contemporary Art Society and forms a permanent work in the collection of Leeds Museums and Galleries. More recently he co-curated a program of events and commissions for Futuresonic 2009 (now renamed FutureEverything). The Lever Prize winning programme included new commissions by Elin Wikström (SE), Jon Cohrs (US) and Imagine by Cleo Evans (UK).

Sam Austin – Ringing Master

Sam Austin is a recent Masters graduate in music performance at the Royal Northern College of Music. His bell ringing career began in 1992 and for many years he was the ringing master of the Liverpool Branch of Change Ringers and secretary of the Liverpool Cathedral Guild of Change Ringers. He is now Director of Music at United Benefice of St Faith’s Great Crosby and St Mary’s Waterloo Park whilst studying for a