Why Dresden?
Coventry was the world’s first twin city when it formed a twinning relationship with Stalingrad (Volgograd) in 1944. Dresden links were set up in 1956 and Coventry was formally twinned in 1959 as a gesture of peace and reconciliation. Coventry City Council states with reference to Dresden: “Nowadays, both cities seek to build on the twinning relationship to promote the economic prosperity of the two cities….”
Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange believes more needs and can be done in the cultural field with this relationship, particularly the visual arts and that great benefits can accrue for artists and audiences alike in both cities. Out of the 26 towns and cities twinned with Coventry, Dresden is arguably the major cultural centre with its history and world class museums and art galleries.
Paris and Rome have over the last 200 to 300 years been regarded as the main centres of European artistic and cultural activity. This has tended to eclipse artistic activity in Germany and in particular Dresden, capital of Saxony, with its German Baroque, Romanticism, Expressionism and Social Realism. Dresden was off limits for study during the National Socialist period and following its major destruction at the end of the Second World War, Dresden was also largely sealed from scrutiny during the GDR and to some extent has remained so despite ‘Unification‘.
Dresden is a many-sided centre of art where it’s art academy attracted many leading artists of the nineteenth century and twentieth century and a place with a strong history of socialist revolutionary reform. Artists included Caspar David Friedrich, Carus, Barlach; it was the home of Die Bruecke, Kirchner, Heckel and other expressionists Felixmuller, Nolde, Kokoschka worked and studied there. Kurt Schwitters was at the Academy with George Grosz and Otto Dix. In more recent years Dresden-born Gerhard Richter was a student at the Academy; Penk worked in Dresden, and Baselitz was born near Dresden, the Albertinum Museum having important examples of their work. At the nearby Hellerau Garden City is the Hellerau European Centre for the Arts, Jacques-Dalcroze’s Eurythmics Institute and Europe’s largest Arts and Craft workshops were the cornerstones of this development. There are 800 artists working in Dresden at the present time.
Dresden is culturally vibrant as a beautiful, green city and an international art, dance, health, exhibition and congress centre, which would seem to mask the fact that it was the capital of the most industrialised and urbanised kingdom in Europe with the highest rates of suicide, illegitimacy, infant mortality and venereal disease and the third largest garrison strength in Germany leading up to the First World War. Its many sanatoria cured and recharged the intellectual and artistic casualties involved in creative and bodily reforms, while workers health associations in the industrial districts championed physical exercise, health regimes and vegetable allotments not unlike those championed by Charles Bray in Coventry.
Artistic, education and health tourism swelled the cosmopolitan make up of Dresden society which included English, Scottish, American, Swiss and Russian quarters, with their corresponding churches. For centuries, Dresden was on the map as a route on the Grand Tour for many British travellers on the continent. From the second half of the 19thcentury onwards a growing number of British nationals took abode in Dresden, these residents reaching a peak of 1200 in 1900. Three English language daily newspapers published in Dresden bear witness to the importance of what was known as the “English Colony”. The Dresden Football Club, founded by English workers in 1874, is also believed to be the oldest football club outside Britain. The beginning of First World War spelled the end to that period of amicable relations.
Regarded as one of the most beautiful of German cities with unrivalled art collections, Dresden has for over three centuries been an important centre of art production. As an art and green city and birthplace of European porcelain, art and artistic manufacture here has been at the vanguard of European art and design and training through the Rococo, Romantic and Expressionistic periods up to the 1930s and its designation as city of hygiene. Dresden has attracted important artists, writers, composers and travellers: Nelson and Lady Hamilton, Wagner, Mary Shelly, George Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry James, Henry Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franz Kafka, Kathy Kollwitz, George Bernard Shaw, Heinrich and Thomas Mann.
‘Come to Dresden, that is a fine town to be in, and is as good a life as you can expect of a town. You have everything there without the foolishness of Paris or the beer of Munich.’
