Promoting wider community engagement and public access are also an important part of the longer term development and sustainability of the Merz Barn project.
These are being developed through various pilot projects aimed at exploring different public access, audience development and creative partnerships with local community groups and Lakes Parish, 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 re-known centre for tourists, walkers and recreational visitors, and these too are important potential new public audiences for project which also need accommodating and careful planning.
Community Programmes – getting know the local community
- Annual Kurt Schwitters talk at Chapelstile Village hall
- KS09 Herbst-Schule - annual Kurt Schwitters Autumn Schools
- Family holiday art events and barbecues at the Merz Barn and Cylinders
- MERZ FM/Community Radio projects
- The Shippon Community Gallery project: recent exhibitions include Diane Rickerby ‘New Roots Project’ and ‘Rare Breed’ a Hill Farming exhibition by Ambleside photographer Rob Fraser (link to New Roots Project)
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 whom 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 and partnership with a number of local South Lakes area businesses; in particular, the Langdale Hotel who are also generous local corporate sponsors. 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; e.g. Friends of the Lakeland, RSPB, the National Trust, Bat and Badgers groups, etc.
KS08: The audience in Chapel Stile village hall for the annual lecture by Professor Esther Leslie
Future community and public engagement projects:
1. KS09 – KS11 three more Autumn Schools and annual Kurt Schwitters talks are planned, each of which will have a particular focus and thematic structure… KS09 Leave to Stay: documenting Kurt Schwitters’ work in UK collections and exploring his links and contribution to British Art - Paolozzi to Hirst; KS10 will focus on Schwitters’ sculptures and 3D works, and KS11 - Schwitters and Modern Achitecture. KS12 will coincide with proposed international MERZBAU survey exhibition and publications project.
2. The Frederick Johns Talks, a series of evening talks each year (in memory of Frederica Johns, a senior figure in the local hospitality industry) in partnership with Langdale Hotel Elterwater.
3. The Elterwater Gunpowder works local history project a longer term documentation of the Elterwater Gunpowder works and the local interaction of rural and industrial crafts 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)
4. Art Barns II. The project is also interested in using the Merz Barn and Kurt Schwitters artistic and cultural connections as a possible catalyst and incentive for development of experimental creative rural economy initiatives in partnership with the local farming and rural community. In particular, Art Barns II a proposed two year project involving long term collaborations between contemporary artists and the hill farming community in South Cumbria.
5. 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 crafts products and processes.
6. Cultural Mobilities; documenting and engaging migrant and tourism communities in the South Lakes. Kurt Schwitters cane to Ambelsid ean Langdale because he as a refugee and displaced person. His story also brackets that of contemporary migrant workers and other temporaryilly displaced cultural communities; tourists. A two year community research project aimed at documenting and imaging the patterns of movement and cultural contributions of hitherto marginal and ‘invisible’ cultural communities; i.e. the role of migrant workers in the local rural and hospitality industries, and mapping the cultural dynamics and potential contribution of tourists and visitotors in the between contemporary artists and the hill farming community in South Cumbria.
Spadeadam, UNITED KINGDOM