Land - Hyndburn & Ribble Valley Projects
Image - Enchanted Woodland at Arden Hall
Songwriting & Video Project
In July 2003, musician Hugh Nankivell worked with pupils from Moor End Primary School and GCSE music students from Rhyddings High School to create a collection of new songs in response to their visits to Foxhill Nature Reserve in Oswaldtwistle. Ten new songs were composed and performed in front of an invited audience at the High School. The performance was recorded and a CD was distributed to all who took part. In a related project, also in July 2003, video artist Jack Lockhart and Jill Penny worked with a local youth club in Oswaldtwistle to make a film about their response to the Nature Reserve. The young people created their own story-board, filmed and acted in the film themselves, supported by the two artists. The film was given a public showing at the Youth Club.
Where We Live
In autumn 2003, artists and architects worked with young people from Hyndburn’s Creative Activities Project (CAP) to produce artworks for four existing sites of creative activity in Spring Hill, Barnfield, Central and Church. Working on the theme of ‘where we live’ and focusing on regeneration, the young people responded in different media - for example, designing a landmark for their area, writing a piece describing their environment, or redesigning their street. This culminated in an exhibition of work produced.
Diary Pod
In spring 2004, Paul Hartley of Hyndburn’s Creative Activities Project (CAP) and artist William Titley developed a new technique to engage young people more effectively in the process of evaluation. With echoes of ‘Big Brother’, they designed a ‘diary pod’. Contributors entered a small igloo tent where a simple computer programme asked them questions. Their responses were filmed and recorded without anyone else
being present.
Outdoor Classroom Development
During summer 2005, artist Gordon MacLellan worked with young people and adults in Hyndburn Park Community Space to develop an outdoor activity area for Hyndburn Park Primary School and members of the local community. The space is now available as an outdoor classroom for activities such as creative writing and performing. At the school, Gordon developed a ‘Resource Book’ with children and teachers to encourage best use of the new space. Through the art of story-telling, the Resource Book leads children through a series of activities which take them on a journey round the outdoor classroom, encouraging the creation of new stories for telling and writing. The journey takes them across the worlds of literacy, science and geography.
The Enchanted Woodland at Arden Hall
This imaginative project, a partnership between Land, the Friends of Arden Hall and Hyndburn Borough Council, aimed to encourage greater use of Arden Hall Park, by involving local schoolchildren and community groups in devising a large-scale, outdoor event inspired by the history and wildlife of the area. During the spring and summer of 2005, environmental artist Gordon MacLellan led the activity, working alongside local community artists Gillian Kelly and Sue Gibson. The first stage was a teacher training day, introducing teachers to the techniques to be used in preparing for the event. The focus then moved to practical workshops, in which the artists worked with community groups and children from four local schools to create new stories about the woodlands, the hills and their inhabitants, working from local folk tales and stories of the people, animals and plants of Lancashire. Together they also designed and created a new world of animals, plants and people. The culmination of all the activity was a magical summer evening in the Park when the new stories were brought to life in a vivid pageant of theatre, music and dance. The woodland was decorated by spectacular ‘enchantment banners’ made in public workshops and over 500 people attended.
Birds of Bowland Lantern Procession
In December 2003, artist Steve Eliot led three days of lantern-making workshops with children at Brabins Primary School, Bowland, in preparation for the ‘Birds of Bowland’ Festival. The children later took part in a celebratory procession through Chipping village with their lanterns, which created a unique opportunity for the rural community to celebrate their environment. A total of 240 children and adults took part.
Bowland Transit Writing Project
Bowland Transit is the name of an integrated transport project serving the Forest of Bowland in the Ribble Valley. To celebrate the first anniversary of the project it hosted a writer-in-residence project for eight months during 2004. Writer Maureen Fenton travelled throughout the area on the Bowland buses, seeing the landscape through the eyes of the other passengers and encouraging them to write about their surroundings and their life in Bowland. Her intention was to “celebrate the natural beauty, the people and the rural heritage of Bowland.”
Brungerley Sculpture Trail Waymarkers
On the Brungerley Sculpture Trail in Clitheroe you can see three waymarkers designed and produced by artist Paul Smith during 2004, working with children from three local schools involved in the Wildlife After Schools Project (WASP). The waymarkers are made of reclaimed stone gateposts, inset with abstract wildlife designs made from mosaic tiles and highlighted with a ceramic tile identifying what each design represents. The posts were installed with the help of WASP staff and volunteers from the Wildlife Trust. They marked the beginning of the Brungerley Sculpture Trail’s refurbishment plan to create an inspiring and educational outdoor attraction within the Ribble Valley.
Plus:
Within Grove and Clitheroe Castle Labyrinth which have their own webpages.
