We lost two of our staff members(due to end of contract not walking
out) so the pressure has really been on for myself and piers to manage
the whole circus ( not necessarily the best thing for ones marriage !)
Louisa Fairclough has been our artist this week , she has been making
pinhole cameras and taking many pictures by the light of the full
moon.she has taken some beautiful images and run great workshops.
I have really enjoyed the countryside around hartbury, ashleworth and
highnam. It has a really old feel and the landscape feels worked and
real.
We have had lots of visitors walking with us and news of the outside
world has started to filter through and burst our bubble community .
Cuts, cuts, cuts , is what I hear and it feels that the world has
changed even within the short time we have been on our journey.
I have also heard rumours that this project has caused a certain
amount of discussion "donkeys and art ,what a luxury, over the top "
It makes me feel sad , the value of art , nature , animals and I hope
what we are doing is hard to measure and evaluate in purely monetary
terms but in a world where the future can seem uncertain and bleak
there has to be a place for the arts, a value on a project that
encorages the public to walk in their own landscape and a recognition
of the therapeutic value of what we are trying to achieve. In a
nutshell ( I have said this so many times now !) we are delivering a
public arts project , a continous 8 week journey through the six
districts of the county on foot with four donkeys who carry our kit.
We have a cart with a solar panel so we make our own energy . Our
artists run free public art workshops based on their experiences of
the landscape . We endeveour to leave no trace when we leave our
camspots each morning . we welcome anyone to join us at any time and
walk.
In hard statistical terms we have provided employment for 18 people
over the course of the project , delivered workshops in 8 primary
schools , run 8 public workshops and 6 public camps , walked into
Cirencester Gloucester Cheltenham Tewkesbury with four donkeys and
reminded people of how we used to live and travel and how we could
still if we took some time.
I cannot even begin to quantify the people who have stopped us ,
followed us to find out what we are doing, walked with us, waved at
us, brought us water , carrots, pies , pints , tea , kind words or
stories of their own donkeys and childhoods. This project has no
social boundaries , we have met and walked with people from all
backgrounds and ages.
I understand that we are living in financially difficult times and
that hard decisions have to be made, I don't know how you decide what
to cut or what is worthy nor would I want too..... But ....... Without
sounding pretentious art, animals, landscape , walking are worth
funding and the more of us that do it maybe our emotional well being ,
not to mention our physical well being might be considerably better.
Back to more daily issues
We head off to the forest tomorrow . Our gang is growing , people are
joining us and the word is spreading .
The stars of the show are still the donkeys
All the donkeys have seen a farrier last week and they are all ready
for the last district.
If you see us do slow down , wave , don't beep your horn , even better
get out and walk with us for a bit.
.
T
Sent from my iPhone
Posts
I just passed your merry band about a mile out from the edge of Newent. I was on an orange mountain bike and was momentarily held up by donkeys filling the road - which was a welcome pause that allowed me to read the name of the project on your hi-vis jackets.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say that I was particularly struck by the timeless, nature of this bucolic scene. As a pretty regular cyclist in these parts it's not often that I feel I'm the one moving through the landscape at the wrong pace, but I got that feeling very strongly as I pulled away from you at the brow of the hill, momentarily acquiring a temporary canine escort in my slipstream.
Oddly enough, given the nature of your project, I was returning from taking some landscape photos in the surrounding area. The farmland changes at a terrific rate at this time of year and I'm trying to document this process.
After reading your post above, I was struck by the similarities to the impact on the arts scene during the last Tory government. During some of that time I was involved with community arts projects in South Wales but eventually had to stop through loss of funding. We ran animation workshops for kids in the neediest of valleys, some of whom had never even been to Cardiff! We were constantly finding that because we weren't of the 'traditional' arts fraternity that it was very hard to access funds. In an unpleasant echo of those harsh times, I find it sad that donkeys and art are considered to be frivolous by some, probably the same crowd who couldn't quite understand how animation can be a simple and effective way for kids to express themselves.
I would like to state for the record that I found 'As I Walked Out' enjoyable and extrememly thought provoking and all I did was ride past on a bike :)
So, don't lose heart! As you've already discovered, the general public can relate to what your doing in all manner of deeply personal ways.
Good luck with the rest of the odyssey!