Inspired by a series of creative consultation events with 130 people from across South East Northumberland, the decision making group (made up of 25 people who stayed connected during the pandemic via a Facebook group) identified the theme of ‘Care for the Environment through art, creativity and cultural activity’ as the subject for the second creative brief, building on the creative writing collaboration between Jacqueline McKeown and creative writer Bob Beagrie.

You can read Jacqueline’s poem ‘At Craster Harbour’ that inspired the brief.   

The panel of decision makers, including Jacqueline, were looking for a proposal that responded imaginatively to the call to care for our environment, looking for ambitious, collaborative approaches that engaged people in South East Northumberland.

The panel appointed arts partnership INSTAR, who produce contemporary art work inspired by the natural world.

An open access programme of seven online creative workshops took place over the summer. 17 people signed up, receiving an impressive pack of art materials and their personal creative journal. The sessions included creative techniques like pen and ink drawing, watercolour, collage and charcoal, inspired by habitats, species and environments including strandlines, woodland, oceans and meadows.

At the end of the seven week process we hosted an online celebration event and group members shared hundreds of images and artworks from their personal journals, creating eight digital ‘zines that showcase everyone’s creative work.

“Just spent a lovely afternoon in a park sketching trees. There was live music, so I had a different soundscape to what I was expecting! I was drawing my tree, and I noticed that the textures I was drawing were changing with the instruments – when there was a bass part, I was making broken, angular marks, and with the trumpet there were swirls and curls.”

During autumn/winter 2021/22, INSTAR delivered a series of in person and online workshops for a group of 15 people and with two bespoke partner groups – Northumberland Recovery Partnership and Escape Family Support. The sessions included inspirational ‘field trips’ to different habitats and environments in South East Northumberland.

Through the sessions, the groups created amazing artworks that form the design of a collection of unique embroidered clothing patches, which have been finalised with the artists and are currently in production. A series of six digital zine’s have been published by INSTAR documenting the creative journey of the participants during this phase of the project.

What next?

Once the textile patches have been produced, they will be sewn onto items of clothing that have a special significance to the participants.

In the spring, the participants will be photographed in the locations across South East Northumberland that have inspired their patches.

In summer 2022 there will be an exhibition of the clothing patches, the location photography and displays of the artworks created, alongside a series of workshop activities.