So insists Loerke, the Dresden artist to Gudrun, the English artist, in
D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love (1916). She contemplates the amusing things to do in Dresden, such as going to the Eurythmic displays, the German Opera and Theatre and taking part in German Bohemian life as an escape and antidote to all that is vulgar in English life. In Lawrence’s last novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928) Hilde and Connie, the two daughters of a well known Scottish artist, had been sent to Dresden at the age of 15, in 1908 and 1910 respectively, as part of their cultural education, as many schools and art schools were set up to do prior to the First World War.
Dresden has a highly developed exchange programme in the arts, and the European and International Affairs Group of the Dresden Mayor’s Office and the Municipal Office of Culture have warmly welcomed this Coventry initiative as a partner to their exchange programme. The Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange has also developed strong relationships with the Dresden Trust, Coventry Cathedral and the Anglo German Association in Dresden.
Texts by Paul Reece and Rainer Barczaitis, compiled and edited by John Yeadon
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Impact – Engaging with other groups and organisations
Coventry/Dresden Art Exchange exhibitions and events have attracted broader audiences and interest due to its relevance to Coventry’s history and commitment to ‘peace and reconciliation’ and international friendship. Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange has been working with peace organisations in the both cities to ‘reach out’, aid audience development and broaden our support. The ambition would be to turn our audience into stakeholders. This shift from spectator to developing a relationship has already begun to happen with some organisations and individuals. Our activities resonate in society beyond a traditional art or aficionado audience and the Exchange has developed an important civic profile in both Dresden and Coventry.
With our exhibitions, residents showcases, open studios and by hosting talks and workshops, our projects have the real potential to engage a wide range of audience interest. The exhibitions have served in the past as an introduction to art for those people who would not normally go to an art gallery or art exhibition but have attended our exhibitions though an interest in international friendship, understanding, peace and reconciliation, an interest in Germany or the Coventry-Dresden relationship. This is true in both cities.
The Exchange has developed strong links, partnerships and informal working relationships with art and non-art organisations: Coventry Lord Mayors Office, Coventry Cathedral, Coventry Peace Committee, Coventry Peace Festival, Coventry German Circle, Coventry Association for International Friendship, the Dresden Trust, Cardinal Newman Catholic School, Henry VIII School, Hereward College, Coventry University: Art and Humanities and Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations. Coventry Pride, Art Appreciation Group of University of the Third Age Coventry Branch, Eight Days a Week (Liverpool/Cologne Exchange). Spires Music, Class Room Gallery, Coventry Biennial for Contemporary Art, Coventry 2021, Coventry Photo Archive Miners, Coventry Music Museum, Tin Angel Arts Centre, Coventry Artspace Partnerships, Mead Gallery Warwick Arts Centre, Holyhead Studios, Meter Rooms, Canal Basin Warehouse Studios.
The originator of the Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange is John Yeadon. John is a ‘pioneer’ artist involved in the original refurbishment of the Canal Basin Warehouse Studios and is a Director on the Canal Basin Trust. He is also a member of Coventry Arts Forum and as a tutor in Fine Art at Coventry University – Polytechnic as was – he has many academic and cultural connections in the city. John has a particular perspective on the visual arts in Coventry. Hundreds of art students have been through his hands, many of whom still live and work in Coventry. John has worked and lived in Coventry for over 45 years since he left the Royal College of Art in 1972 and began lecturing at the Lanchester Polytechnic. Jerry Dammers, Horace Panter, Russel Haswell (musicians), George Shaw, Jonathan Waller, Ruth Calland, James Lloyd and James Jessop, (painters), Keith Piper and Eddie Chambers (Blk Art Group), John Riddy (photographer), Paul Smith (photographer) are amongst the ex-students that he is still in touch with. He taught for 30 years in the city, ultimately running the MA Fine Art course and retiring from full time education in 2002, though he has continued some part time teaching and visiting lecturing. Over the years he has been a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art, the Slade, Goldsmiths, Chelsea, Glasgow and many other Post Graduate centres and art schools around the country. John Yeadon has had over 40 one person exhibitions across British and abroad recently exhibition at the IKON Gallery in Birmingham and teaching on their Youth Programme. Coventry Dresden Arts Exchange is a member of Coventry Arts Forum who promote the visual arts across the city. This experience is unique in the Coventry and places him in a special position to have an overview of the visual arts and artists in Coventry.
Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange also aims to develop and consolidate relationships in Dresden, with the European and International Affairs of the Dresden Mayor’s Office, Anglo German Association (Duetsch-Britische Gesellschaft), specifically their support in the form of interpreting and translating particularly is appreciated), Dresden Academy, Grafikwerkstatt (Dresden’s Printmakers Workshop), Kunstlermesse Dresden, (Dresden’s Arts Fair). Interkulture International Kulturausch, the Kuenstlerbund Dresden (Dresden Artist Federation), Dresden Technical University, Office of European Capital Of Culture 2025 (as was) and the Culture and Monument Preservation Office of the City Council of Dresden.
John Yeadon has given talks in Coventry on Dresden, promoting the activities of the Exchange to inform and encourage support at: Artspace Partnership, Class Room, Emerge Artists Network (which no longer exists), Coventry Art Guild, University of the Third Age, (the largest Art Appreciation, U of the 3A group in the Midlands). Coventry Pride, Coventry Association for International Friendship and Cardinal Newman Catholic School. The Exchange has also organised lectures and forums at Class Room and Coventry Cathedral. John will continue to promote the Exchange with talks and lectures at diverse venues. We seek and continue to develop relationships with facilitators, such as teachers and lecturers in Coventry Schools and both Universities. Our Exchange is also always looking for ‘non art’ venues for our exhibitions such as Dresden’s Rathaus, Pilnitz Castle, Kreuzkirche and Coventry Cathedral, where we have exhibited in the past, spaces where location can drive audience development.
There have been a number of spin-off activities which the Exchange has enabled and supported essentially through networking, notably the Spires Music and Nuer Chor’s (Dresden choir) concert in Coventry Cathedral for the 60th anniversary of Coventry and Dresden’s twinning. Yellow Cap, a Dresden ska band played at Tin Angel with our help and in partnership with Coventry Association for International Friendship we helped organised the TUDOR theatre group from Dresden Technical University to performed in Coventry at Henry VIII School.
A useful ally has been Nikolai Press, Alumni Regional Ambassador in the UK for Technische Universität Dresden, in encouraging and facilitating broader activities and the dissemination of information. A regular contributor to our Facebook page, Nikolai also runs our Twitter account. In collaborating with Coventry Association for International Friendship and Nikolai we hope to set up ‘Coventry Dresden Events’ to look at organising other activities as well as the visual arts, specifically looking towards 2021 Coventry City of Culture and a Friendship Festival.
Coventry/Dresden Art Exchange documents its events and publicising on social media, hopefully attracting a younger audience. Coventry 2021, Curating Coventry, Enjoy Coventry, Coventry Arts Collective, Positive Images Festival and Private View 11 online, have also promoted our activities. Recently the Exchange targeted disabled groups, also Colleges and schools in the area who specialised in disability for Lisa Gunn’s lecture on her work ‘the Disabled Artist’ at Coventry Cathedral during our recent Condition Humaine exhibition at the Cathedral. Flyers and posters on the residencies, talks and exhibitions have been and will be distributed to Coventry libraries, Coventry City Council, the Herbert Art Gallery, Artspace, Class Room, Coventry University, City College, Hereward College, Coventry2021, Belgrade Cafe, Drapers Bar, etc.
The Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange will continue to develop and consolidate their relationships with the many organisations listed above to ensure a growing and diverse audience and interest in our activities.
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Arts Exchange – The Close Link With Dresden
This is the full text of an article published (5.8.2024) on the
Coventry Association for International Friendship website
“The Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange is an artist-led initiative founded in 2012 by John Yeadon from Coventry and his Dresden counterpart Jean Kirsten with the aim of developing dialogue and communication between artists from our two cities.
Since then there have collaborative partnerships, exhibitions, educational projects and forums. The partnership was very much strengthened by the Artists In Residents (AIR) programme, set up in 2017 to enable individual artists to visit a partner city and work there for a month or more. AIR has been supported by Arts Council England and so far, there have been ten residences in Coventry and Dresden.
