Taking place at the Wisbech Adventure Playground, the workshop series is for ages 9+ and is led by artist Karin Forman, with playworkers on hand for support. The sessions cover creative activities such as screen-printing, clay work and crochet. The activities are inspired by objects from Wisbech & Fenland Museum, such as ‘witch’ bottles and Viking brooches. The young people taking part will be given exclusive hands-on access to the collection.
The first workshop will take place on Saturday 23 September from 1-4pm and will run for five consecutive Saturdays. The series is in collaboration with The Spinney Adventure Playground and Wisbech & Fenland Museum.
For more information and to book your space, email peggy@cppmarketplace.co.uk or speak to the playworkers at The Spinney Playground
In Summer 2021, Creative People and Places launched a project called 60 Second Stories. A series of mini films from each of the 30 CPP projects. Giving insight into how we co-create with individuals and communities and explore creative activity.
We contributed two videos for the series sharing the Local Voice of community members, artists and performers and what creativity means to them.
Sometimes it’s the small moments that matter, finding a new way to express your thoughts, the act of doing something creative, coming together to share and feeling safe enough to do so. A group of Mildenhall residents met up regularly for Meet Up Mondays cuppa and chat at the Barleycorn Café, brought together by owner Shelby Foord. Together we tried out creative activities including Art Journaling led by artist Marian Savill. We saw the positive effects of art in small moments and we think Susan Feary’s words sum it up nicely.
Film: Colin Stevens, Creative Agent. With thanks to: Susan Feary (speaking), Barleycorn Cafe, Shelby Foord, Marian Savill, Meet Up Mondays, Arts Council, CPP
Space to Create
https://youtu.be/Ld6GyLP50gY
Why does art matter? We asked some of our creative collaborators what they thought. Filmed at St George’s Fayre and Christmas Market in March, Fenland.
Filming of March Market (1st half): David Johnson (Dmj Imagery Ltd) Filming of St Georges Day (2nd half): Rydian Cook and Mariana Vaz
Edited by Creative Agent, Colin Stevens
With thanks to: Marian Savill, Hilary Cox Condron, Dan Donovan, Caitlin Howells, Dan Walsingham & Richard Alan, March Town Council, Fenland District Council, CPP and Arts Council England.
It was a shock. I lost all my arts in education work and income overnight. At first, I pretty much panicked in that I applied for any work, anywhere with a sense of dread that I would end up having to leave behind a creative life I had spent so many years trying to put together. At the same time, suddenly there was a space which I couldn’t negotiate productively. I would have loved to have used the time that opened up before me creatively, but I was too anxious about money. And then I benefitted from an emergency grant from the Arts Council. I was so grateful and promised to use my time well, even as I disinfected everything in sight, even as I limited going out to an early morning gallop with the dog, even as I stressed about my keyworker daughter exposed to the public.
Developing Ideas
Gradually, my heartbeat slowed, and I began to think and write again – in that gloriously beautiful weather in the first year. I sealed off the world and zoomed. It has made me think of hybrid theatre forms and I have discovered the potential for intimacy, as well as theatre’s wider online reach, but still, a year on the yearning for the energy of live performance is very strong.
I count myself lucky. I was commissioned to write a play with funding put in place before the pandemic. It was a stop start experience for the theatre company – even as auditions, and script read throughs were held and rehearsals began, they were postponed, the project settling into a waiting time as theatres closed and new variants emerged and made being together impossible. I think we learnt patience this year.
There are limitations to not being in the same room. Part of my working life is spent in a writers’ room with two other scriptwriters where we develop television and radio drama. It is a crucible where we hammer out a series, it is so much harder to interrupt each other passionately, the creative energy is missing in action. We adapt but it is not evolution.
Belona Greenwood’s book The Flying Shop of Imagination, is full of inspiring ideas to get children writing and inventing.
