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Artist Statement: 

‘The Imaginarium of Common Understanding’ (2015)

Long Sutton Common Pit, Lincolnshire

The installation offers a series of sculptures that encourage an engagement with the site, history and geographical context within Long Sutton Common Pit, Lincolnshire. Utilising the idea that an ‘Imaginarium’ is a place devoted to the imagination, or a space of stimulation and cultivation, the artwork includes an interpretation sign, bird boxes and an insect hotel. The artwork is intended to provide an environment that enhances the ecology of the site in general whilst providing a ‘hotel/home’ for lacewing larvae (that feed on pests and aphids), solitary bees (mason bee), pollinators (bees & solitary wasps), hover flies & other hymenoptera (hymenoptera are one of the largest orders of insects, comprising of sawflies, wasps, bees and ants) alongside overwintering ladybirds.

The installation also focuses upon the cartography, geography and history of Long Sutton Common Pit alongside contributing to the development of it’s ecology. Long Sutton is an ‘Edge-land’ historically defined by its relationship to The Wash, the largest estuarine system in the UK

‘The shoreline is sensitive to glacial intervention: during the Anglian glacial period for example (about 300,000 to 250,000 years ago) the entire area was overwhelmed by a vast ice-sheet hundreds of metres in depth. Presently the rate of sea-level rise is expected to increase substantially due to global climate change & the Government has asked flood defence authorities to plan for an average sea-level rise of 6 mm per year to 2030.’ (The Wash - Natural England Profile)

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The project has been commissioned by TRANSPORTED 

http://www.transportedart.com

and funded by an Arts Council England ‘Creative People and Places’ grant

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-funding/funding-programmes/creative-people-and-places-fund/

Co-fabrication: G&T Project Management - 07973 562 581

Sign Manufacture: FASTSIGNS, Peterborough - 01733 315 264

https://www.fastsigns.co.uk/876-peterborough-banners-signs

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On Saturday 11th April 2015 the ‘Imaginarium of Common Understanding’ (2015) officially opened to the public! As an ‘On Your Doorstep’ Transported commission (http://www.transportedart.com/strands/) the project has been developed in consultation with over 350 members of the community in a bid to engage more people in arts activity, improve the sustainability of the site and develop a sense of legacy and ownership. 

Nick Jones, Programme Director, Transported:  ‘we decided to get artists to take their art direct to communities and to the places that they had suggested were in need of attention, spaces ranging from cemeteries to woodland walks, unloved play areas to muddy duck ponds.’ (http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/279/case-study/art-their-doorstep)

The installation responds to a series of specific points raised by residents of Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, including the following:

“Create something refreshing, stimulating, interesting”

“Improve the ecology”

“Make sure the history of the site is not lost”

“Attract more visitors”

“Maintain the privacy of the site”

“Celebrate/illuminate the history of the region”

Tim Machin, chairman of Long Sutton and District Civic Society, said: “The society is delighted to be working with Transported and Robyn Woolston in this project to make the pit an even more enjoyable place to visit. The artwork installation has been inspired by, and chosen, in wide consultation with the community as a whole and we hope that they will enjoy visiting the Common Pit for many years to come.”

Transported is a strategic, community-focused programme which aims to get more people in Boston Borough and South Holland enjoying and participating in arts activities.  It is funded by the Creative People and Places fund from Arts Council England.

The Creative People and Places fund is focusing investment in parts of the country where people’s involvement in the arts is significantly below the national average, with the aim of increasing the likelihood of participation.

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FAMILY FUN FRIDAY - Boston Marketplace

Friday 11th April 2015

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PRESS RELEASE / MARCH 2015:

Visual artist Robyn Woolston has been commissioned by Transported, as part of their On Your Doorstep project, to consult with the community and develop a series of artworks for Long Sutton Common Pit The project, named ‘The Imaginarium of Common Understanding’, has involved Robyn working with the Long Sutton Civic Society, and the rest of the community in Long Sutton, to consult about this exciting and engaging installation. As Robyn explains, “an imaginarium is a place devoted to the imagination, or a space of stimulation and cultivation”.  In November, Robyn began an initial consultation phase with local residents, and since then she has consulted with over 350 people via social media, consultation sessions, workshops and also data collection postcards.

