Get hands on to help create town model to celebrate Queen’s reign
As the countdown begins to Ashbourne Festival this summer, TIM CHALLANS, a member of the organising team, returns to describe some of the highlights we can expect this year. He begins his weekly column with news of a new art project the whole town can get involved in
DO you remember the wonderful Our Game project in 2018? Some 3,000 people made over 5,000 terracotta figures to celebrate Shrovetide football.
Now the Clayrooms and Ashbourne Festival have come up with another idea for the Queens Platinum Jubilee. Called “Our Town”, it is a community arts project that will celebrate the unique place we live in and call home.
The Clayrooms and the festival will be inviting the whole community, young and old, to participate in making around 1,500 ceramic buildings, culminating in a large installation that represents Ashbourne.
It will be exhibited in the Ashbourne Heritage Centre in the town hall and will comprise models of houses, shops and significant buildings.
Building on the great tradition of making sculptures out of clay, the Ashbourne buildings will be made in terracotta, glazed and fired to ensure their durability.
The project will be commemorating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee by picking out special landmarks built during her reign and highlighting them with different coloured lustre glazes. Ashbourne is changing rapidly and this artwork will capture where it is in 2022, as well as where it has come from.
The organisers envisage that the impact of this artwork, together with its community participation, will create interest from local people, visitors and all types of media.
The project will involve schools and, to ensure the whole town is included, it will encourage community groups, families and individuals of all ages and abilities, by holding “drop-in” events in the town and during public events such as Streetfest, the Jubilee celebrations and in empty shop units.
The modelling skill required will be minimal to ensure that everyone can participate, and the buildings are designed to be uniform in shape with room for the makers to personalise them.
The iconic buildings in the heart of the town, such as the town hall and the library, be made to a more detailed specification by creative groups.
The Clayrooms was created by Sarah Heaton and Helen Cammiss and has a shop and workspace in the centre of Ashbourne.
Our Town is supported by Ashbourne Festival, Ashcom, Ashbourne Town Council and funded through the Derbyshire Foundation Jubilee Fund, the National Lottery and the Arts Council of England plus local sponsors.