Here John Yeadon describes his three visits to Dresden this year (2024) including the day he received the Fama Award for Lifetime Achievement, this awarded for artistic achievement and commitment to the partnership over an extended period of time…”
Since Coventry Dresden Arts Exchange was launched in 2012 I usually manage a visit at least once every two years to take part in collaborative exhibitions with Dresden artists. But the 65th anniversary year of twinning was exceptional. In celebration of this anniversary I was invited by Dresden Council to exhibit at the Rathaus (the Council House) in May and to select two other artists to show their work alongside three Dresden artists and three Wroclaw artists (the Polish city of Wrocław’s was also celebrating its 65th anniversary of twinning with Dresden). The other two Coventry artists who came with me were painter Jack Foster and printmaker Sharon Baker. Both had studied at Coventry University and had been on our residents’ programme working in Dresden. Both Jack and Sharon are excellent ambassadors for Coventry. (Sharon’s home page is here and there is a report on Jack’s past residency is within Coventry Curating Coventry website here).
The exhibition, our tenth such collaboration, was titled 3×65 Wroclaw, Coventry, Dresden. It was well received and reviewed in Dresdener Neueste Nachrichten, the local newspaper. Over the years our exhibitions have been reviewed in Dresden more than twenty times, but we have had little response from Coventry media or awareness from Coventry Council. At the opening of the exhibition the Deputy Mayor of Dresden welcomed the artists and I gave a speech of thanks, the evening was humorously hosted by Falk who was the print making resident artist last year in our partnership with Coventry University.
Ashley Spindler a Coventry artist also came with me on this visit for his month’s residency in Dresden . This was good timing as Karen Koschnik, a Dresden artist was on a residency in Seoul, Korea and kindly gave her studio to Ashley to work in and also sleep there free of charge. We have learnt how to do activities with very little money operating as a friendship society. However, we would welcome an further official printmaking residency at the Grafikwerkstatt studios, but this would a require a reciprocal financial commitment. The Grafikwerkstatt (the link is https://grafikwerkstattdresden.de/en/ ) and Dresden Council are keen we have a regular printmaking exchange every year.
My second visit, this one in June, was less high profile. However, I managed to bring my painting (‘Dignity and Impudence’) that was to be exhibited at the Palais Sommer in July for the Fama Award.
I was picking up the work of the three Coventry artists from the Rathaus to bring back to Coventry. To deliver and collect our exhibitions as baggage or extra baggage on a flight is much cheaper than shipping the art.
Best of all this second visit coincided with the joint Neuer Chor and Spires Chorus concert at the Frauenkirche (the main church in Dresden) which was reported in a previous blog. This was a reciprocal visit from when Neuer Chor came to Coventry back in 2019. In fact, this earlier concert coincided with a Coventry Dresden Arts Exchange exhibition in the Lady Chapel Coventry cathedral, an exhibition that was also shown in the Kreuzkirche in Dresden earlier in the year.
The return Frauenkirche concert had been much delayed due to Covid so we were all pleased that this visit finally took place. Spires Music couldn’t afford to bring the orchestra (I play the cello in the orchestra) but it was great to be in the audience for a change. On the day of the concert, Helmut Heinze’s and George Wagstaffe’s sculptures were exhibited in the Frauenkirche, (Helmut and George were recipients of last year’s Fama Award).
Not long afterwards I made a third visit to Dresden as I was honoured to receive the Fama Award (below) for Lifetime Achievement, this alongside Max Uhlig, a renowned Dresden artist.
This took place on Friendship Day (25 July) of the Palais Sommer, the summer arts festival, and was attended by the deputy Mayor of Dresden and sponsored by the Mayor, the Frauenkirche Foundation, the New Saxon Art Association and the KFA Culture for all gGmbH. On a personal note it was a special day for me, my niece and nephew travelled to Dresden to commemorate the day with me. It was also very gratifying to meet with the many Dresden artists who we have worked with and who have been to Coventry.
