Back in May we wrote an article about the Background Bob project. A simple heart warming father and son art project that soon involved 100s of artists from all over the world. In September the project became a beautiful book titled ‘Background Bob and his amazing friends’, featuring all of the incredible artwork. This month the project became the Background Bob exhibition at the Firstsite Gallery in Colchester.
On Wednesday we took a 2 hour trip down to the wonderful gallery to check out the exhibition for ourselves.
We’ve never been to the Firstsite Gallery, or Colchester for that matter, so were pretty excited to check it out. The gallery itself is beautiful. Very contemporary in its design and also free to visit which was a nice surprise.
A short walk along a corridor led us to the exhibition which immediately gave us huge grins.
You see, we’ve been following Noah’s wonderful story for a few months now. We’ve seen the artworks from all the talented artists on social media. But, to be able to actually view it ‘in the flesh’ all under one roof really hit home just how special this project really is… and to top it all off Dad, Nathan and Son, Noah, were there to meet us 😊.
his dad, Nathan at the exhibition
As Nathan explained, “There’s about 250 artworks on display and to be honest we’re totally humbled by the response to the project. Not for one second did I ever think we’d be stood here looking at a Background Bob exhibition while holding a Background Bob book!”.
The exhibition is amazing and if you get a chance we highly recommend a visit. To see the diversity in styles and approach to the project is fascinating. From fine art, to collage and stencil art, each work of art is a masterpiece, but what we love most is that artists of all levels, skill and fame are all rubbing shoulders with each other.
Never did we think that a piece of our work would be on display with the likes of My Dog Sighs, Mason Storm, Dank, The London Police etc and it goes to show how down-to-earth and genuine these artists are that they took time out of their busy schedules to contribute.
As we continued to chat, Nathan mentioned that the project and exhibition were to be shown in a short feature on The One Show that evening.
“It was quite a surreal experience filming for The One Show. We were with the crew for 10 hours but I think the feature is going to be about 5 mins so we have no idea what is going to be in it after all the editing”, said Nathan.
So when’s ‘Background Bob the movie’ coming out?
“Ha, we’re not quite there… yet, but on the day the exhibition closes there will be an auction via eBay of all the work that’s been sent in. All the money raised, like the proceeds from the book, will be going to the Colchester & Ipswich hospitals charity”.
As we said before, if you get a chance, go, you won’t be disappointed. But if you can’t make it then we highly recommend purchasing the Background Bob book or bidding on one of many amazing artworks on 31st January.
The Background Bob exhibition runs from 24th October to 31st January at the Firstsite Gallery in Colchester.
