Be Inspired Finale

In September, KWoA was invited to Preston to enjoy the Guild celebrations to showcase one our interactive Landmark installations and share our Landmark stories with others who have been part of the NorthWest Cultural Olympiad at the Be Inspired Finale. 

This blog helps to explain about KWoA Landmark project activities from April and May 2012. The next instalment of from June and July will follow very shortly.......

landmark landart unveiled

The Landmark LandArt has been printed, ready to share with the community.. first stop is to show the cool dude artists at Kendal College.

Here's some of their striking images created through collaboration with KWoA and Chestnut Events and inspired by working in the landscape.

 

Their striking images will to be displayed amongst the crowds as the Torch Relay passes Kendal College in Kendal on June 22nd.

grasmere - time for everyone

It was a real treat to work with all the lovely children at Grasmere Primary School. Everyone was so excited about making our giant 'raindrops' to showcase the community's comments at the Torch Relay celebrations in the park.

shap - following footsteps

At the Mother's Union in Shap we were given a very friendly welcome at the Memorial which is proving to be a really useful project base as it is a well used community hub.

The Mother's Union members were very interested to see the photographs that had been printed following the Age UK Walking for Health Group's recent walk around Shap. This inspired many interesting discussions about favourite walks around Shap..we seemed to have wandered into creative writing as we listened to each other's descriptions of their walks through their favourite landscapes. 

We were also really pleased when Mother's Union members rose to the challenge of being invited into Shap Primary School next week to be 'interviewed' by the children as part of their action packed Landmark Week in school.

grasmere - 'in a bowl of mountains'

In Grasmere we are extremely lucky to be working with the fabulous staff and children at Grasmere Primary School. We have been liaising with head teacher Jo as Grasmere prepares to celebrate the Torch Relay coming to the village in June. The Torch Relay with run through the park by the Village Hall where the children will treat everyone to a concert. KWoA will be providing a striking backdrop to the event by decorating the trees set in this stunning landscape with 'raindrops' featuring community comments about the local landscape. The comments collected in Grasmere will feature a wide range of responses to "What's special about Grasmere?'

To help the KWoA team collect responses from the community, we based ourselves at the Grasmere Village Hall on a dry sunny day and we were soon busy chatted to the many people of all ages interested in the project. 

milnthorpe - preparations and plans

As part of the Landmark community project, KWoA is working with communities in Grasmere, Ambleside, Kendal and Milnthorpe as they prepare to celebrate the Torch Relay travelling through the South Lakes.

In Milnthorpe we've met members of the local community who are really enthusiastic about working together to welcome the Torch Relay in June. From Jan from the Parish Council to Dallam Secondary School teaching and management staff and the head teacher at Milnthorpe Primary School, everyone is keen to collaborate to ensure that their community members, young people and children engage with the celebrations.

shap - places from the past

KWoA was invited to meet Age UK Day Service clients at Wasdale Housing in Shap as the group was interested in opportunities for these older people to contribute to the Landmark project. Through discussion over maps and cups of tea about memories of the local landscape, the group were able to share inspiring tales from local places from the past. The most fascinating were the many memories of living and visiting Mardale when it was a living, working community before the valley was flooded in 1936 to form Haweswater. Through these conversations we had a tangible link back to the history of the landscape in the first part of the 20th century. 

Their contributions are extremely valuable, first hand witness accounts of historical events which are highly relevant to the local community. This group includes the Landmark project's oldest participant who is 104 years old.

ambleside - making connections

The KWoA team returned to the Kelswick Centre in Ambleside to meet the second group of Age UK South Lakeland Day Services clients. It was a chance for artists and older residents to enjoy each other's company. Each artist spent time with one person aiming to encourage engagement through gentle conversations about favourite local places and favourite interests. It was a very intense yet rewarding session for all the artists, with opportunities to make connections especially linked to areas of creativity. 

For example, one lady who had sculpted in the past showed great focus as we manipulated soft modelling material into a surreal landscape. 

In another partnership between an artist and older gentleman, a wealth of valuable art history knowledge was unlocked through practical painting and discussion activities.

shap - off for a walk

Back in Shap, the Age UK Walking for Health Group have been preparing for their next walk but this time, its a walk with a difference. KWoA has invited the group. as part of the Landmark project, to share their walk with their local community. So this week's walk is around Shap, taking in the local landmarks and landscapes identified by the group that they feel might interest a community audience. They have also taken a KWoA disposable camera to record their journey around the Shap landscape. We can't wait to see and share the photographs once they've been printed.

