Under Breydon Bridge (image credit_Genevieve Rudd)
We were led by photographer Mark Cator for our third artist-led walk/workshop session. He began his session with a photography presentation of Great Yarmouth, with a focus on the life and culture around Breydon Water since the 1800s. Mark is an expert on the photographer P H Emerson, having grown up around the Norfolk Broads, so much of the presentation explored this historic work alongside Mark’s own photography. It was fascinating to track the changes based on local landmarks, such as the Town Hall and river, which gave us a good starting point before heading out on our walk, picking up the start of the Angles Way walking route.
Links to Landscape
Angles Way walking route (image credit_Genevieve Rudd)
One of our group members had a strong personal link to the area, having grown up and lived on the edge of Breydon Water for many years, which enriched the day with lots of insider local knowledge. Mark had some of his own photography from the area taken around the 1990s, that we used to compare and contrast on location. Even when the group didn’t have a personal connection to the landscape we were walking within, it triggered early memories. One of our participants had spent time in Alaska when he was younger and remembered eating Fiddlehead Ferns, a memory sparked during a conversation about the abundant edible Alexanders around us. Another participant had grown up in South Africa and remembered childhoods exploring vast landscapes. We spoke about how, in the context of Norfolk, Breydon Water looks vast but even here, we’re still not far from houses, shops, trains and roads.
We were blessed with bright sunshine and blue skies, so it felt like the perfect day to relax by the water, talking and sharing stories, sitting low to the ground to keep away from the cool wind once we reached Breydon Water. Mark had selected a text by P H Emerson written around 1890 on the stories from the area. We each read a short passage against the watery backdrop, recorded by Mark. After basking in the sun, chatting and taking some photos, we walked back into town for lunch.
Reviewing & recording
Screening of Sara reading P H Emerson (image credit Genevieve Rudd)
In the afternoon, we had a screening of the group’s reading Mark had recorded on location, which audiences will be able to see at our exhibition in May and June Thanks to our project assistant Moyses Gomes for translating extracts of the text into Portuguese too. Once we’d all been embarrassed by seeing ourselves on the big screen (!) Mark had a final activity to bring our conversations, walking and experiences from the day together. We thought about the lines found at Breydon Water – horizon, jetty, posts, clouds – and created a long collaborative monochrome drawing. The page was populated with words extracted from the P H Emerson text, some of which are now lost in history. Some of our multilingual group members also translated selected words to add into the drawing, alongside line drawings in graphite and charcoal.
It was a relaxed and sunny day, filled with conversations and images from the past and present. Our group members had lots of positive things to say about the session:
“The photos of the areas at the beginning were essential and a good opener to the walk and observation in the nature”
“Quite relaxing and pleasant I’d say. Photography is not one of my skills, but I enjoyed meeting you guys”
“I really enjoyed unexplored areas of Great Yarmouth”
Events coming sooN!
Find out details of our upcoming events below. If you would like to stay informed of all of the latest information about these events, then you can sign up to our newsletter. Our first update will be going out in a couple of weeks time.
EXHIBITION – WEDNESDAY 19TH MAY TO SUNDAY 20TH JUNE 2021
PRIMEYARC, Market Gates Shopping Centre, Great Yarmouth, NR30 2BG | Open daily: Monday-Saturday 12pm to 5:30pm + Sunday 12pm-4:30pm
Exploring the Cemetery with Georgie Manly (image credit_Moyses Gomes)
In our first session when asked where the group would visit to experience nature around town, the most popular answer was Great Yarmouth Cemetery. Therefore it made sense to make the Cemetery our walk destination for our second session guided by guest artist Georgie Manly.
EXPLORING & OBSERVING
Drawing in the Cemetery (image credit_Moyses Gomes)
We headed out from our meeting place in Market Gates Shopping Centre, through the market and towards the Minster. The walk was filled with the sound of alarms, sirens and dogs barking, so reaching the Minster and Cemetery grounds felt especially peaceful. After swapping facts about the history of the building, we explored the space individually with some prompts from Georgie. She suggested we focus on a plant to create a study with words and sketches, from observations, memories and stories or facts we already knew about it we welcomed into the mix.
After some initial sketching, we moved into the Old Cemetery, past a gathering of seagulls and pigeons fighting over bread crumbs and into the windy tree lined space. We then created a second plant study in this wilder location. Many of the group members were drawn in by the gnarled trees, pretty Spring primroses and rambling ivy vines. One of our participants shared a beautiful poem she had written in Portuguese, which she translated to the group in English. She spoke about the connection between humans and plants, and how we share so much in our life cycles, and Georgie suggested that the graveyard environment can often inspire deep reflections on life.
