The Connecting the Culm project in the Blackdown Hills has been working with nature and local communities, to help make the River Culm and its catchment better for wildlife and people, and more resilient to flood and drought.
Here’s a film summarising the project and about making a better future for the river. HAP’s really enjoyed being part of the Connecting the Culm team, carrying out their community engagement work.
Here’s a – check out Cat talking about her work at 3 minutes 50 seconds in!
We’ve had a great time working with Burn the Curtain over the last couple of weeks on some community animation workshops at Exeter Food Bank and St Katherine’s Priory. This was part of their Imaginarium project which you can read more about here.
The concept of Victorian Xmas cards was used as a starting point. If you haven’t seen Victorian cards before take a look at some examples here. Christmas cards were invented during the Victorian era and took off in a big way in the 1880s. A demand for novelty led to a whole genre of bizarre and darkly humorous cards. Santa kidnapping naughty children, creepy clowns and dead birds were just some of the popular themes!
With this concept of a quirky, fun-loving and slightly cheeky take on the Christmas card as a starting point, we created characters based on local themes: Exeter Victorian sculptor Harry Hems’ collection of characterful medieval angels, Exeter’s blue boy and St Katherine’s medieval nuns. The workshops were aimed at being light-hearted and fun, so as well as themes suggested by us, participants were encouraged to let their imaginations run wild and create their own characters and storylines to animate.
With animations featuring minecraft characters rescuing an ice-skating snowman, nuns bowled over by giant snowballs and mischievous angles, it was a truly Victorian Xmas card-inspired result! Here are the animations, courtesy of Burn the Curtain:
St Katherine’s Priory nuns dodging snowballsHems angels loose in Victorian Exeter CathedralMinecraft Ice skaters at the CathedralMerry Christmas from the St Katherine’s Priory Community
The Understanding Dunkeswell AbbeyChurch project team would like to welcome you to a community open day on May 7th 1-4pm 2022. Find out more about the unique history of Dunkeswell Abbey Church, one of the hidden treasures of the Blackdowns Hills. Discover the link between Dunkeswell Abbey Church, Canada and a family of skilled Victorian craftswomen! View new archive material from Devon Archives, enjoy tours of the church, and relax with tea and cake.
The Understanding Dunkeswell Abbey Church project, funded by The Pilgrim Trust, is exploring the history, current state and heritage significance of the former church at Dunkeswell Abbey, created by the women of the Simcoe family in the C19th. Find out more here.
HAP are delighted to be working on a project with Dunkeswell Abbey Church Trust, called Understanding Dunkeswell Abbey Church. The project, funded by The Pilgrim Trust, will explore the history, current state and heritage significance of the former church at Dunkeswell Abbey, created by the women of the Simcoe family in the C19th.
As part of the project we are asking people to share their memories of Dunkeswell Abbey Church to help form a new archive. Whether you live in Dunkeswell, Hemyock, Exeter or further afield we’d love to hear your stories and anecdotes of Dunkeswell Abbey Church (Holy Trinity) and to see any photos you might have.
Please get in touch with marie@heritageartspeople.uk with your stories, memories or photos. You can also say hello at our Community Open Day on Saturday 7th May 1-4pm at Dunkeswell Abbey Church. Keep an eye on our blog for more info about the open day and also the community website for Dunkeswell Abbey.
