Project name: elgin winter festival 2011
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- PROJECT PARTNERS: MORAY COUNCIL
- Location
- Date
- PHOTOGRAPHY
- THE WORSHOPS VISUAL ART AND DESIGN LANTERN MAKING
- OUTLINE OF LANTERN MAKING WORKSHOP DEVELOPING VISUAL LEARNING MATERIALS, ACTIVITY, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
- THE EVENT THE ELGIN WINTER FESTIVAL SATURDAY 26
- EVALUATION AND FEEDBACK
- Comments after the procession on Saturday 26 th November
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ELGIN WINTER FESTIVAL 2011 Lantern making workshops and lantern procession to add an exciting visual element to the festival and enhance community participation. ELEMENTAL COMMUNITY ARTS Project Leaders/workshop leaders Celia Forestal Smith Jackie Adkins
Celia Forestal Smith PROJECT PARTNERS: MORAY COUNCIL Nick Fearne – Arts Development Officer Graham Stewart – Sport and Leisure Officer Anne Young – Community Development Officer ELGIN BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT Jacqui Taylor – BID office FUNDING: Elgin BID Challenge Fund LANTERN MAKING WORKSHOPS Location: Moary Art College Gallery, Elgin Date: Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd November 2011 Both days 10.00am – 4.00pm
4.30pm - Collect lanterns from Harrow Inn Close, Elgin 4.50pm - Start procession from Batchen Street into the main city square (the Plainstones) before Christmas Lights Switch On.
Saturday 26th November 2011 PERFORMER: Aliza Graham - Angel (on stilts) carrying a nativity star lantern leading the lantern procession NATIVITY STAR LANTERN: Made by Celia Forestal Smith STEWARDS: Celia Forestal Smith Jackie Adkins Nick Fearne PHOTOGRAPHY: Kate Bewick FILM: Celia Forestal Smith AUDIENCE: Elgin residents, visitors, particularly children/families DOCUMENTATION: Research
Elgin BID Challenge application form Budget
Correspondence about organisation of project Publicity for workshops and event Registers for workshop participants Map of procession route Photographs of workshops by Celia Forestal Smith Photographs of event by Kate Bewick Film of workshops and event by Celia Forestal Smith Press photographs Reflective statement Evaluation and feedback THE PROJECT On Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd November Moray school children had two In service days which meant that they could attend ‘drop in’ sessions of lantern making workshops in the gallery at the Moray School of Art in Elgin. The made lanterns were to be stored in the Elgin BID office until Saturday 26th November when they were collected by the participants and carried in a procession as part of the Winter Festival Christmas Lights Switch On. This project was a follow on from ‘The Fun Galore Store’ summer project Elemental Community Arts delivered, funded by Elgin Business Improvement District (BID) and supported by the Moray Council Arts Development Officer, Nick Fearne. The successful funding application, written by Nick Fearne, was due to the project fulfilling the BID Business plan that was linked to these specific themes as part of the Winter Festival:
“The programme will be run as a contributing element to the Winter Festival on Saturday 26th November. The lanterns, stars and large structure will add an exciting visual element to the Winter Festival and enhance community participation. The young people involved in the workshops would be present on 26th November and will no doubt bring their friends and family.” Part of the Elgin BID Challenge Fund application form written by Nick Fearne. THE WORSHOPS VISUAL ART AND DESIGN LANTERN MAKING On Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd November Jackie Adkins and myself delivered Lantern Making workshops in the gallery of the Moray School of Art in Elgin. It was a light and spacious gallery to work in with four trestle tables. The response was very good with 80 - 100 participants, children and families resident in Elgin. There was a positive and upbeat atmosphere in the workshops with a variety of family members including grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins joining in together, some making their own lantern as well as helping the children. OUTLINE OF LANTERN MAKING WORKSHOP DEVELOPING VISUAL LEARNING MATERIALS, ACTIVITY, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
THE EVENT THE ELGIN WINTER FESTIVAL SATURDAY 26TH NOVEMBER 2011 After arriving in Elgin and meeting with Jacquie Taylor the Elgin BID Winter Festival organizer, we negotiated and decided on the procession route around twenty market stalls, a mini funfair, an enormous spruce tree, a group of wind blown reindeer, a loud performing Rock band and staging. We decided to walk around the St. Giles Church and across the stage area in front of the Christmas spruce just before the lights were due to be switched on. There was a fierce gale force wind blowing which could have been hazardous for small children carrying large lanterns. A number of stalls had blown down during the morning. We (Jackie Adkins and myself) spent the rest of the day until 4.00pm preparing the eighty lanterns for the procession by tying strings to glow sticks, attaching them inside the lanterns with loops at the top for the carrying sticks, made of garden canes with hooks attached to the end.