More recently, Robyn held a series of consultation sessions which included an open invitation event at Long Sutton Market House, a workshop at the Long Sutton Youth group and also a session at the Long Sutton market.  This process of community engagement has allowed Robyn to absorb the history, stories and ideas from the residents at Long Sutton, especially their feelings towards the Common Pit and also how the pit is used, including comments such as:

“Create something refreshing, stimulating, interesting” “Improve the ecology” “Make sure the history of the site is not lost” “Attract more visitors” “Maintain the privacy of the site” “To celebrate/illuminate the history of the region” “The current sign looks a bit boring.  You should make it more appealing”

Since then, Robyn has used this feedback and more to inform and develop her ideas, and presented three possible routes which the project could go down. All three encapsulated the voice of the community and allowed for an exciting intervention inspired by and for the Long Sutton Common Pit. 

At last year’s Long Sutton Christmas Fayre, there was the opportunity for the local community to learn more about the developments and ideas for the project, and there was a vote on three of the ideas Robyn had proposed. Following this, Robyn, representatives from Transported and members of the Long Sutton Civic Society came together for an afternoon discussing the ideas, sharing thoughts and agreeing on the next steps going forward. It was an exciting process for all, and the final choice for the project has now been decided.

Tim Machin, Chairman of the Long Sutton & District Civic Society, said: “The Society is delighted to be working with Transported and Robyn Woolston in this project to make the Pit an even more enjoyable place to visit. The artwork installation has been inspired by and chosen in wide consultation with the community as a whole and we hope that they will enjoy visiting the Common Pit for many years to come.”

The theme of the installation will be ‘The Wash’. It will concentrate upon the cartography, geography and the history of Long Sutton Common Pit alongside its surrounding ecosystem. There will be (dependent on planning permissions) a new, relocated interpretation sign at the Pit’s entrance.  Within the pit itself, a series of sculptural interventions which echo maritime signs and symbols will be installed, all representative of Long Sutton being the ‘gateway to the wash’. This will also include a boat shaped insect hotel, bird boxes and platforms, which aim to improve and support the ecosystem there.

Robyn Woolston said: “Transported has provided an incredible opportunity within Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, to develop a project that allows for an embedded conversation with a resolutely site-specific response. The artworks proposed intrinsically link history with geography, community consultation and ecology.”

An opening event is set to take place in April prior to the anniversary of the death of “The Last Wash Guide” Charles Wigglesworth on Monday 13 April. If you would like to know more about these events or the installations planned for Long Sutton Common Pit, please contact Arts Engagement Worker Kristina Taylor via TransportedKristina@litc.org.uk.  

  For more information about the Transported project and to sign up for updates, visit our website at www.transportedart.com, or call the office on 01406 701006.  We are also on Facebook (www.facebook.com/transportedart) and Twitter (@TransportedArt).

For more information, interviews, quotes and photos, please contact:  

Melissa Poulson, Transported Communications & Relationships Manager Email Melissa.Poulson@litc.org.uk Telephone 01406 701013 Mobile 07747 271821

EDITOR’S NOTES

Transported is a strategic, community-focused programme which aims to get more people in Boston Borough and South Holland enjoying and participating in arts activities.

It is overseen by a Management Group, a sub-committee of Leisure in the Community, with artsNK as its lead organisation and is funded as part of the national ‘Creative People and Places’ initiative from Arts Council England through the National Lottery.

This investment will encourage long-term collaborations between local communities and arts organisations, museums, libraries and local authorities with the aim of creating new approaches to develop inspiring, sustainable arts programmes for the community.

As well as engaging people in the arts and with artists, Transported is also supporting ‘place-making’ initiatives, using empty shops for activities, and encouraging people to ‘shop local’ and use their high streets. To this end, Transported is also working with local business groups, traders and commercial companies. www.transportedart.com

Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2010 and 2015, we will invest £1.9 billion of public money from government and an estimated £1.1 billion from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk

The Creative People and Places programme focuses on parts of the country where people’s involvement in the arts is significantly below the national average* and takes a new approach by allowing communities and grass roots organisations to play a leading part in inspiring others to get involved with the arts.

