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| a sea of grasshopper sound |
One field of grass,
rustling and bustling with life
National Meadows Day
July 6th 2018
Buxton Museum and Art Gallery is 125 this year and to mark that anniversary, the BM125
project will bring together experienced with new and emerging artists with 12
months of artistic initiatives (we were hoping for a cake but the weight of the candles and their collective fieriness might prove inhibiting: a cake barbecued by its own candles?)
Over
the next few weeks, these new artists will be introduced and the shapes of
their work will unfold
Surrounded by a sea of
grasshopper sound*
Meanwhile,
there is an events programme running through the whole project, again exploring
and celebrating the Museum collection and its relationship to the landscapes
that collection came from. I am coordinating and delivering a lot of the events
work and, as with the artists, the events will be looking for creative elements
that can be recorded in some way and posted online. Impromptu puppet shows are
planned, storytelling and poetry readings will be recorded, the collection,
placing and possibly blowing away of land art photographed….
One field of grass, rustling and
bustling with life
Seeds of the future in a rare
and ancient place*
The
first of these events drew Creeping Toad into a partnership with the DoveValley Centre, South West Peak’s Glorious Grasslands project and Stone and Water’s Summer Excitements events project. National Meadow Day
(Saturday 6th July) found us loitering in the dry but beautiful
meadows of the Upper Dove Valley, revelling in the sweep of grass, sudden
flutters of butterflies and swallows flickering overhead. There were meadow walks
and river dipping, insect drawing and book-building. Meadows are part of our
agricultural heritage as much as any old farm tools or buildings or ancient
farmers. Their use, management, decline and recognition reflect our own
awareness of the importance of our agricultural landscapes. You may find old
scythes and seed drills in a museum, you may even find a toothless ol’
farmhand, but a meadow needs the earth beneath its roots and the weather that
ruffles the grasses. You won’t find a meadow in a museum and they cannot be
collected. They can be protected, grown and valued as places where history,
culture and wildlife coincide. So, we took the museum to the meadows, inviting
visitors to think, reflect and record their thoughts about the importance of
such places both to themselves as individuals and within the landscape.
bony fingers on the ash trees are pointing to a sad future
Memories of childhood
holidays: learning about flowers and butterflies; seeing birds not seen at home
and insects, stonechats and grasshoppers*
A
collective, communal-meadow poem as created during the day and will be posted
shortly. Then there will be a “make your own meadow-book” post. Keep an eye
open for these next posts….
Bumblebees embroider the meadow
Knotting threads with flight paths
Charting by pollen, by nectar, colour-coding
Scent-coding, the maps of their lives*
* samples from words collected during the day
amd many thanks to our spontaneous poets and artists -
more of your work will follow soon!
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| twilight slowly claims the fields |
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