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.
If you’re looking for inspiration or distraction during lockdown, I’ve complied a list of some of my publicly available creative resources. Over the past 10+ months, I’ve been commissioned to create live and pre-recorded video workshops and resources exploring range of visual art mediums and themes. Some activities are linked with the work of a particular institution, such as a museum and their collection, whereas others look at broader subjects
The age range is suggested and generally the materials required to take part are easily accessible from home, or could be swapped out for other more available kit
It’s been a total learning curve for me to produce these during the lockdowns from home, but I hope they bring some creativity into people’s lives at a difficult time!
Photography
Anthotype Photography: making images with plants without a camera
In the Summer, I was commissioned by Creative People and Places: Market Place to develop and pilot a new project exploring the isolation, disconnection and lockdown experience. In the Autumn, I led Let’s Talk A Walk, a remote art-making and walking project with two groups in Fenland and West Suffolk. I was invited to write a reflective blog about the project, exploring how it developed and the challenges faced…
‘Doorstep curiosity’ is a phrase I noted down during a Zoom catch-up with Creative Agent Ali and Marketing Officer Alice, a few days after the Let’s Take a Walk workshop. My own nature-informed arts practice took on a new resonance this year. Experiencing nature’s sights, sounds and sensations became essential to my wellbeing. The little things have really captured my attention. Self-seeded plants growing through the cracks in flint walls became a symbol for the resilience to find a way through. It was these experiences that inspired the project.
Let’s Take a Walk didn’t begin as a walk. In fact, for the Creative Conversations in Isolation call-out, whilst the country was under ‘Stay at Home’ orders, I wanted to find inspiration at home by unlocking stories in the objects we live with. I’d been running still-life drawing sessions over Zoom and through this, became curious about arranging and connecting with everyday ‘stuff’…
I’m incredibly happy to share the news that Arts Council England are supporting Yarmouth Springs Eternal in 2021 through their Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants scheme
I’m very grateful to Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Producer Sally Rose for their mentoring and support, project partners originalprojects;, and the generous funding from Norfolk & Norwich Festival’s Creative Individuals Norfolk fund, East Anglia Art Fund, Norfolk County Council’s Arts Project Fund and Better Together Norfolk
Look out for more information about the programme in the coming weeks, ahead of the events launching from the Spring Equinox to the Summer Solstice next year. Follow Yarmouth Springs Eternal on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for news (@YarmouthSprings on all platforms)
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