Art for everybody!
From 'Reflections' dance group to the Bowthorpe Arts foundation festivals, I have always enjoyed taking part in and designing community arts projects. Why?
Because so many leave our schools with a few opportunities to explore all that painting, clay, dance, drama and voice have to offer us. Only a few have a chance to explore further or return to ideas and themes that once excited them. Everyone has something to say in this life but not everyone is given the chance to find their own voice.
The glorious variety of arts projects of all sorts that are on offer can help redress the balance and make us all richer. Here are a few that I have been involved with...
The Cley exhibitions, fantastic opportunities for Norfolk artists to respond to a prompt and join in a curated exhibition. This is my small Cley circle constructed to allow the public to play with an arrangement of ceramic 'stones' in a circle. A Clay circle more suitable to Norfolk as we have no stones...
The larger circle had stones based on various Norfolk characteristics.. The cley exhibition has now moved to Wighton church.
Building on the arts already in the community....
This community festival celebrates the activities of both professional artists and craftspeople and amateurs. There are quite a few artists and potters in Bowthorpe and in 2018 we got together to arrange a festival that celebrated the work of every community group and professional artist that wanted to take part. It was hosted by Bowthorpe church who own the largest public space in Bowthorpe together with the Ruins Trust.
Each group made a decorated willow tree to add to our Tree of Life trail and artists went into the local primary school too. It was very successful and the aim was to have one bi-annually but, owing to the pandemic the next one was 2022!
This one featured the Bowthorpe Cloth of Kindness, a tapestry made up of squares embroidered by over 120 people to whom we sent path kits to record their remembrance of kindness at a dark time.
The children made an angel's wing with feathers made by over 600 children....