To round off our time at the Cemetery, we had a go at drawing with scissors, cutting shapes from coloured paper inspired by our plants studies, which we then embedded into the landscape. For me, this felt like the most magical part of the day. The group was tentative at first and we spoke about what a strange thing it was to do. However, after a little while, we had soon curated a pop-up exhibition of colourful shapes, and included papier mache recycled vessels one of our group members brought along to show us. The whole arrangement was made even more surreal by the dead rat laying face up under the tree nearby, but it was fun and lively because of its spontaneousness and playful energy in what could’ve been a solemn space if it wasn’t for the Spring plants bursting into life around us.
After carefully removing our paper shapes and making sure the location was left how we found it, we went back for a spot of lunch from the market. We reviewed our morning walk and created a new arrangement using the things we had made, drawn and found in the Cemetery. Georgie is very good at gently encouraging creative engagement and the group soon curated another arrangement, this one even more beautifully odd and eclectic than the last! We took part in large scale still-life drawing with charcoal and coloured ink to finish off our day, with some slow looking, quick 1 minute sketching and added collaged elements of our drawn shapes.
Still-life drawing and found object arrangement with Georgie Manly (image credit_Moyses Gomes)
It was brilliant to work with Georgie and see how her influence sparked fresh creativity with the Yarmouth Springs Eternal community group. I think the final charcoal collaged drawings show the free and playful energy she brought out from the group.
Look out for Georgie’s creative prompts and ideas, alongside our other guest artists, in the Yarmouth Springs Eternal creative resource booklet, which will launch at the Summer Solstice. It will be filled with ways to engage with the outdoors and natural world, inspired by the community events this Spring. You can also see all of the artwork produced by the community group in our exhibition at PRIMEYARC, Market Gates Shopping Centre in Great Yarmouth from 19th May to 20th June. You can find out more about the exhibition by visiting the Norfolk & Norwich Festival website.
Out and about
Here are some other places you can find the project:
Genevieve Rudd, Kaavous Clayton, Ligia Macedo, Georgie Manly, Jon Cree, Mell Harrison and Moyses Gomes at EarthWalks training on 29th March 2021 (image credit_ Moyses Gomes)
EarthWalks Training
Reflection by Genevieve Rudd
Our Yarmouth Springs Eternal artists spent the day at Green Light Trust this week taking part in EarthWalks training, led by Jon Cree and Mell Harrison. EarthWalks, as Jon explained in his potted history to introduce the day, is a branch of Earth Education. The wider movement was developed in the 1970s and can be found internationally. EarthWalks aims to facilitate four different thematic aims of the experience, to inspire Joy, Kinship, Love and Reverence.
EarthWalks definition
The EarthWalks approach has a set of guidelines to support the facilitator and participants. Jon’s own experience of this work spanning over three decades was to underpin the external understanding of ecology and earth crisis through internal felt experiences. He emphasised that the earth and us are simply made from Air, Water and Soil, and it’s this fundamental connection that can facilitate the all important ‘flow’ of an EarthWalk experience. For me, this became clearest when Mell drew the lines on the palms of our hands and, later in the workshop, we laid under a tree and connected the patterns with the branches above us.
Jon and Mell guided the training group through their own spin on EarthWalking, which expressed something about their personal identity and approach to leading the concept. We walked together and alone, in conversation and in reflective silence. We took a barefoot walk and a blindfolded one; experiencing Frithy Woods on our fronts, backs and up close (which made me grateful for a dry, sunny day!). Guided by our facilitators, together we used simple props to experience views in the tree canopy and shared memories linked to early nature-touch.
Finally, to draw the day to a close, our Yarmouth Springs Eternal group gathered by the campfire to consider how we could take these ideas out into the project and beyond. There were lots of ideas to absorb and after a day in the fresh air to blow the Lockdown cobwebs away, I think we all slept well that night!
What I’ll take away from the workshop is a menu of approaches that could inspire ‘nature connection’ over ‘nature contact’. I’m inspired to think about how these approaches could work in Great Yarmouth town centre, streets, parks, river and beach environments, as well as the woodland location we experienced during the training day. Also, there was an overall sense of resonance with the activities we engaged with. They felt similar to some of my trusty artist/educator warm-up techniques and aligned with the Beach School introductory training I’ve taken part in, so to connect the dots back with the Earth Education movement was interesting, and piqued my interest to wonder where its earlier roots are found…
Further Training and a thank you
The team exploring. (image credit_course co-leader Mell Harrison originally posted here.)
The EarthWalks workshop attendance was funded as part of the Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants fund, which is supporting the delivery of the Yarmouth Springs Eternal project, as well as other development and project support opportunities.
