In 2014, Transported’s ‘Creative Consultation’ strand focused on organising artist-led events with local people to shape future arts activities in Boston Borough and South Holland
It offered a variety of different opportunities to smaller communities across both areas, specifically working with fourteen different locations that were not reached during Phase I Transported consultation; Wrangle, Bicker, Swineshead and Fishtoft from Boston Borough and Sutton St James, Holbeach St John, Moulton Chapel, Moulton Seas End, Moulton, Pinchbeck, Whaplode, Cowbit, Gosberton and Quadring from South Holland. The consultation strand covered a variety of different art forms, from wire sculpting and sketching, to audio recording and literature. Six projects were delivered, allowing community members to be involved in a project as a one of session or to be part of a much longer project lasting anything up to eight months.
The Light Ships
The Light Ships project ran over eight months and involved all fourteen villages. It was delivered by artist François Matarasso and explored the art of Lincolnshire Fenland churches. The project concluded with three, two day celebration events held at Whaplode, Wrangle and Gosberton where art was displayed, as well as archive films being played, and the launch of ‘The Light Ships’ book. Throughout the project François spent time talking to the local church communities, exploring the architecture of the building as well as the many different forms of art that exist within the church, from needlework and stained-glass, to singing and bell ringing. Over the long period of time that François spent with the communities he was able to build relationships and encourage more people to get involved. Working with the same community over a longer period of time was a real positive in terms of relationship building and project development. It allowed more information to be collected and explored in more depth allowing for a more accurate explanation and conclusion to the project. Throughout the project stronger relationships were built and the time spent with the communities allowed them to feel more valued and thrust a true sense of pride in their churches. (Image: Electric Egg)
Outside Broadcast
The Outside Broadcast project was delivered by artist Rebecca Lee and ran across six of the fourteen villages, capturing audio clips, varying from everyday sounds and community events, to local history spoken by village residents. The project concluded with audio village documents being broadcast on local radio station Tulip Radio, a station that is also broadcast in many local factories. This project offered one to one as well as group engagement and reached beyond the villages with its broadcast. It has created a lasting piece of work that represents the villages and has captured vital historic moments that are now potentially going to be a lasting legacy within the Lincolnshire archives. (Image: David Severn)
The Village Postcard Project & Bus Fayre
The Village Postcard Project and Bus Fayre, although separate projects, were both run by artist Jo Wheeler in conjunction with each other. The Village Postcard Project used local knowledge and history to capture images that represent and have a special meaning to the communities in question. From this information a set of six village postcards were developed for each of the four locations this project reached. The Bus Fayre project used these postcard images and displayed them in A0 frames inside the village bus shelters. Jo Wheeler then worked with artist Manya Benenson to turn the run-down bus shelters into artistically and aesthetically pleasing creative spaces by dressing them. They installed shelving, images and objects that represented the village and its history as well as serving cream tea in a one day pop-up event in each of the villages. This not only showed the potential for bringing the arts to unloved spaces but also allowed the unengaged to stumble across the installation during their daily commute. (Image: Electric Egg)
Sketchcrawl
Sketchcrawl came out of initial feedback during the consultation phase that people wanted to do more drawing. Neil Baker from Electric Egg ran “on location” sketch events in the summer of 2014 – in Boston, Whaplode, Sutton St James, Gosberton, Fishtoft and Spalding – and gathered quite a following! Have a look at the Sketchcrawl website to see the fantastic drawings and sketches that were created. (Image: Electric Egg)
Wired for Creativity
Faceless Arts ran several wire sculpting workshops in Wrangle and Gosberton in summer 2014 which were so popular we invited them back to run similar workshops at the Boston Stump in the run up to Light Waves in December 2014. The sculptures were displayed as collections at Wrangle Show and in Gosberton Church respectively.
Creative Consultation Commissions – External Websites
