We concluded our series of community walks/workshops on Saturday, supported by local writer and printer Lotte LS from Red Herring Press. Lotte supported the group to reflect on their walking and creative experiences over the previous 5 weeks, and to turn their ideas into a pamphlet.
Historically, pamphlets have been used to express strong social messages or political ideas, Lotte explained. It was a chance for us to use a folded booklet medium to say something to the exhibition visitors about our collective experience, beyond just documenting the journey. The group decided that each artist-led walk had an ‘essence’, a message that could be shared and applied beyond the activity and into our wider lives. As a result, heart-felt phrases grew from the reflections:
‘embrace the senses’ – inspired by Ligia Macedo’s writing walk
‘observe the moment’ – to refer to Mark Cator’s photography session
‘shape of nature’ – referencing the playful collage work with Georgie Manly
And, after some jokes about exposing yourself in the sun (!), ‘developing patience under the sun’ – the message from the cyanotype session I led with the group.
Once the group had their core messages, supported by Lotte, they then selected other images, phrases and ideas made during the walking sessions to include in the pamphlet. Lotte brought along her typewriter to add typed text alongside the hand-written thoughts. We ended up with lots of drawings and words, and were miraculously able to whittle it down to a selection the group were happy with, arranged across 2 sides of an A3 page to be printed and folded. The visiting exhibition audience will be able to take a copy of the final pamphlet away with them. I can’t wait to see the final result!
A new season approaches
It seems slightly surreal that we’re half way through the project already and have said goodbye (just temporarily, I hope!) to our community group. The first half of Yarmouth Springs Eternal was a programme of community walks/workshops with visiting artists working with people connected with Herring House Trust and GYROS charities in Great Yarmouth. The group were so engaged and had lots of brilliant ideas, and it was a total pleasure to work with them. I’d like to thank our visiting artists and our project assistant, Moyses Gomes, for helping to make the first part of the project a brilliant success. You’ll be able to get a flavour of the sessions from a video being put together by Becky Demmen of Supporting Your Art launching for the exhibition and available to enjoy online too.
The group had lots of positive things to say about how the series helped them to value and notice aspects of the natural world that they would have otherwise overlooked. These ideas will strongly influence the next phase of the programme. I also have ambitions to run the project again, with some adapted approaches based on the group’s feedback and experiences, so if you’re reading this and might be able to support it with fundraising or project development, then please get in touch!
What’s next?
Just as the later Spring weather has shifted here on the coast, our programme is now moving into the next part, with our public exhibition programme launching next week. We’ll be officially opening our exhibition at PRIMEYARC in Market Gates Shopping Centre on Wednesday 19th May, with Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th as a time for the local press to visit and any last changes to be made, a sort-of ‘soft opening’. The exhibition will grow and evolve as the show goes on, until Sunday 20th June, so I’d strongly recommend paying a couple of visits…
On Thursday 20th May next week, I’ll be presenting the project alongside the 5 other Norfolk & Norwich Festival Creative Individuals Norfolk fund awardees at a live streamed event, and then on Saturday 22nd May, we’ll be hosting our Conference. We start the show with lots of conversation and exploration, moving into an exciting programme of (free!) creative artist-led events in June to get doing, making and experimenting with creativity and nature. The bookings have already started to come in and we’ll have more events launching once the show gets going, such as Photo-Walk sessions led by our exhibition artist Jason Evans on the final Summer Solstice weekend of the show.
I hope that the themes and ideas explored in the show will chime with the visiting audiences, and that the core concepts developed by the Yarmouth Springs Eternal community group offer inspiration for a happy nature-connected life.
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 next update will be coming out soon!
EXHIBITION – WEDNESDAY 19TH MAY TO SUNDAY 20TH JUNE 2021
Excluding the 22nd May for the conference.
PRIMEYARC, Market Gates Shopping Centre, Great Yarmouth, NR30 2BG | Open daily: Monday-Saturday 12pm to 5:30pm + Sunday 12pm-4:30pm
Find out more on the Norfolk & Norwich Festival website
CONFERENCE – SATURDAY 22ND MAY 2021
PRIMEYARC, Market Gates Shopping Centre, Great Yarmouth, NR30 2BG | 12pm to 5:30pm, schedule tbc
Book your free ticket on the Norfolk & Norwich Festival website
FREE PUBLIC ARTS & NATURE EVENTS – JUNE 2021
PRIMEYARC, Market Gates Shopping Centre, Great Yarmouth, NR30 2BG | Timings and booking details, tbc |
We will be hosting a series of drop-in and bookable artist-led walks and events that explore creativity connected to the natural world. You can check out the full expanded programme on Eventbrite.
All events are planned to follow and adhere to COVID-19 guidelines
