 |
||
 |
|
|
Promoting wider community engagement and public access is an important part of the longer term development and sustainability of the Merz Barn project.
These aspects are being developed through various pilot projects exploring different creative partnerships with local community groups and Lakes Parish Council, Ambleside and Langdale valley residents, businesses and farmers. The South Lakes National Park area and the Langdale valley are also major public attractions and a nationally renowned centre for tourists, walkers and recreational visitors, and these too are an important potential new audience for the project.
Community Programmes: getting to know the local community
1. Annual Kurt Schwitters talk at Chapel Stile Village hall
2. KS Herbst-Schulen - annual Kurt Schwitters Autumn Schools
3. Family holiday art events and barbecues at the Merz Barn and Cylinders
4. MERZ FM/Community Radio projects
5. The Shippon Community Gallery project: past exhibitions include Diane Rickerby 'New Roots Project', 'Rare Breed' a Hill Farming exhibition by Ambleside photographer Rob Fraser, 'Constructions and Collages' by artist Islwyn Watkins, and the 'Pathways' exhibition by YAC (Young Artists Cumbria). 
Rare Breed - Hill Farming Community exhibition at the Shippon Gallery by Ambleside
photographer, Rob Fraser
Other partnerships and collaborative links have been developed with local and regional museums, art organizations and cultural groups. These include; the Cumbria Arts Network; Grizedale Arts, the Armitt Library and Museum, Ambleside Public Library, the Lakeland Fiddlers, the Amblesingers and Poetic Justice, a South Lakes poetry collective. Some of these have collaborated with us on previous community projects at the Merz Barn, and at venues in Ambleside. 
Hirst opening Apr 7 - Robin Martakies performs
The Merz Barn project has also developed a good rapport with a number of South Lakes area businesses. It is the policy of the project to invest in local businesses and to use local contactors, materials, foods and hospitality services wherever possible.
The future management and development of the Cylinders Estate woodland, orchards, wild life, wetlands and farm fields has also involved us in consultations and potential partnerships with organisations as diverse as Cumbria Woodlands Trust, the Bill Hogarth Memorial Trust, the NW Coppice Association, Cumbria Damson and Orchard groups, ERDP Fells and Dales, the hill farming community and other wildlife and environmental groups.
KS08: The audience in Chapel Stile village hall for the annual lecture by Professor Esther Leslie
Community and public engagement projects:
1. Annual programme of Autumn Schools and Kurt Schwitters talks each of which has particular focus.
2. The Elterwater Gunpowder works local history project: a longer term documentation of the Elterwater Gunpowder works and the local interaction between rural and industrial craft skills —coppicing, barrel making, swill basket making, charcoal making, etc., and the associated local community, oral, and cultural traditions. 
Map of the Elterwater Gunpowder Works, showing Cylinders estate (the site of the smithy, now the Shippon Gallery, and the gunpowder store, now the Merz Barn)
3. Art Barns II. The project is also interested in using the Merz Barn and Kurt Schwitters artistic and cultural connections as a possible catalyst for development of experimental creative rural economy initiatives in partnership with the local farming and rural community. Art Barns II is a proposed two year project involving long term collaborations between contemporary artists and the hill farming community in South Cumbria.
4. Sustainable rural crafts and design project. Development of a community-led sustainable crafts and design research and marketing programme on site at Cylinders; exploring new design and digital interfaces with traditional craft products and processes.
5. Cultural Mobilities; documenting and engaging migrant and tourism communities in the South Lakes. Kurt Schwitters came to Ambelside and Langdale because he was a displaced person. His story is of relevance to contemporary migrant workers and other temporarily displaced cultural communities. A two year community research project aimed at documenting and imaging the patterns of movement and cultural contributions of marginal and 'invisible' communities including the role of migrant workers in the local rural and hospitality industries, mapping the cultural dynamics created by tourists and visitors and the relationships between artists and the hill farming community in South Cumbria.
Copyright 2011 by LITTORAL. All rights reserved. LITTORAL is a non-profit arts trust which promotes new creative partnerships, critical art practices and cultural strategies in response to issues about social, environmental and economic change. LITTORAL 42, Lodge Mill Lane, Turn Village, Ramsbottom BL0 0RW, UK. Tel/Fax: +44 (0)1706 827 961 e-mail:Ian@littoral.org.uk.