Jens map out lives of local people...

Distance Made Good: Flow Lines is a cracking example of one of the Folly gallery's major strengths working with the community.

Canadian artist Jen Hamilton and her Huddersfield counterpart Jen Southern have teamed up again - this time under the contemporary banner of the ground-breaking Lancaster gallery - with local people from Lancaster and Morecambe.

Sculptural in design, the two Jens have mapped out Lancaster and Morecambe, based on the everyday lives of the people that live in the area, going about their everyday lives - walking dogs, biking to Glasson Dock and canal walks.

Journeys with 34 people were recorded using a Global Positioning System (GPS), a hi-tech device which locates people on the surface of the earth in terms of latitude, longitude and altitude.

Jen and Jen have given an artistic angle to the routes and made them into a physical installation using unwanted fabric to transform the GPS data into the shape of what they term as local experience'.

It shows how people use the urban landscape, revealing hidden locations and unexpected vantage points. They have transformed the Folly's exhibition space with flowing lines, several six-feet partitions and books detailing each person and their journey.

Folly's Maria Lambley tells me the exhibition really engages with people in the local community: "Even though Jen and Jen created the work, if it wasn't for the people it wouldn't be possible."

The exhibition runs at the Castle Park gallery until October 22.

The Folly's caf exhibition is Switches and Other Works by Stephen Monger, showing until October 15.

He focuses on the experience of viewing art in architectural space via colour photographs of miniature model exhibitions built from cardboard, plaster and paint. Through the staging of the models, which are then photographed, he draws attention to the cultural constructs and institutional fixtures of museums, galleries and studios.

I'm told Stephen is particularly interested in the way people's vision can get hijacked by colour and other peripheral detail. Architectural fittings such as switches, extinguishers and signage can take on as much significance as the main exhibits.

Meanwhile, Folly is taking part in FRED - a ten-day art invasion across Cumbria, created by another highly innovative bunch of artisans at Kirkby Stephen's Fold gallery (see P5).

A Bit of a Walk is a one-day forum on new media in the rural landscape undertaken as a walk with invited participants. The path begins at Staveley's Wilf's Caf on Sunday (11am-4.30pm) and ties in with Folly director Taylor Nuttall's objective to try to work with artists in Cumbria, through new media projects.

Folly's inventiveness also features in another FRED event - felt@MINT - an evening of experimental sound and video performance, in the upstairs bar at Mint, at Kendal's Highgate, on Monday (8pm-11pm).

Organised by Kendal-based Felt and supported by Folly, it showcases Cumbrian artists and everything from extreme djing to live video and electronics together with local soundscapes - and the odd surprise.

Folly is open Tuesday-Thursday 11am-5pm, Friday-Saturday 11am-4pm.

For further details contact 01524-388550 or www.folly.co.uk