The HopBarn centre for music and creative performance, provides a unique residential venue dedicated to the creation, development and performance of new and emerging artistic practice.
Situated in a rural and isolated area of East Nottinghamshire, the venue offers individual artists, groups and companies the opportunity to experiment freely in order to conceive and generate original material and performance ideas.
The venue also programmes regular music events by artists and groups who write, compose and perform their own work.
The long term ambition of The HopBarn is to work with regional and national partners to support and nurture new and emerging artists, groups and companies in the development of their
own creative practice.
Find out more below courtesy of Alan Clifford from BBC Radio Nottingham.
Our vision is to establish a venue that responds to the needs of musicians, performance and visual artists in order to stimulate new thinking, new ideas and new aesthetics in the arts.
Stuart Poole
A farmer with a vision, Stuart stood milling animal feed one day, looked up and thought 'this would make a wonderful jazz club'...
A couple of years later and a chance opportunity led to Stuart and Mary Poole to embark on a mission to restore the original agricultural buildings into what has now become The HopBarn.
A former Cathedral Chorister at Southwell Minster, music has never left Stuart and he now plays regularly with his 5-piece jazz and blues group The HopYards.
The HopBarn was initially a way of rehearsing away from the main farm house, thereby relieving the pain and misery of Mary Poole having to hear the band whenever they rehearsed.
Unfortunately for Stuart, The HopBarn is so well populated with bookings and events, that he himself has to book in rehearsals and performances well in advance to ensure that they have the space.....
.Stuart...think we may need another studio!
Mary Poole
Having held a life-long passion for theatre, dance and music, Mary along with Stuart took great delight in ensuring that the crumbling walls, roof and foundations of the former farm buildings were lovingly restored into a rural rehearsal and performance venue.
Mary now oversees the operational running of The HopBarn and ensures that day-to-day matters are promptly dealt with.
Mary also deals primarily with programming and organising our charitable events.
Contact Mary
Vince Ion (music producer)
As with everything in life, a chance meeting between Stuart Poole and Vince Ion at a local village event spawned an invaluable working relationship.
In 2015, Vince was seeking a venue to begin programming a regular offer of music events in order to raise profits for Theatre Imps production of Jerusalem. Seated across the table was Stuart Poole, who had just embarked on restoring the farm buildings into The HopBarn. 5 years later and thanks to True Blue Music which Vince had created as an umbrella term to support and programme regular music events, the relationship is still going strong.
Since hosting True Blue Music's first programme featuring Daisy Chapman in 2015, Vince has continued to programme regular offer of music at The HopBarn although in December 2019, he decided to end his run following the successful programming of Martyn Joseph.
Keith Stedman (ornithologist)
Keith became involved in the Hopyard Farm Project since 2009 when he took part as a volunteer in the RSPB Farmer and Volunteer Alliance Scheme, The object of this national scheme was for volunteers to record the birds present on participating farms over three visits during the spring season when breeding was in full swing. The birds were recorded onto a map of the farm and surrounding fields with symbols attached to each record showing the type of breeding activity of the bird. Although not definitive, these maps and lists provided a good indication of the range of species present during the breeding season and thus enabled the RSPB to advice Farmers on actions the could be taken to help stem the decline of many 'farmland' birds.
Stephen hunt (woodworker)
Stephen is a woodworker passionate about saving the unwanted and disposed wood either rescued or donated, to breathe into them a new set of life and function. Over the last eight years and well over fifty commissions, Stephen has created memento pieces from much loved tree such as bowls from adapted Scandinavian designs and spatulas and spoons made from green wood. He has also created amazing insect boxes to help support the solitary bees population here on The HopBarn, in particular mason bees, Leaf-cutter bees and tree bumblebees. These boxes are not generic in design but is specifically carefully planned to provide for specific species.
Angie Atmadjaja 童音智
Angie trained as a concert pianist with Kaoru Kobayashi at Trinity College of Music, London before moving into composition under Daryl Runswick.