At 4.00pm Kate Bewick, photographer, and Aliza Graham, performer, arrived. Aliza was in a handmade costume as a Christmas Angel and wearing 3ft. stilts. She carried the large Nativity Star Lantern as a focus for people to follow at the head of the procession. This worked well as we had no band or music to keep people moving as one group or to announce our arrival. (Due to restrictions of the budget.) At 4.30pm the participants arrived to collect their lanterns for the procession. They walked down the road to Batchen Street the gathering point, and on the way they snapped the glow sticks to activate the glow inside the lanterns. (We were not able to use real candles due to health and safety regulations.) Everyone gathered at the end of Batchen Street. There was a crowd of photographers from the local news all jostling for the best picture. We moved off following the Angel on stilts holding the large Nativity Star, LED lights over zealously flashing inside it. The main square was packed with thousands of people. Luckily the wind had died down and the lantern bearers plus their friends and families, which made up a group of about 150, walked the route around St.Giles church, along side market stalls of cheeses, hand-carved wooden crafts and calendars. We made our way across the stage area accompanied by the Moray Concert Brass Band playing Christmas tunes. An announcement was made to congratulate all who had taken part and a big cheer went up giving the participants a huge sense of pride for their achievements. One small child had been lost in the crowds and after a harrowing fifteen minutes of searching we managed to reunite her with her distraught but then relieved and eternally grateful mother. REFLECTIVE STATEMENT This project was well supported by Nick Fearne, Arts Development Officer for the Moray Council, by securing funding. Gina Wall, Head of the BA Fine Art course at the Moray School of Art in Elgin, allowed us to use the gallery space to deliver two days of workshops with one hundred extra people coming and going in the Art College. We also had support from the Elgin BID organiser Jacquie Taylor who let us use their office to store the lanterns until the procession on Saturday 26th November. The response to the workshops and the procession took me by surprise because they were so well attended. During the workshops we almost had to turn a family of five away due to lack of space. The Moray school In-service days were a good time to run all day workshops and were well publicised by Nick Fearne. We had the support of Graham Stewart and Anne Young who kindly transported the eighty lanterns to the Elgin BID office, a more central location from which to start the procession. The Winter Festival event was also very well attended due to the good publicity. We were able to store the lanterns until Saturday 26th, which meant that the participants had to come back to take part as well as to collect their artwork. Involving children and families meant that they automatically tell their friends and other family members to come along to see what they have made and to join in. This draws more people into the city centre to come together to celebrate the festival and to spend money, contributing to the regeneration of the economy, as well as revitalizing and energizing the city centre. This project successfully illustrates that whilst working in partnership with local businesses, creativity was crucial in contributing to building a more dynamic and resilient community in the city of Elgin.
We had a lot of positive feedback from our project partners, co-workers and participants. Comments after the workshops on Tuesday 22nd November: “ We had a good time helping each other. It was very relaxing. It’s what people are interested in doing. There is not much going on for kids to do or any activities where everyone can join in together, unfortunately my thirteen year old son didn’t come with me… There’s a result at the end of it as well because we can join in with the Winter Festival. It will be good fun. We went to it a couple of years ago. You’ve done really well coping with all the people who came along, and clearing up after us! It’s been really good.” Joyce Ralph, a mother who helped her daughter and made a lantern herself.
“Fantastic! Well done. Brilliant!” Mr. Stewart Member of the public: “I thought the lantern parade was lovely.” Celia: “Was it worth all the effort of making a lantern?” M.O.T P: “I think it was definitely worth the effort. I thought all the lanterns looked beautiful especially when they were all glowing.” C: “would you have come out if you hadn’t have made a lantern?” M.O.T.P: “Yes I would have come out, but I especially came because of the lanterns because I knew so many children had made them.” Another member of the public “ it was a really good idea but I felt there needed to be a piper at the front or something, something to lead it, or even a trumpet player or something.” C: ‘We usually do have a band or musicians.” M.O.T.P: “Having music keeps people together…It’s a thousand times better than anything that’s happened here though. This Christmas is the first year something good has happened. Honestly, and all thanks to Jacquie Taylor. It’s one thousand times better than what happened this time last year. Last year it was like an hour or something and that was it. Rubbish Elgin as usual, but this year it was good, yes.” Directory: 2011 2011 -> Enterprise Network Management iPost: Implementing Continuous Risk Monitoring at the Department of State 2011 -> Voices of the Old Sea Norman Lewis 2011 -> Malevil Robert Merle 2011 -> The Elephant Keeper’s Children Peter Hoeg 2011 -> January 1: Ecstasy zZz January 2: King of Anything Sara Bareillis 2011 -> Tracks, Mixes, Masters, and More!: Analyzing Preservation Priorities for Multitrack Recordings 2011 -> Department of Electrical Engineering 2011 Annual Report 2011 -> Jv packet •Mars Colonization Affirmative •Mars Colonization Negative 2011 -> Asian Pacific Mathematical Olympiad(apmo) 2011 -> Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) omb no. 1024-0018 Download 30.45 Kb. Share with your friends:
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