Art-coustics project ask people to crochet ivy leaves for a community artwork and invite people to free creative workshops
The project to improve the acoustics of the Crediton Tea Rooms (run by the Turning Tides Project) has released seven videos and a narrative PATTERN to empower the community to contribute textile ivy leaves for a new art installation. A Youtube playlist pulls all of the videos associated to the project in one place.
Three Crediton social enterprises, The Bookery, the Turning Tides Project, and Significant Seams, are collaborating on a multi-dimensional, multi-sensory, community project.
Over the first two months of ‘Art-coustics’ workshop sessions, participants have done eco printing, stitched bark, sorted fabrics by ideas of the seasons, and made prints using the power of the sun (or at least UV light) whilst sharing a soup lunch. Participants are now actively using the elements they have created to assemble a ‘tree of all seasons’ which will feature swooping canopies of fabrics to represent the boughs of trees across the year. Early in 2025, participants will be making a ‘scream of swifts’ to climb the walls from an existing artwork and fly across the ceiling of the Victorian building. There will be free needle-felting at the Turning Tide Tea Rooms (Monday 6 January 1-3pm) and at the Bookery (Tuesday, 7 January 1-3pm) to engage the community in helping make the birds.
Over the first two months of ‘Art-coustics’ workshop sessions, participants have done eco printing, stitched bark, sorted fabrics by ideas of the seasons, and made prints using the power of the sun (or at least UV light) whilst sharing a soup lunch. Participants are now actively using the elements they have created to assemble a ‘tree of all seasons’ which will feature swooping canopies of fabrics to represent the boughs of trees across the year. Early in 2025, participants will be making a ‘scream of swifts’ to climb the walls from an existing artwork and fly across the ceiling of the Victorian building. There will be free needle-felting at the Turning Tide Tea Rooms (Monday 6 January 1-3pm) and at the Bookery (Tuesday, 7 January 1-3pm) to engage the community in helping make the birds.
Further workshops throughout the month will offer other techniques and ways to support the community installation. Now headlining the Bookery’s Bookshop.org webpage is a list of books and games from the project team. It is an unexpected menagerie of a list, with poetic words, beautiful illustrations, creative games, and explorations of noise and silence, colour and creating, and nature.
The artistic lead, Catherine West of Significant Seams, says, “Katie, one of our volunteers, has developed the plan for the crocheted ivy of the installation and kindly demonstrated it so we could make the instructions more accessible with visual and narrative guidance. Whilst it would take one person ages to make enough leaves to represent ivy twining up the trunk of a tree, the help of the community could make this a fabulous feature in our town. We hope the project will encourage people to give crochet a go. Perfection isn’t a worry here – in nature there are limitless variations to leaves on a single plant. We really look forward to seeing what our community might contribute.”
Abi Innocent, a Senior Manager of the Turning Tides project, and lead for the Tea Rooms, adds, “All are welcome to come along to our free events at The Tea Rooms and the Bookery to get some guidance and help with their leaves. Catherine and I are crochetters, and we are bringing free soup too. Art and creativity in its many forms are powerful in making connecting with others easier and fun. (As so much of our festive habits show, food helps too!) This project is dealing with some of our practical issues – but we are determined to keep fun, connection, and inclusion at the heart of our solutions. This is what our reference to the ‘Social Model of Disability’ is about – if we choose it, we can solve problems in ways that make our community stronger.”
Over the last few years The Turning Tides Project have undertaken extensive work to preserve the heritage of Crediton Station Tea Rooms, whilst also increasing it’s accessibility for customers and employees. The remaining barrier to equal access is about sound: It’s currently a challenging environment for people who are sound sensitive. Art- Coustics is part of a project that will improve the acoustic management of the Tea Rooms, through the creative engagement of the community.
Our aim is to increase people’s awareness of sensory difference and to demonstrate that engagement in the arts is a beautiful and powerful way of removing the barriers that prevent equal access. The project is assisted by a grant organised by the Devon and Cornwall railway Partnership from the Community Rail Development Fund, a joint initiative of the Department of Transport and the Community Rail Network.
