Curating Cosgrove Hall
To celebrate the opening of our new exhibition Cosgrove Hall: Frame by Frame we’re looking back at the first Cosgrove Hall exhibition held at Waterside in 2017.
In October 2017 Waterside Arts hosted our first Cosgrove Hall Films Exhibition. Showcasing highlights from the archive was the perfect way to welcome the archive to its new location at the venue.
The show featured both hand drawn animation and stop motion puppets and props and profiled some of the most iconic Cosgrove Hall series. What was different about Cosgrove Hall is that each series they produced had a distinct look and feel, seeing this contrast side by side in the Lauriston gallery at Waterside emphasised this breadth of their work.
Exhibition Preview at Waterside Arts
Paper to Puppet documented the developmental stage of Cosgrove Hall shows, from initial drawings to original cels from the series. Looking back over the studio’s creative processes gave us a rare insight into the development and production of some of the most iconic children’s animation of the last four decades. Cosgrove Hall was a magnet for the region’s creative talent, the animation of both stop motion and hand drawn animation at the studio demonstrates the skill with which shows were created, developed, written, produced, designed, animated and edited.
“I’m thrilled with the support from The Heritage Lottery Fund and delighted to be working with Waterside to preserve and share the Cosgrove Hall legacy with new generations. I am honoured, and I’m sure Mark Hall would’ve been too, with the enthusiasm that our work still generates with the general public. I hope that many people will come from far and wide to enjoy these well-loved characters as much as we have over the years.”
Cosgrove Hall Films Exhibition, October 2017, Image courtesy of Mario Popham
The opening event was hosted by Terry Christian and there were speeches by Waterside’s Venue Manager Darren Adams, Curator Georgia Aguilar Taylor, Cosgrove Hall ex-development producer, Westley Wood and founder Brian Cosgrove. The show was curated by Georgia Taylor, as part of CIT’s Curator Incubator scheme, and was her first curated show.
Two years later and here we are at the opening of our new exhibition Cosgrove Hall: Frame by Frame, looking at the processes and detail in a selection of Cosgrove Hall shows, looking at the foundations of the animation processes behind some of the best loved children's animation. The exhibition breaks down the most complex Cosgrove Hall series, such as The Wind in the Willows, The BFG, Noddy, Count Duckula and more looking at the finer details of production, with original puppets, costumes, production material. The exhibition looks at both sides of the animation process, hand drawn and stop motion production and techniques, inspiring a new generation of animators to draw inspiration from Cosgrove Hall classics.
The exhibition showcases recent additions to the archive, such as Count Duckula model sheets and BFG cels donated by Peter Langmaid, original Wind in the Willows puppets donated by Andrew Dunning and Wind in the Willows illustrations by Terry Brown. Alongside the exhibition there is a family friendly booklet with simple animation activities to try at home.
The exhibition has been developed to run alongside our animation strand at Waterside. Earlier this year we commissioned three fantastic animation projects alongside CIT. These animators used the archive as a resource to support their animated projects. The progress of these projects, Toyhood, Socks and Patricia and the Witch are showcased in the parallel exhibition Freeze Frame, projects will be completed in February next year.
Frame by Frame activity booklet
The exhibition runs until the 4 January 2020 at Waterside Arts in Sale, Trafford, Manchester M33 7ZF.
Open Monday - Saturday 10 - 5pm.