Over the Spring Equinox, also supported by the Arts Council fund, our project lead Genevieve Rudd took part in some additional training from Mayes Creative. The remote short course has featured photographers, artists and an archaeoastronomer exploring the light/shade dynamic of this time of year.
In addition, Genevieve has been accepted onto a clinical supervision programme for artists leading creative health & wellbeing projects from Arts & Health Hub over the next 6 months. This supervision will support Genevieve to project manage Yarmouth Springs Eternal with personal and professional support.
Whilst we’re still early on in the Yarmouth Springs Eternal project, the funding has been significant in helping to start to fulfil the project vision, whilst nurturing the practitioners involved.
Saturday the 20th March marked the Spring Equinox and the start of this project. To kick us off we want to tell you all about the wonderful creatives, organisations and funders involved in bringing Yarmouth Springs Eternal to life.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Genevieve Rudd is leading Yarmouth Springs Eternal, an arts, walking and nature project in partnership with originalprojects; this Spring. The project’s overall ethos is exploring personal relationships to the natural world through contemporary arts, including a focus on the overlooked and everyday encounters.
We will explore these themes through a series of artist-led community walks/workshops with adults referred from Herring House Trust homeless charity and GYROS migrant support agency in Great Yarmouth, with adapted COVID safety plans in place. An exciting exhibition and conference will follow this. All events will take place at PRIMEYARC, a creative space led by originalprojects; in Market Gates Shopping Centre in Great Yarmouth. At the end of the project, a participatory arts and nature resource pack will be published.
Yarmouth Springs Eternal is funded by Arts Council England, Norfolk & Norwich Festival’s Creative Individuals Norfolk fund, East Anglia Art Fund, Norfolk County Council’s Arts Project Fund and Better Together Norfolk.
Who’s involved?
Genevieve Rudd leads this project in partnership with originalprojects.
Genevieve has worked as a freelance Community Artist since 2011 and is based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. She has developed projects with people in care homes, museums, galleries, libraries, youth clubs, schools, community festivals and in outdoor public spaces. In particular, Genevieve’s projects consider heritage, cultural and environmental themes. They encourage closer looking, enquiry through making and ask about the places and people around us.
originalprojects; is based in the East Coast town of Great Yarmouth and is currently overseen by artist-curator Kaavous Clayton and artist-facilitator Julia Devonshire. In 2002 originalprojects; was formed as an amorphous collective of artists who could work together to make things happen in Norwich.
Who is supporting?
Moyses GomesBecky DemmenRed Herring Press
Moyses Gomes will be the project assistant. He is currently doing a Masters degree in Moving Image and Sound at Norwich University of Arts. He was recruited through the Black & POC Creatives Network led by Sascha Goslin. This is a project funded by NNF Creative Individuals Norfolk fund which has funded part of this project.
Becky Demmen from Supporting Your Art will assist with social media and blog posts (like this one!) She will also be creating a video of the project.
Red Herring Press will be creating beautiful pieces of print for the project.
“highlighting the ‘overlooked’ and ‘everyday interactions’ with nature from diverse perspectives”
We’ll explore nature found on Great Yarmouth streets through the arts, encouraging people to get the recommended weekly health-giving ‘dose’ of 120 minutes outside. We want to show that a special connection with nature doesn’t just happen on a nature reserve far away, it can happen anywhere from your backyard, a local park or even the streets of our towns and cities.
I was invited to write a blog post for Norfolk & Norwich Festival on my Yarmouth Springs Eternal in February 2021. The article shares some background on the inspiration and research that inspired the project, and how the project will be delivered this year. For the latest updates on the project, follow @YarmouthSprings on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook:
I’ve stared out at my back garden from my desk in Gorleston-on-sea almost everyday since March 2020. It’s usually the place I make plans before travelling elsewhere in the region to lead Community Arts projects. Whilst indoors under ‘Stay at Home’ orders, I look out and notice rows of packed terrace houses with square windows looking back at me, blocks of dense leylandii hedge and intersections of alleyways. I can see shed roofs in weathered shades of brown and grey, every so often featuring a prowling cat. Birds zip from tree to tree and clouds swirl in ever-changing formations against skies of pink, blue, grey and white.
As you can tell from the description, this suburban view isn’t a nature reserve and if I search for images of a “nature view” online, the acid green hills and waterfalls don’t resemble what I see! These idealised perceptions of nature can give distorted expectations and unhelpfully separate us from feeling part of the natural world. For me, the Lockdown experience has highlighted that ‘experiencing the natural world’ isn’t a phenomena happening elsewhere in vast conservation-managed pastoral landscapes, it’s also the vernacular view from my desk window and found on daily walks around town.
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