Final Thoughts
It is a year since I have spent time in a school with real, 3D children. Delivering an arts project to six-year-olds for a day in maverick weather this week was brilliant. A real return. But I cannot forget. We all carry a sorrow for the suffering of then and now. I cannot but believe that as artists we are in a fragile peace, we live in uncertainty and with that there is a challenge. Out of chaos comes creation.
I am an environmental artist based in Norwich, my artistic practice crosses between many disciplines, but my particular focus is on sculpture, drawing and printmaking.
As an extension of this I also create participatory projects which involve working with people, connecting them with nature through artistic activities. Before lockdown, this involved traveling across the country, working with audiences of all ages.
At the start of lockdown, all of the projects I had been working on got cancelled or postponed, within the matter of a few days, this was a scary state to be in as a freelancer!
Then, with more time on my hands, I had a chance to pause and reflect. I decided to use this time as a chance to teach myself some new skills; video recording and editing. I also taught myself how to use a series of digital design packages.
One of the first projects I was able to use these digital skills on was a commission from MarketPlace as part of their ‘Creative Conversations in Isolation’ programme. I created a four-part video series entitled ‘Art and the Fens’ exploring different environment aspects of the Fens and shared ideas for how to make different creative responses.
Activities included making a recording card for documenting a walk, how to make a pocket sketchbook to draw in, a video on anthotype printing using food and spices, and finally a video about using textiles to explore Fenland geology.
It was important to me that the videos felt relaxed and like a conversation between me and the viewer. I also decided I wanted to create a handy guide to each video for people or download or print, hopefully making the project even more accessible.
Working in lockdown has really made me miss connecting with the people, and even though I know the videos can’t replace the joy of being in the same room, they are an important way for people to connect with others in isolation and use creativity for its therapeutic and relaxing benefits.
Since the project, I have been incorporating my newfound video and digital design skills into all of the other projects I am working on. I’ve found that, even though it can take a little while to get the hang of, using videos can be a really helpful way to share your ideas and artwork with others.
As we entered lockdown in March 2020, I watched my personal plans for the year fade away with the loss of workshops, events and my first foray into participating in Cambridge Open Studios. I soon realised though that this was an opportunity to reflect on and develop my practice, and to try new ways of creating and delivering.
Lockdown offered me opportunities to explore delivering via video tutorials when Creative People and Places: MarketPlace offered me the chance to make a series of films on art journaling. I have always used recycled materials in my work and sharing ways to create with limited or no specific art materials was an enjoyable experience albeit on a steep learning curve with the video skills element!
Marian talking about using words in one of her art journaling videos.
Over the summer of 2020, I started to experiment with new techniques, things I’d wanted to try but never found the time for. Some of the many techniques I tried included eco dyeing, making charcoal, natural weaving, anthotypes, and making natural glues and inks. A lot of these techniques have helped me in my ongoing process of greening my arts practice, making it more eco-friendly, and reducing the carbon footprint of my work, materials and processes.
Marian experimenting with beetroot ink.
Marian experimenting with eco dyeing.
Another joy of lockdown was being able to attend online workshops from across the world which would not have been possible in real life. I learned about different artists, watched lectures on art history and created art in lots of different media including drawing, collage, painting, stitching, and paper folding. I have also had more time to collaborate with artists both in the UK and the USA, working on round robin altered books and collage projects.
Part of a collaborative project with a US based artist.
Lockdown has been difficult in a lot of ways, of course, and I knew making art and being creative would help me through it but I never anticipated that it would offer me so much time and space for creative exploration and learning, open new trains of thought for projects and artwork and allow me to extend my understanding of my practice and processes. Covid-19 has changed many things for me and now the world is inching towards a new normal, I find myself grateful for what the last eighteen months has taught me and given me.
This case study is part of our project evaluation for 2019/2020.
We’ve worked with Shelby, owner of the lovely Barleycorn Cafe in Mildenhall on creative projects over the last few years. Before the pandemic, we were running a series of taster sessions with local Meet Up Mondays group and creative practitioners from the region. The group enjoyed the activities and the company, feeling less isolated and more connected.
