The ‘Bridge’ arts, engineering and social change project went live in Grantham on Friday 26 April in an event to unveil South Kesteven’s ‘Community Bridge’ at St Wulfram’s Church.
Father Stuart welcomed members of community groups, individuals from the creative community, the South Kesteven Bridge team, representatives from Imagineer Productions and InvestSK to the event, which included a live-art demonstration by international street artist Mohammed Ali.
The Community Bridge was designed and built by artists Nadya Monfrinoli and Louise Jones for the project, led by the South Kesteven Bridge Team and commissioned by Invest SK. It was decorated in a series of community art workshops held in Bourne, Market Deeping and Grantham.
The aim was to introduce the district to Imagineer Productions’ large-scale ‘Bridge’ event, coming to Grantham in September, and bring the community together through the creation of a beautiful structure, symbolic of hope and togetherness. Street artist Mohammed, who is hoping to return to Grantham for a project with St Wulfram’s Church in 2020, added some finishing touches to the bridge.
In a presentation, Imagineer Productions’ Orit Azaz talked about the themes of overcoming obstacles and bridging divides through the spirit of human endeavour and Michael Cross, head of arts at SKDC’s economic growth and regeneration company InvestSK, explained the importance of the project to the district
He said: “Although the final ‘Bridge’ project will be located in Grantham, it was so important that we engaged the wider South Kesteven community to create the prototype version which will act as our promotional tool.
“The events we’ve been holding around the district have allowed us to involve local residents to act as a stimulus for the project concept of bridging communities. It’s been wonderful to see such positive engagement and we now look forward to welcoming the Bridge to Grantham in September.”
The South Kesteven Bridge Team: Simon Hollingworth, Georgina Weller and Claire Carrington, who are responsible for organising a series of community events for ‘Bridge’ in September, showed a film made during the Community Bridge workshops which was followed by observations from Mohammed on the importance of art in the community as a way of celebrating shared experience.
South Kesteven Bridge Producer Simon Hollingworth said: “The SK Bridge Team had a wonderful time in the run up to Easter, running open access bridge-building workshops across South Kesteven. We met some fantastic people and had some fascinating and potentially very exciting conversations.
“The event at St Wulfram’s on Friday, where we revealed the SK Community Bridge, was very special and the Bridge looked stunning. Having Mohammed there to ‘complete’ the bridge with an artistic response to the design was amazing and we think the end results are beautiful – we can’t wait to get the Bridge touring round the district”.
The Community Bridge will be in St Wulfram’s Church until Thursday 16 May. It will then be available for touring around South Kesteven with an invitation to community groups to use it as inspiration for a creative response of some kind, such as a small performance, which could form part of the September event.
‘Bridge’, led by Coventry-based outdoor arts specialists Imagineer Productions, is coming to Grantham between 7 and 15 September and will culminate in a week of community activities and professional performances around a giant bridge structure (20m long and 6m high) in the Market Place.
If you would like to talk to the South Kesteven Bridge Team about the Community Bridge or discuss how to get involved in the September Bridge project, please contact:
Simon Hollingworth – simon@MrHolly.co.uk; 07795416149
Claire Carrington – carrington_claire@yahoo.co.uk; 07835140805
Georgina Weller – georgina_weller@icloud.com; 07584200837
For more information: www.imagineer-productions.co.uk / www.facebook.com/GranthamBridge2019
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.