The walk started at Shap Memorial Hall.

ambleside- valuing older adults

MAY 2012

We are very keen to value the contribution of older adults in the communities that we are working with. Everyone is invited to be involved and we try hard to make all project activities accessible for all.

At Ambleside through collaboration with Age UK South Lakeland, we've been invited to work with older clients at the Day Services provision based at the Kelswick Centre.

At the first session, KWoA artists visited a Day Services group and over cups of tea got chatting about everyone's favourite local landmarks. Soon discussions had developed about the clients' memories of favourite local walks through the beautiful Ambleside countryside. Inspired by these conversations, the artists drew up plans to visit these highlighted landmarks and rewalk those favourite walks.

We've got our marching orders!

shap - starting from scratch

Kendal Windows on Art have worked with many Cumbrian communities since it began in 1997 however we'd never worked with the Shap community. 

Shap is on the edge of the Lake District National Park surrounded by stunning scenery including the very impressive, highly inspiring Wet Sleddale. Shap just had to be part of a KWoA project about appreciating local landscapes. But how do you start a community project from scratch?

kendal - landmark landart

A week later the students returned to the Appleby Road Community Gardens. This week was still cold but rainy too, so our community garden hosts, Chestnut Event's Jan and Chris came to the rescue with waterproofs, boots and a fire to keep us warm and dry with Jan's gazebo provided shelter.

The students then set to work developing further land art ideas.

Back at college they will be creating digital artworks developed from their sculpture workshops. Their striking images will to be displayed amongst the crowds as the Torch Relay passes Kendal College in Kendal on June 22nd.

kendal - land art starts our count down

The KWoA Landmark team is also working with communities as they prepare to welcome the Torch Relay in Kendal, Milnthorpe, Ambleside and Grasmere, providing creative opportunities to share Landmark artwork with wider community audiences.

We start our count down to the Torch Relay in Kendal.

One of the first groups to work with KWoA were Art and Design students at Kendal College who came to outdoor workshops at the Appleby Road Community garden at Queen Katherine School, organised through collaboration with local charity Chestnut Events.

The college has a wide catchment area, with students travelling from and through stunning Cumbrian landscapes to study in Kendal. Inspired by these local outdoor environments, the students created striking temporary sculptures using a range of natural resources found onsite.

Thanks to Jan from the Chestnut Events charity who in addition to helping to arrange the workshops, brought everyone hot chocolate to warm us up on a cold day!

inspire mark award

APRIL 2012

More great news - the project has been awarded an Inspire Mark! 

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games has recognized the KWoA Landmark project as part of the London 2012 Inspire Programme which recognizes exceptional and innovative projects inspired by the 2012 Games. Our Inspire Mark has been awarded for our work with young people and volunteers.

KWoA was also really pleased to hear that the project is being featured as part of the NorthWest Cultural Olympiad.

time to begin

MARCH 2012

It's the very end of March when the KWoA team gets the news that we can put our creative plans into action..we're ready to start our 'Landmark' journey!

The KWoA Landmark community art project is inviting individual and group responses to local landscapes, with artists working with communities at Grasmere, Ambleside, Windermere, Kendal, Milnthorpe, Selside and Shap.

Activities run by arts charity Kendal Windows on Art, are helping to raise awareness of Lake District landscapes, traveling from Kendal through the scenic tourist route up to Thirlmere near Keswick and the busy work route to join the M6 at Shap. Both routes pass through breathtaking Lake District scenery and living amongst these Lakeland landmarks are several rural communities. KWoA are inviting children, their families and their older neighbours in each community to consider, identify and share their own personal outdoor ‘landmark’.

Using a range of contemporary digital art techniques, mark making, creative writing, sound recording and traditional construction skills, the KWoA team of artists and community facilitators will be encouraging participants to record their landmark. Having discovered what captivated the participants’ interest in their landmark, KWoA will share our creative journeys with wider audiences through local media, this KWoA project blog and Torch Relay showcasing opportunities. KWoA is also planning a range of visually dynamic local exhibitions at venues within the rural communities involved leading to the collaborative ‘Landmark’ exhibition at Kendal Library in October.

The KWoA Landmark project is funded by


Lake District National Park Sustainability Fund
South Lakeland District Council
Holehird Trust/Cumbria Community Foundation
Kendal Town Council.