The Covid-19 pandemic changed everything and we had to stop the live programme. To keep something going, we worked with The Barleycorn and artist Marian Savill during the first lockdown to create a series of ‘make along’ videos about Art Journaling.
Find out the difference this project has made and the challenges of delivering online as we all adjusted to doing more things digitally.
The Barleycorn Cafe in Mildenhall is only three years old, but has become a hub in the community. They decided to start a Meet-up Monday group, hoping to tackle loneliness and isolation by offering a free cuppa and a place to chat and meet people. Working with owner Shelby and a group of regular Meet Up Monday members a taster arts programme was established to reach new audiences, create new art opportunities locally and increase well-being.
Tea and Tasters
A series of taster workshops were delivered with different artists for the group to choose one they would like to work with the longer term.
These workshops included:
creative journalling
singing
printmaking
ceramics
expressive drawing
Pictured:Three photos from the taster workshops. Left: For this workshop, the group were trying singing with singing teacher, Sally Rose.Sally is grinning while sat on a chair with a little guitar. Middle: The group were trying pottery. In this photo, Clare the artist is showing a member of the group how to throw a pot on a potters wheel. Right: The group were trying screenprinting. In the photo the group are sitting and standing around a large long table, with rollers, paint and printing stamps scattered on the table.
The group decided to pursue additional singing sessions alongside holding a longer creative journaling project using a democratic vote.
The plans for additional journaling workshops were curtailed by the pandemic. This resulted in a commission for mixed media artist Marian Savill to produce four online tutorials to journal from home, using resources you would find around the house.
Extending the commission in this way was a means of continuing to maintain the group’s connectivity. As well as to manage further isolation for this vulnerable group and transition activity into digital outputs in a meaningful way.
Pictured:Two photos from the taster workshops. Left: The group were trying pastels. In this photo, a large piece of paper has been covered in drawings in pastel, including images of coffee cups, flowers and words like “sun” and “hope”. Right: The group were trying art journaling. In this photo, a table is covered in magazines and collages.
Art Journaling with Marian Savill
Pictured:The opening image for Marian’s workshop. It reads “Art Journaling with Marian Savill” in collaged letters.
Initially the commission was developed as an experience for the Meet Up Mondays group to continue their journlling activity with Marian, during the first national lockdown through April – May 2020.
Marian was commissioned to make a series of four workshop tutorials and an introductory promo video. The tutorials cover how to make a book, creating backgrounds, adding text and embellishing your journal.
To mirror in-person experiences, the videos were launched weekly, on a Monday at 10am, within a Facebook event on the CPP MarketPlace account and the Barleycorn Facebook page.
Pictured:Two screenshots from Marian Savill’s Art Journalling workshops. In the images Marian experiments on her desk with paint, wax crayons and collaging in colourful handmade books.
This case study is part of our project evaluation for 2019/2020.
Art in the Fens with artist Kaitlin Ferguson was one of the first Creative Conversations in Isolation commissions. With Kaitlin, we trialled new ways to use digital creative activity to encourage connection with the green spaces on our doorsteps.
We’ve worked with Kaitlin before on the Brandon Tales and Trails event so this was an opportunity to respond to the changes we all faced in the pandemic through different creative activity. People were finding connections or reconnecting with nature on their daily walks during lockdown and Kaitlin’s project showed simple art projects and interesting techniques to make a creative response to the Fenland landscape.
Kaitlin was commissioned to deliver four online ‘make along’ tutorials to be shared through IGTV on Instagram and promoted through new environmental partner networks that align with current strategic activity in Fenland.
The videos were shared through our social media channels over four weeks. The launch of the project coincided with ‘Celebrate the Fens‘ Day on 20th June 2020, which was hosted by @FascinatingFens.
Pictured above: Two screenshots of Kaitlin’s video workshops – On the left, drawing plant materials from observation, and on the right using felt to create a textural representation of the soft strata of the Fenland landscape.
