Last week saw the installation, as part of the Wirral Waters development of the docklands in Birkenhead, of a project which has engaged with over 300 community members over the last 1.5 years.
It takes inspiration from the River Mersey, it’s geological formation, the historical import and export of goods, the dockers and manufacturing history alongside the future regeneration of the Birkenhead docks.
Our project partners have been drawn from a wide demographic of collaborators including:
PEEL
Wirral Waters
Wirral Methodist Housing
Wirral Mind
YMCA
Pop-up workshop attendees
Summer school workshops
The Spider Project
The Friends of the Williamson Art Gallery
Wirral Museums (renamed in November 2016 as the Williamson and Priory Friends)
The Williamson Art Gallery
Residents of Lee Court supported living, Holyoke
Arts Council England
The panels are situated adjacent to a plot which will house a new nursing college for the region and within an area that will soon be landscaped with lighting, seating and planting.
Note:
Photo three (above) shows Fred Biddulph, a former sign-writer who learnt his trade on the dockside, and who contributed to the lettering on the panels. Standing opposite him is Julie Davies - Team Leader for Wirral Independent Living and Learning (Panel 6 - Lee Court)
Happy New Year! We’re busy working towards our Spring opening (dates announced shortly) but for now here’s an up-to-date installation shot for the ‘…and the River flows on’ project in Birkenhead.
Working in pop-up spaces, and at the Williamson Art Gallery, the project is a collaboration between Wirral Methodist Housing and Wirral Mind, the Spider Project and residents of Lee Court and Fellowship House alongside the YMCA. Taking its inspiration from the River Mersey, it’s geological formation, the historical import and export of goods alongside the future regeneration of the Birkenhead docks, community workshops will culminate in the siting of 6 community art panels displayed within Fine Art metal frames to form 3 sculptural interventions within the landscape.
Williamson Museum and Art Gallery, Merseyside, CH43 4UE
Nov - Dec 2018
Heritage Lottery Funded
The title of the installation takes its inspiration from the fifth line of the Wilfred Owen poem: Dulce et Decorum Est
…a poem which provides a deeply evocative description of men exhausted by battle but continuing on. It’s a journey-narrative saturated by time-and-toil, regimental history and personal loss during the Great War. This sense of movement is conveyed in parallel by the installation itself as a series of historical objects, personal photographs and artworks created by the local community transport the visitor through an immersive and evocative environment peppered with lines taken from the poetry of Owen alongside a life-size trench.
Serving & former soldiers contributed to a workshop programme alongside members of The Spider Project, a creative arts and well-being recovery community programme.
The British Motor Museum, Gaydon, and Lillington Youth Centre exhibition unveling.
‘Make your Marque’ is a workshop programme designed by Artist Robyn Woolston to engage young people from Lillington Youth Centre with the ACE funded 'Motoring Treasures: The History of the British Motor Car in 50 objects’
‘The end result is superb, how wonderful that all the young people now own their own sketch books too - really inspired by your workshops!’
Adela Thomas - Audience Development and Community Engagement Officer
The group explored direct observation, drawing, interacting with an archive collection, mark-making, 3-D design and print making techniques which culminated in the creation of a temporary sculptural installation at the Museum.
Lead Artist: Decorating and filling insect hotels and bug boxes in a drop-in, town-centre, workshop alongside bookable gallery sessions:
“Inside Outside is about merging the beauty of nature and our surroundings with art. Creative expression is a very freeing and wonderful pastime to develop and explore.”
Corinne Whitham, a trustee of Williamson & Priory Friends
The gallery works will be included in an exhibition later in the year at the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum:
I’m midway through the research stage of my residency at Fort George, a large 18th-century fortress near Ardersier, to the north-east of Inverness, Scotland. Working out of the Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection), the museum covers three floors of Fort George’s former Lieutenant Governors’ House.
Project Aims:
To respond creatively to the World War 1 displays and archives at The Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection).
To engage with local children and communities
To produce a finished artwork/exhibition to be exhibited at The Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection) for 6 months (October 2017 - March 2018)
So far I’ve been working here for three months and completed 5 primary school workshops which have resulted in a wall-based battlefield mural, a series of imaginary medals, a collection of Trench Poetry and a series of letters home to loved ones.
‘We are absolutely delighted to welcome artist Robyn Woolston to The Highlanders’ Museum as our Artist in Residence and are excited about the work she has already been doing. The project will help bring our First World War archive to life featuring some of the interesting stories and characters which exist in the original letters, diaries and photographs kept by Highland soldiers during the conflict.’
Gill Bird / Education and Outreach Officer
From personal, hand-drawn, love letters to military orders, each visit provides a proliferation of compelling avenues for investigation.
It’s a time of immersion and editing, of reflection and navigation through a collection that houses thousands of objects, photographs, paintings, uniforms and reference texts.
‘God bless my DEAR DADDY at the WAR and keep him safe. With little Duncan’s love.’ / SGT DAVID J MCRAE 240180
‘Take this for your mascot’ / SGT DAVID J MCRAE 240180
It’s also a time of contemplation in terms of the ‘axis’ that embodies ‘where’ creative response meets military rigour. Of considering how suitability and juxtaposition may highlight-and-handle harrowing conflict-based narratives. I’m conceiving of plans which will both comment and illuminate with the intention of partially pushing aside many of the traditional conventions, or norms, in terms of museum display. Questions arise as to ways in which one can effectively honour tradition whilst reigniting/reframing perceptions.
S U M M E R H A S B E E N
T U R N E D T O
W I N T E R B Y T H E
G U N S
(A label found below a photograph housed deep within a section of the photographic archive not open to the general public)
Image 1: Beaumont Hamel - Battle of the Somme. This image was provided by Dave Chapman, Research and Volunteer Coordinator at the museum in response to our battlefield mural below it. He took this photograph on a battlefield tour and went on the tell me that the tree was used by both sides as a reference point for target indications during WW1.
Image 2: Battlefield mural created by Ardesier Primary School children as part of my Artist Residency
I’ve been exploring WW1 medals, honours and awards with a group of local primary school children. We’ve taken inspiration from medals found within the collection at the Highlanders Museum, Inverness.
The workshop also considered shape, design, context & colour when creating our imaginary awards.
I’ve been exploring WW1 medals, honours and awards with a group of local primary school children. We’ve taken inspiration from medals found within the collection at the Highlanders Museum, Inverness.
The workshop also considered shape, design, context & colour when creating our imaginary awards.
The “Soon To Be Famous” Illinois Author Project—which has awarded the best self-published book in Illinois for five years—has announced a new contest to find the best, unpublished manuscript in Illinois. The statewide self-published contest was the first of its kind, and the Illinois Author Project is now once again leading the way with this new contest.
Open to any unpublished manuscript from an Illinois resident, the winner will receive professional line editing and professional cover art design services, valued at $10,000.
Submissions open in October 2018, with the winner being announced in April 2019.
Know a writer or writers groups in Illinois? Be sure to check out the Soon To Be Famous website for updates come October. This is a great opportunity for a local writer to have a professional-level manuscript to pitch to publishers or self-publish through a program like SELF-e.
Submissions for both the new manuscript contest and the existing “Soon To Be Famous” self-published contest are made possible by BiblioBoard. Libraries can learn more about Custom Submission Pages and library-driven contests by visiting the BiblioBoard website or contacting [email protected].
