Dr Abigail Schoneboom and photographer Julian May launch photo exhibit at Newcastle City Library that provokes reflection on work-life boundaries.<\/p>\n
People are working longer hours, yet many add an allotment to\u00a0their busy schedule, with waiting lists of 30 years in parts of the\u00a0UK. Dr Schoneboom’s research project looks at how and why allotments are intertwined\u00a0with contemporary working lives. It reveals how allotments provide\u00a0access to dilated, unstructured time; an opportunity to engage in\u00a0physical, sensual labour; and a space to do work that is tangible,\u00a0creative and self-directed: experiences that are valued and\u00a0jealously guarded even in the face of extreme time scarcity.\u00a0Allotments also help in the transition to retirement, providing a\u00a0sense of productivity and community outside of paid employment.<\/p>\n
Acknowledging the historic\u00a0connection between allotments\u00a0and working people, the study and exhibit are\u00a0inspired by\u00a0Humphrey Spender\u2019s photos\u00a0<\/a>of\u00a0Northumbrian pitmen on\u00a0their allotments. Spender\u2019s\u00a0images simultaneously\u00a0remind us of the harshness of\u00a0mining culture and the resilient\u00a0creativity it sparked.<\/p>\n The photographic part of the study, at two allotment\u00a0sites in an affluent area of\u00a0Newcastle Upon Tyne, drew on six months fieldwork at\u00a0a family plot and 35 conversations on\u00a0plots, which culminated in a three-day\u00a0collaborative photo-shoot with photographer Julian May. \u00a0Portraits focused away from the face protect anonymity while drawing our attention to the work of the body.<\/p>\n Alongside the exhibition, which took place in early June, Matty Hall , Funding Officer (Newcastle Allotments Working Group) and local Historian researched information related to the 1917 \u2013 2017 Allotments Centenary and displayed some interesting historical materials related to allotments in Newcastle, which created a useful juxtaposition between gardening past and present.<\/p>\n …the study and exhibit are\u00a0inspired by\u00a0Humphrey Spender\u2019s photos\u00a0of\u00a0Northumbrian pitmen on\u00a0their allotments. Spender\u2019s\u00a0images simultaneously\u00a0remind us of the harshness of\u00a0mining culture and the resilient\u00a0creativity it sparked.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n For information on the project, contact: abigail.schoneboom@northumbria.ac.uk The exhibit was made possible by\u00a0Newcastle Allotments Working Group and was facilitated by Allotment Officer Mark Todd. The project was originally made possible by pump prime funding from The York Management School. The exhibit was dedicated to Peter Horrocks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr Abigail Schoneboom and photographer Julian May launch photo exhibit at Newcastle City Library that provokes reflection on work-life boundaries. People are working longer hours, yet many add an allotment to\u00a0their busy schedule, with waiting lists of 30 years in parts of the\u00a0UK. Dr Schoneboom’s research project looks at how and why allotments are intertwined\u00a0withContinue reading “Why do busy people need allotments?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-stories","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Ih7L-3w","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/exhibit_aschoneb_700px.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}