This was the second time this award had been given, George Wagstaffe and Helmut Hienze received it last year. Helmut created the Choir of Survivors in Coventry Cathedral Ruins. I had long thought that it would be a great idea to somehow get George and Helmut together, George being the most notable public sculptor in Coventry and an old friend. But what could we do, a sculpture exhibition? That would be vastly too expensive. Instead the meeting took place under the best possible circumstance – receiving the Fama award, 2003. This we were able to do with the support of Coventry Dresden Arts Exchange, CAIF and the New Saxon Art Association.
During the ceremony there were speeches, the Germans like their speeches, from the Deputy Mayor of Dresden, Maria Noth of the Frauenkirche Foundation and the art historian Anke Fröhlich-Schausell. All this was introduced by Reinhard Pontius, who has been such a support for the exchange. It all felt rather too flattering, but it showed not so much what Dresden thinks of me but what Dresden thought of our Coventry Dresden Arts Exchange. I’ve said in the past that Dresden likes Coventry artists more than Coventry. Not only art and artists, but poets and writers who have been on exchanges and music too such as the Spires choir. And not just classical music, Daniella Dee from Coventry performed after the Fama ceremony. (The clip below comes from the Palais Sommer programme site – unless blocked by your settings there is a video of one of Daniella’s performances: https://palaissommer.de/programm/friendship-day-danniella-dee-uk/ )
I hope that through events like these we can bring Coventry’s attention to cultural activities in Europe.
Oh! I think I’m going to have to visit Dresden again this year, for the fourth time! To pick up my painting from the Palais Sommer. Maybe the painting could stay in Dresden like George’s sculpture of lasts year’s Fama Award
This article is published on the Coventry Association for International Friendship website.
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Kreuzkirche Speech
John Yeadon, 2019
‘Condition Humaine’ is Coventry Dresden Arts Exchange’s sixth collaborative exhibition of Coventry artists with Dresden artists, exhibiting in both cities in as many years. Coventry Dresden Arts Exchange seeks to broaden Coventry artists’ horizons and create opportunities for artists, curators, art historians and audiences in both cities. This exhibition will come to Coventry Cathedral in the Lady Chapel in late May 2019 as part of the Cathedrals 60th anniversary events of the twinning of the two cities.
Peace and reconciliation is usually expressed through our practical work of collaboration with Dresden artists. A collaboration of friends. Establishing a dialogue, sharing and discussing ideas, of exhibiting and working together. Understanding the different histories and culture of our cities and learning from one another. However this is Coventry Dresden Arts Exchange’s first themed exhibition. ‘Condition Humaine’, concerned with human vulnerability, struggle and resilience, qualities both cities share.
This exhibition supports the theme of Coventry 2021 City of Culture. ‘Being Human’.
Chenine Bhathena, Creative Director for Coventry City of Culture Trust has said: “Throughout its history, Coventry has always pioneered activism, fighting for worker’s rights, promoting equality, tackling racism, making the case for the arts in education, welcoming new communities, finding solutions for poverty and health inequalities… We are known as a sanctuary, a place of welcome, a safe home and a city that promotes peace. This is a great opportunity to explore our place in this global conversation.”
Reconciliation demands the truth. The truth and honesty are important to understanding and healing. So the themes of this exhibition are of destruction as well as transformation and rejuvenation. Ruin as well as rebirth and restoration.
There will be time to discuss the exhibition in more detail, but I would like to mention Lisa Gunn’s work. Lisa is exhibiting her photographic series of icebergs titled ‘metamorphosis’ and refers to the rejuvenating aspects of nature, the human body and spirit. If you look closely you will see X-Ray images of Lisa’s spine imbedded/blended in the icebergs. Lisa’s work is concerned, in a very positive way, with her disability. When she was an art student at Coventry she drove a lorry on vacation employment. She had a catastrophic accident that left her paralysed.
Her achievements are through hard work and struggle.I think Lisa’s ‘photographs’ are perfect for this exhibition, the theme of destruction and renewal, as in her ‘life story’ as an artist, of struggle, courage and recovery, transforming her life. A positive metaphor for both our cities.