Angie's questioning nature and inquisitive personality constantly challenged her experience and perception of sound.
Working within the field of dance, the opportunity to create sound compositions for choreographers deepened her desire to question our experience of sound and how we experience its sensation.
This lead to a programme of study at the University of York in the field of Music Technology and under the supervision of Tony Myatt, Angie undertook a PhD programme in centred in the field of psychoacoustic phenomena.
This period, saw Angie create a series of Sound Installations in which the body and the experience of the viewer is central to the theme of her work.
Within her work, Angie manipulates standing waves to create null points or areas that are void of sound in her installations. Her work has since been exhibited throughout Europe, Japan and China.
Angie is responsible for the visual arts offer at The HopBarn whilst also programming kKo, our dedicated space for visual arts workshops, small gatheings and seminars.
Contact Angie
Jonathan Poole
Trained in Dance at The Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, Jonathan worked primarily with Arc Dance Company under the director of Kim Brandstrup from 1995 to 2004.
In 2006, Jonathan was appointed Education and Community Dance Worker at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, responsible for delivering contemporary danced technique and choreography to the Yorkshire Young Dance Centre for Advanced Training in Dance.
In 2007/8, Jonathan received Arts Council Funding for his production of "...even Silence Holds Breath!" to be presented at Dean Clough Mills in Halifax in October 2008. The work subsequently received a 4 star review in the Yorkshire Evening Post and discussion were taking place for the work to be presented at other theatres and dance festivals.
Unfortunately however, Jonathan was offered the job as Centre for Advanced Training Manager at The Lowry, Salford Quays in January 2009, and the prospect of performing "...even Silence Holds Breath!" further was placed on hold.
Jonathan remained at The Lowry from February 2009 to October 2015 overseeing the development and running of the North West Centre for Advanced Training in Dance on behalf of the Department for Educations Music and Dance Scheme and The Lowry.
Jonathan now works at The HopBarn overseeing all programmed music events and regular artistic residencies.
Contact Jonathan
Max
Trained at Hopyard farm, Max has become an integral component of The HopBarn team ensuring that all artists and companies residing on site are in safe and experience paws.
Max has a fondness for distant smells and although this can seem unsettling at first, his only priority is to ensure visitors are fully aware of the smells that they carry on themselves without knowing.
Max is on duty 24/7 and will ensure that nothing will disturb your peaceful time whilst residing at The HopBarn.
Be warned however that any chance of food, cuddles, tummy rub or chance of affection changes Max's soft outer demeanour into a more un-controllable member of the team.
Please note: The HopBarn is not liable if visiting artists and musicians cause such actions that prompt max to show his true affectionate side!
Contact Max :
max.poole@weemail.com
The HopBarn welcomes all general enquiries and enquiries concerning the hire of the music or dance studio and accommodation as well as the kKO Arts Space for all music events, visual arts and arts residencies.
Hockerwood Lane,
Southwell,
NG25 0PZ.
[kKo]
[The HopBarn]
The HopBarn is located approximately 7 miles from Newark-On-Trent on the A612 between Upton and Southwell in East Nottinghamshire
To get to The HopBarn by:
Train -
1.5 hours from London Kings Cross to Newark North Gate (LNER East Coast mainline)
2.5 hours from London St Pancras to Nottingham
To reach us by train:
Newark Northgate St. (7.6 miles / 12.2 kilometers)
Nottingham St. (16.2 miles / 26 kilometers)
For international artists/ musicians:
Nottingham Airport (12.1 miles / 19.4 kilometers)
East Midlands Airport (23.1 miles / 37.2 kilometers)
Doncaster Sheffield Airport (27.5 miles / 44.3 kilometers)
Humberside Airport (42.5 miles / 68.3 kilometers)
Pickup from the above train stations listed are available by prior bookings.
For more info.