7th and 8th – preparing for River meeting and updating people about RIVER project
From: Richard Keating keatree@globalnet.co.uk
Hello all,
its been while since we met as a group and a few people have been asking about the relationship between RIVER and First Friday River Walks Project and I know that there are other things that we’ve lost track of.
So to clarify; RIVER is a long-term shared initiative between us all (Martin are you still wanting to be involved? I know how busy you are with other projects.)
As well as visits to exhibitions and get togethers to share work, we have also discussed ideas for exhibitions and prepared a web presence. Ideas/projects have included (and apologies if I’ve missed any, please add them to the list):
preposition proposition – we have unsuccessfully looked at showing work in Cardiff and Newport (unsuccessful as the galleries in question were no longer available
over water/under water – we have from time to time recorded simultaneously but remotely our various experiences over or under water which Kel has put on the WtL website
Bridge – Chris has put forward an idea about celebrating the return of the ownership of the old Severn bridge to the public sector in 2016(?)
The Bore – Chris has put forward an idea for linking the expectation of the Bore with the expectation before a Rugby match at Kingsholm
Waiting for the Ferry – Suze has further developed her idea previously performed across the river at the old passage between Arlingham and Newnham
Where water once was – Kel and Ffin have started to collaborate over a project looking at where water used to run
Watery Landscapes – Kel and Richard have collaborated with Iain Robertson in writing an academic piece based on Purton
Ffin has collaborated similarly on another academic article
Richard and Lucy have run a project along the Frome with young people
Tom is collecting salt for a ‘real photograph’ project from and about the Severn
Between the Woods and Water – Kel is pulling together an exhibition at The Old Passage
Miniature Museum – Tara and Bart have run a project at Sharpness to collect people’s artefacts and memories about the Severn and are incorporating this approach with the First Friday River Walks Project, with a presence during SITE13 at the Museum in the Park
Sketch books and First Friday River Walk – Lucy’s idea of using hand-made sketch books has been combined with First Friday Walks along the Frome and its tributaries. This project is now the subject of a funding application – see below and two workshops have been organised at the Stroud brewery as part of SITE13
First Friday River Walks Project (working tittle)
The purpose is to use the work made on First Friday River Walks to stimulate community discussion about landscape change in the context of the AONB Management Plan. It includes a number of us and some other regular First Friday Walkers – Ffin, Lucy, Kel, RK, Tara and Bart (when in the country), Chris (if time allows), Fiona Meadley, Arabella Lewis, David Moss and Jilly Cobbe, Running parallel to this is the use of the Miniature Museum. If successful with the funding bid, it will also be incorporated into a local Green Space and Community Action Conference (15th April) and an exhibition at Stroud’s Festival of Nature and Launch of the Walking Festival and I hope to include it in my PhD final show
The work from this project could form a part of a bigger RIVER exhibition
Any other of our projects listed above could look to fund-raise
What next?
First Friday Walks River Project – workshop tomorrow – I’ll also let you all know if we are successful with fund-raising
SITE13 – exhibition and various workshops underway
RIVER – arrange a time to meet and review work/project development – any suggestions which month? June maybe once SITE has happened? Please let me know what you think/want to do next
Very best regards
Richard