Lisa was born in Coventry and her Father was born under the living room table during an air raid! She talks often to her Dad about his early experiences as a child in Coventry. Mr Gunn is here today to support his daughter and I know that many in Dresden will wish to talk to them both and I believe Lisa will be a great unofficial ambassador for Coventry here in Dresden.
I would like to thank Monika Marten for conceiving the idea of this exhibition and Karen Mitzscherlich of Dresden City Council and her team, for helping to make real Monika’s concept.
I’d like to thank Pastor Milkau for hosting the exhibition in this great historic church.
I thank Dresden City Council for their continued and generous support for our project since its conception in 2012.
I’d like to thank the other artists in the Dresden group of our Exchange for helping organise this exhibition, particularly Jean Kirsten and Kerstin Franke-Gneuss.
I’d also like to thank The Anglo German Association and particularly Rainer Barczaitis for his invaluable help in coordinating the planning between Coventry and Dresden and his translation work. The Coventry Association for International Friendship, for their encouragement and support. Finally I thank Chenine Bhathena Creative Director the City of Culture in Coventry who has made it possible for Lisa and myself to travel to Dresden.
We look forward to working with Coventry 2021 and hope to see many more Dresden artists in Coventry in the future.
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Rathaus speech, 2024
John Yeadon
Deputy Mayor, ladies and gentlemen, fellow artists and others.
It’s good to be here at last, at my age it’s good to be anywhere!
As a British Prime Minister once said “the best thing for friendship is to work on something together.” (Thatcher)
Thank you for inviting Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange to exhibit again at the Rathaus. We showed here in 2014 and this would be our 9th collaborative exhibition with Dresden artists. Bringing new art from Dresden into Coventry, broadening the horizons and creating opportunities for Coventry artists.
Peace and reconciliation is always in the background of what we do but expressed through our practical work of collaboration with Dresden artists. Fundamentally we are a friendship association.
On entering the Blitz Museum at Cathedral Ruins in Coventry I introduced a resident Dresden artist to the lady on the door, who asked if we were ‘official’. An interesting question to which I wasn’t sure of the answer. What do we need to do to be official? Would being official be a good thing? However I appreciate that we do have a civic profile which I believe is more prominent in Dresden than Coventry.
As you might know Coventry was UK City of Culture 2021, which had it problems with Covid and organisation. Many Coventry artists felt that they had been sidelined in favour of parachuting in artists from London and elsewhere. Despite these issues I wanted to do something special during that year.
We established the Coventry Dresden Friendship Festival. Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange was successful in enthusing and encouraging other groups to get together and produce this broad cultural Friendship Festival with Dresden.
We formed partnerships with Coventry Association for International Friendship, the German Circle, Photo Miners and Twin Studio Projects to deliver this Festival. Enabling events on Film, photography, architecture, theatre, music, spoken word and lectures with live video connections with Dresden. There is an appetite in Coventry for these broader cultural relationships. The Coventry Dresden Writers Exchange has been establish and Christian Manss has taken part in their events.
We also partnered with Coventry University for our residents programme with the University’s print workshop, I know that Falk’s residency at the University was appreciated by staff and students alike.
Playing catch up because of Covid we had 4 residents in 2022. Two in Coventry and two in Dresden and exhibiting here is Sharon and Jack who have both had residencies in Dresden. Ashley Spindler as resident artist in Dresden will be our 10th artist in residency.
During 10 years we have been reviewed in Dresden newspapers and magazine over twenty times, our impact on Coventry’s media is almost zero. Through good practice and enthusiasm we hope to transform this response in Coventry.
Dresden seems to like Coventry artists (more than Coventry likes it’s own artists).
Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange believes that more needs and can be done with this international relationship; particularly in the visual arts and that great benefits can accrue for artists and audiences alike in both cities.
In spite of Brexit or because of Brexit Coventry/Dresden Arts Exchange believes it is important to reaffirm our commitment to the making of strong links of friendship through culture with our neighbours in Europe.
I’d like to thank Dresden City Council for their support particularly Mayor Hilbert and Mrs Mitzscherlich and for the continued support of the Anglo German Association, particularly Rainer and our fellow artists and friends in Dresden and Coventry.
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