In addition to the Jurassic Journey and Desert Crossings tours, the spring has seen a wealth of Creative Coast activity.
We have appointed a Project Manager for Coastal Voices. Kate Burrough lives in Honiton, and says
“I’m delighted to be coming on board with Coastal Voices and looking forward to managing the project. It’s a great opportunity to get involved with the Cultural Olympiad, with the Jurassic Coast and of course with the many, many people who will be taking part. Choral singing is such an easy – and fun – way for people from all communities, of all ages and interests to get involved and it’s this mix which promises to make the project a success.”
Kate will be in touch in the next Jurassic Post when she has finalised the project plan and we have appointed a Musical Director. Four new pieces of music are being developed, each attached to a different area along the coast to ensure that every resident who wants to be involved can access a group. We are working with Marc Yeats, Billy Bragg & John K Miles, John Surman, and Sonia Slaney. Performances will be held across 2011 and 2012 at various venues along the coast, including Weymouth for the London 2012 Festival, Marine Edition.
Plans for the Jurassic Coast Earth Festival are developing and you can see some sneak previews of some of the arts which will be commissioned at this year’s Lyme Regis Fossil Festival – April 29th-May 1st. Contact them through their website www.earthfestival2012.org if you are interested to get involved. Maybe you would like to hold an Earth Festival event somewhere along the coast?
The workshops that were held at Walford Mill as part of the Exploratory Laboratory project were fully booked and had good feedback. The Big Picture Group continues to meet monthly, and are currently developing resources for phase 2 of the project which is due to begin in July 2011. We would like to extend our thanks to Birgit Arends at the Natural History Museum who has agreed to be the External Curator. We are also excited that the project will be a case study for an international research project hosted by the Universities of Aberystwyth and Arizona, researching models of best practice for artist/ scientist collaborations. We understand that this is the only project which focuses on earth science, uses amateur scientists and presents the work in a science research location.
Finally, we held the first pilot of the Light on Time project on Poole Quay in March (pictured), which contributes to the work that we have been doing on processions/ carnival over the last three years. We hope that this project will go on next year to involve many more schools and organisations and are supporting Activate as they raise funds and confirm resources for this activity over the coming months.
Daisy Sutcliffe, Jurassic Coast Arts Coordinator