The projects all employ innovative ideas for reaching new audiences. Transported will develop inventive ways of getting people involved in the arts where they live, meet and work, providing inspirational experiences and empowering local people to take the lead in shaping their own arts provision. The programme covers Boston Borough and South Holland in Lincolnshire, bringing together partnerships of community groups, haulage companies, employers and artists to ensure that every village, estate and community has access to high quality arts. http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/our-investment/funding-programmes/creative-people-and-places-fund/

*To help the Arts Council decide which locations were eligible to apply, it took an average of the Department for Culture Media and Sport’s Active People data over two years (2009 and 2010) and focused on the least engaged 20 per cent. Active People is currently the most reliable national data source that measures what we are trying to change. A list of eligible locations (the lowest 20 percent on the list) can be found on the Arts Council website: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/research-and-data/arts-audiences/active-people-survey/

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Fabrication day 12: bamboo canes, insect habitats, typography, wood stain & Spring

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Fabrication day 8: Cartography, mapping, moss & a setting sun.

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Fabrication day 7: Cartographic contours, insect hotel contents and a Roaring Middle (the name of the lightship at the centre of the Wash)

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Fabrication day 6: Roaring fire, blue enamel paint, boat base coats, a Light Ship (mini) insect hotel, plus a contour bird box included in todays sneak peak. 

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Fabrication day 5: Additional coats of stain added to bird boxes. Insect Hotel/Sculpture/Boat sanded back & given a full base-coat in preparation for the waterproof top coats.

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Fabrication day 4: Transported commission 2014 - 2015

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Day 2 in the workshop for the 'Imaginarium of Common Understanding' (2015)

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Fabrication begins!

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An incredible sea beast depicted swimming in The Wash courtesy of Chetham's Library (http://www.chethams.org.uk/treasures/treasures_saxton.html)  

Christopher Saxton, Atlas of the Counties of England and Wales. Sponsored by T. Seckford. Printed in London in 1579.

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A more detailed palette for the 'Imaginarium of Common Understanding' (2015) installation based upon cartographic data covering The Wash and South Lincolnshire. 

Maps courtesy of the Imperial War Museum and a member of Long Sutton and District Civic Society. 

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The foundation stone of my TRANSPORTED commission for Long Sutton and District Civic Society (LSDCS) has been a consultation process that has engaged with over 337 members of the local community to provide what Tim Machin, Chairman LSDCS, has dubbed as the 'the most comprehensive survey of the area completed for the society'. 

And so, I take great pleasure in announcing the result of the consultation process and the site-responsive approach moving forward into the New Year. The final theme for the 'Imaginarium of Common Understanding' (2015) is as follows:

THE WASH:

Long Sutton is an ‘Edgeland’ historically defined by its relationship to The Wash, the largest estuarine system in the UK:

‘The shoreline is sensitive to glacial intervention: during the Anglian glacial period for example (about 300,000 to 250,000 years ago) the entire area was overwhelmed by a vast ice-sheet hundreds of metres in depth. Presently the rate of sea-level rise is expected to increase substantially due to global climate change & the Government has asked flood defence authorities to plan for an average sea-level rise of 6 mm per year to 2030.’ (The Wash - Natural England Profile)

The intervention intends to concentrate upon the cartography, geography and history of Long Sutton Common Pit alongside it's surrounding ecosystem. 

The almalgamated and redesigned interpretation sign (see existing signs above) will utilise cartographic references that show The Wash, it’s sand banks, historical light ship location and tributaries alongside information related to the Last Wash Guide: Charles Wigglesworth, buried in Long Sutton Church cemetery.

Within the pit itself a series sculptural interventions will echo maritime signs and symbols from a full-size, yet halved, boat hull manifesting as an insect hotel to bird boxes and platforms. The insect hotel design in particular places Long Sutton at the apex of a boat with the Wash spreading out below. The insect ‘habitats’ are designed to improve the existing ecology of the site and will be formed out of a series of boxed sections and materials that form the area coloured blue within the first diagram above.

Smaller sculptural interventions will reference the estuarine tide both symbolically and via text, including referencing the ‘Roaring Middle’ and other historical notations. The installation will underline the dynamic nature of ecological and environmental change whilst connecting the viewer to the water they stand beside both literally and historically.

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Final Consultation: 'The Imaginarium of Common Understanding' (2015) - Long Sutton, South Holland, Lincolnshire. 

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In August 2014 I was awarded the opportunity, via Transported & Creative People & Places, to work with the community that looks after this pond. It's been an incredible, deeply layered, process so far that's been nothing short of fascinating. After consulting more than 350 people we are tentatively moving into the production stage...WATCH THIS SPACE! the chosen 'sculptural' route will be released very soon!