ALSF Art projects
ALSF Art projects
In Our Element has been working in collaboration with the Cotswold Water Park Society team to bring artists of all kinds to the “Reedbeds, Access and Community Involvement” Aggregates Sustainability Levy Fund programme.
Artists were selected from an open competition organised in the autumn 2007 from which ten commissions were offered.
Reed Hide
The major commission for the ASLF programme is an artist designed bird hide. “Reed Hide” is an octagonal structure of wood, rammed earth, and woven hazel, incorporating bat boxes in the extraordinary roof, and decorated internally with murals of the water birds that can be found locally. The Hide sits amongst the newly planted reedbeds at Cleveland Lakes. It has been designed by Stroud based artist Helen Shackleton and is being constructed in collaboration with engineer Lloyd Turner.
As part of the community involvement programme a group of Year 4 children from Ann Edwards Primary School, South Cerney helped to create the rammed earth (mud) walls for the new hide. Another group of Year 3 children from St Sampson’s School, Cricklade worked in collaboration with Cirencester poet Marcus Moore to inspire the interpretation on the approach to the hide with a specially commissioned poem celebrating nature.
Four formal sculptures have been commissioned:
Biodome
Community based Willow Sculpture for Lakeside designed and led by community artist John Charles Kimberley. The community involvement includes Young Offenders (disaffected young people) from South Cerney as well as a group of young people from Gloucester on the “Connexions” activity programme, and a drop in event for villagers of South Cerney over the Easter weekend.
Bitterns
Gateway sculpture by Wiltshire based artist Julieann Worrall Hood marking the access to Route 45. The image of the bittern has been developed by Steve Roberts (see Interpretation) as the logo for the waymarking of the route.
Song Pole
An ode to absence – a temporary artwork addressing biodiversity issues by artist group Liminal and poet Larry Lynch (Route 45)
Big Willow
Woven willow nest form (temporary) by artist Laura Ellen Bacon on Sustrans National Cycle Route 45. Laura Ellen will be leading a willow workshop at the Stroud International Textile Festival in May.
Other commissions
Quarry Creations
A new interactive website created by 9 year old children from the nearby school of Ashton Keynes, has been commissioned from and guided by James Ecendance, graphic designer from i2in, a Cheltenham based company. This website, Quarry Creations, explores the impact and benefits of the quarrying industries in relation to local communities and their landscape through a special game.
Interpretation
Stroud based artists group “Walking the Land and the Design Co-op” have been commissioned to develop a series of innovative interpretation signs for the project. These, developed in the main by group member Steve Roberts, will form the framework and context for an exciting research project to be developed in collaboration with Knowledge West and the Universities of Gloucestershire and Bath to investigate the potential for digital interpretative strategies throughout the Water Park.
Picnic benches
Stroud based artists/craftspeople Malcolm Martin and Gaynor Dowling have been commissioned to design a prototype bespoke bench with support from and manufacture by Aggregate Industries. The bench celebrates the qualities and versatility of the aggregates industry in the Water Park.
