In 2014, Transported celebrated the local heritage of Boston Borough and South Holland through artistic innovation
A key aspect of the Transported programme is the idea of valuing where we live and celebrating what makes it special and distinctive. Much of this comes from understanding our history, the stories of the people that live here and the story of our communities and villages and even the landscape itself.
Past Inspired Launch Event
The Past Inspired strand started out with its Launch event at the end of February/start of March, which took place at the Guildhall in Boston. Its purpose was to showcase a collection of artworks and a programme of taster performances all inspired by the history and heritage of place. This event proved the potential for quality artwork that can show our stories in a new light and get more people engaged in arts and heritage. (Image: Unseen by All But Me Alone by Catherine Bertola, Electric Egg)
Burntwater
Burntwater: A Creative Fenland Journey was a site-specific bespoke piece of performance inspired by the history and heritage of South Lincolnshire, which took place in August 2014. We approached nationally-acclaimed theatre company Tangled Feet to produce the 2-day durational outdoor theatre piece ‘Burntwater: a Creative Fenland Journey’, which took place at several locations in Spalding including Springfields Festival Gardens & Outlet Shopping, Chain Bridge Forge, Ayscoughfee Hall, Spalding Marketplace and all along the River Welland. This epic project really brought the community together through celebrating the past, with over 2,500 people in attendance over the two days, and involved memory collecting, maypole dancing, stilt-walking, fire juggling, singing, aerial performance and many other exciting and awe-inspiring art forms.
The feedback from the weekend was overwhelmingly positive. The Lincs Free Press report was led by the headline “Transported’s Burntwater event brings town together” and comments on social media included:
“Thank you for an interesting evening of music, dance and fire at the twin bridges, Spalding (2nd aug) – it was fantastic!”
“Thoroughly enjoyed Burntwater last night. Thanks everybody!”
“What a treat #Spalding had tonight! Well done @TransportedArt @tangledfeet you put on a fantastic performance.”
“What a gr8 wknd of theatrical shenanigans in Spalding from @tangledfeet and @TransportedArt #burntwater was blazing!”
“Well done to all of you and it is really nice to see the Arts investing in Spalding!”
(Image: Burntwater by Tangled Feet, Kamal Prashar)
Arts & Heritage Talks
Scattered around these two large-scale events were a number of development talks, which took place as part of our Quality & Innovation Programme. We heard from visual artist Jo Coupe, theatre directors Andy Barrett of Excavate and Nathan Curry of Tangled Feet and curator Kate Stoddart, all of whom helped to illuminate the potential for arts and heritage partnership projects. (Image: Kate Stoddart talk, Electric Egg)
