As part of the overall regeneration programme, the South Ward Neighbourhood Management Partnership has developed a public arts project to complement the development and improvement of some of the open spaces in the area.
The project was undertaken by artist Mike Fletcher after extensive research of the area and its history. Mike named the project 'Revealing the Hidden', and its key objectives is to allow people to discover and celebrate the history, the landscape, and the present day South Ward and leave a rich legacy of public artwork which creates greater 'sense of place'.
The Arts strategy suggests areas where public art can reconnect people with the area within which they live and the following pieces have been commissioned:
For information on any of the pieces you can view the artist’s website or contact Victoria Rooke on 01934 426736.
Selworthy Donkey Crossing
3 steel donkey sculptures are being created by artist SALLY MATTHEWS and will be located on the junction of Selworthy Road and St Ives Road. Historically this site was where the donkeys passed on their way from the beach to their winter pasture. Sally Matthews is an internationally renowned sculptor and most of her work is inspired by animals. Sally has been to Weston to study the donkeys and take photographs of them to help her create her sculpture and has already started work on them. The donkeys should be installed in their final location in April 2010.
Link to Sally’s website www.sallymatthews.co.uk
Potteries Landmark sculptures
Brick artist Rod Harris has been consulting with the community on the Potteries after being commissioned to design two sculptures for the neighbourhood. The Potteries was once the site of the Royal Potteries and the historic excavation of the rhynes across south ward for drainage exposed the high quality clay which was then used at the Royal Pottery. One of the sculptures will be at the entrance to the Potteries, on the corner of Bridge Road and Drove Road and one will be sited on the cycle path at the entrance to Millennium Green park. Planning permission is being sought at present and Rod hopes to be implementing his sculptures in the spring of 2010.
Link to Rod’s Website www.jacksonharris.co.uk
Windwhistle cycle path
David Kemp is an artist and sculptor from Cornwall who mainly uses the things that other people leave behind to create his works. For the South Ward arts project, David has developed a series of lamp posts with fish shaped weather vanes on top, the fish on sticks will be located on the corner of Windwhistle Lane Canberra Road on the Coronation. The idea of fish has emerged because at one time the South Ward landscape was under water. The network of rhynes (drainage ditches) help stop the area flooding today but perhaps one day the land will return to the sea and will become sea bed once again. The fish will then swim above our heads. The piece will remind people of the link to the sea and of future possibilities. David also held a workshop at Broadoak school with pupils and as part of the workshop students participated in making a series of brightly coloured fish vanes to explore fish of their imagination and create mock up 3D proposals of what David’s piece might look like.
The fish will be installed on to lampposts on the 5th March 2010.
Link to David’s website www.davidkemp.uk.com
The Lonsdale crossing
Dominic Clare is a sculptor specialising in wooden art forms. He has been commissioned to produce 2 separate projects for the Windwhistle Art Trail, alongside Sally’s donkeys and David’s fish on sticks. The first project is a series of seeds carved in oak; an alder seed, a Devil’s scabious seed and a meadow sweet. The second project is a series of flying ducks to mark the cycle path crossing Lonsdale Avenue. Dominic carved the alder seed on site and has also held workshops and talks with local school children from Windwhistle School. The pieces are already installed and can be viewed on the Windwhistle Cycle path.
Link to Dominic’s website www.dominicclare.co.uk
St Ives Road
Jason Lane is an artist from Bristol who mainly works in steel and metal. Jason has been commissioned to make a steel sculpture for the windwhistle cycle path on St Ives Road. Jason specialises in making animals from pieces of steel and metal and is working on a design for the area at the moment.
Jason has also designed 4 dog ties for St Andrews Parade out of recycled towbars, specially designed to enable the clasp of the dog’s mouth to hold the dog lead in place. These dog ties will be located outside of the shops on the parade for people to tie up their dogs whilst they are visiting the shops.
For more information, see www.jasonlane.org.uk
Loxton Road mosaic
The long awaited floor mosaics have now be laid at Loxton Road, completing the regeneration of the area by the South Ward Neighbourhood Management Partnership and NS Housing.
The mosaics have been designed by international mosaic artist Gary Drostle and are the most sophisticated mosaics he has done to date. There are no whole tiles at all in the mosaics, and every tile has been individually cut to shape.
The design reflects the local area and includes elements of the rhyne and local wildlife, which Gary created after meeting local people at various events and working with local school children.
There are 3 mosaics, 2 small mosaics and 1 larger central mosaic, which have been laid into the paving outside the parade of shops at Loxton Road. The mosaics complement the bespoke railings, cycle racks and the new benches that have been installed, which allow people to sit and appreciate the mosaics.
Link to Gary’s website www.drostle.com
Spoken Word Project
Peter Cann began his work as part of the Rhynes Art Project in January 2009. Peter is a writer, director and performer whose work spans theatre, opera and radio. He has written and directed for a range of companies including Birmingham Rep, BBC Radio and Channel 4 television.
The South Ward Neighbourhood Management Partnership engaged Peter for the Written Word Project “Rhyming Down The Rhynes” which resulted in an anthology of poems that were created and performed by Peter and the people of South Ward.
Some of this work was captured on a DVD, which was delivered to every household in the Potteries, Bournville, Oldmixon and Coronation areas of Weston-super-Mare in Summer 2009. Artwork for the DVD was created by Elizabeth Price, a student at Weston College.