Category: Lift the Lid – The Ventnor Giant – Ventnor

Lift the Lid - Back & Forth - East Cowes, Lift the Lid - The Great Light & Dark Show - Totland, Lift the Lid - The Ventnor Giant - Ventnor, Lift the Lid - We that Breathe - Newport, Lift the Lid Project

LtL Artists Notebooks

Sarah Girling

Take a look inside the Artists’ Digital Notebooks and Lift the Lid on Island Culture

Whilst many people are still in lockdown and children off school, now is the perfect time to ‘take a look inside’ the fabulous Lift the Lid Digital Notebooks

From the comfort of your home you can explore not only pieces created by the artists around the four corners of the Isle of Wight, but also an explosion of creativity from Islanders in response to the commissioned artists.

The Artists’ Digital Notebooks are the lasting legacy of the successful Lift the Lid on Island Culture project. They showcase artworks, films, storytelling, poetry and more, including pieces that can’t be seen elsewhere.

The project worked closely with the commissioned artists* to create their individual Digital Notebooks. Each was styled by the artists, who also curated what was in them, telling the story of their own projects and sharing the fantastic outcomes.

Take a look inside 

Many Islanders who took part in the project through schools, community groups or organisations will get the chance to see if they can spot themselves in any of the photos or films.

If you head over to the Lift the Lid Digital Notebooks you can listen to children from primary schools tell the stories they created – with the help of Isle of Wight storyteller, Sue Bailey – in response to Phlegm’s glorious Ventnor Giant. 

The much-loved three-storey mural can be seen at the entrance to Ventnor’s town centre and has sparked the imagination of all ages. You can also discover the photos of paintings and clay sculptures created by young Islanders inspired by Phelgm’s work.

Dmitri Galitzine’s documentary work explored the relationship between the people of East Cowes and the ferry company. Titled Back and Forth, Dmitri’s documentary triggered some incredible responses from young Islanders when they worked with Isle of Wight Artists Ian Whitmore and Chris Jenkins exploring heritage, culture and the theme of ‘The Future’. As well as Dmitiri’s full length film, you can watch never-seen before outtakes and flick through his great observational photos from his time spent in East Cowes.

Light and Dark is the title of Julie Myers’ project. With a sharp focus on collaboration with local communities, Julie delved into the West Wight community, working with eight different groups and organisations, as well as with primary school children and local artists. Check out the fun that was had making enlargergrams, light paintings and photograms, and listen to original music created by the young people. Julie ended her project with a film charting her artistic process and the public event.

BearFace Theatre CIC were the fourth commission and worked in Newport with a school, a women’s centre and the Hospice. Using playful theatrical tasks, puppetry, art, poetry and music, We That Breathe found common threads of interest from which inspiring stories were created. Read the poem that was created by the vibrant group at Mountbatten and flick through photos of the workshops and performances.

What is Lift the Lid on Island Culture?

With the ambition to reignite a sense of pride and passion in our cultural heritage, this two-year Arts Council-funded project focused on four new public art commissions on the Island.

The project was led by the Isle of Wight Cultural Education Partnership and involved schools, artists, community groups, arts and heritage organisations, with local community workshops and school sessions.

Positive impact on Island communities

Jacqui Cusack, Arts Manager at Quay Arts, lead partner of the Cultural Education Partnership who commissioned the art said

“Lift the Lid on Island Culture has been about exploring the cultural heritage of the Island through art commissions in unexpected places and we’re so pleased with the result.”

Project manager, Sarah Girling, said,

“It’s been great to be involved with (delivering) this project, to see such creativity from Islanders, but also the positive impact that the artists have had in the communities that they have worked with around the Isle of Wight.”

The Lift the Lid Digital Notebooks were available to view at Quay Arts as part of the Great Leap Forward Exhibition, which due to the Coronavirus lockdown had to close its doors in March. The Quay has taken a huge drop in income, but you can show your support by making a donation via their Website

Lift the Lid Digital Notebooks can be found online at https://liftthelidnotebooks.com/

* All artists except Phlegm were involved with the design of their notebooks

With thanks to ‘On the Wight’ for their website development skills.

Lift the Lid - Back & Forth - East Cowes, Lift the Lid - The Great Light & Dark Show - Totland, Lift the Lid - The Ventnor Giant - Ventnor, Lift the Lid - We that Breathe - Newport, Lift the Lid Project

The Great Leap Forward

Sarah Girling

LIFT THE LID ON ISLAND CULTURE CELEBRATORY EXHIBITION

Quay Arts, West Gallery

Saturday 8 February – Saturday 18 April 2020

Opening Event: Sat 8 Feb, 12 – 2 pm

The Great Leap Day: Sat 29 Feb, 10 am – 2 pm

Free, all welcome!

A group exhibition of work created by local school children from across the Island reflecting upon the heritage of the Isle of Wight and theme of ‘The Future’, drawing inspiration from, and celebrating the Lift the Lid project and commissions.

Art work created by a student at St Saviours School

Artists Ian Whitmore and Chris Jenkins worked with Island schools; St Saviours, Queensgate, Nine Acres, St Catherine’s, The Island Free School and Barton Primary to create work for this exhibition exploring heritage, culture and the theme of ‘The Future’. Taking inspiration from the four Lift the Lid public art commissions created on the Island earlier last year, the artists and young people invite you the viewer to consider what cultural heritage means to you and what might be left in the future for others to discover.

Join us on Saturday 8th February from 12 – 2pm, as we open the exhibition to the public and on 

Saturday 29thFebruary from 10am – 2pm, for an interactive day of fun to celebrate the Leap Year.

At Quay Arts on Saturday 29 February from 10am – 2pm, Lift the Lid artists will be hosting workshops and performances to celebrate The Great Leap Forward exhibition, the end of the Lift the Lid on Island Cultureproject and to consider the future of cultural heritage on the Island through the eyes of young people.  We’d love everyone to get involved by either coming to the event on online through social media.

We will be stating: 

“This is IW Culture” and asking the question “Is this IW Culture?”

We’d like to explore this by presenting many types of what we might consider IW culture, e.g. glass blowing, sand art, poetry and fiction about the sea and the coastline, folk music, new art including the Ventnor Giant, etc.

We’ll be presenting a short film by Sassy Productions IW capturing what children and young people think IW Culture is.

This hashtag #LetsCreate has been used by the Arts Council England to share their new 10 year strategy. For The Great Leap Day we will use #LetsCreateIW (ACE SW have approved this use).

Lift the Lid social channels to follow/direct users to, before and on the day:

Community leaders can access a social media plan here and there’s a youth leader’s version.

Lift the Lid - Back & Forth - East Cowes, Lift the Lid - The Great Light & Dark Show - Totland, Lift the Lid - The Ventnor Giant - Ventnor, Lift the Lid - We that Breathe - Newport, Lift the Lid Project

Lid lifted on four new art commissions for the Isle of Wight

Sarah Girling

Around 60 guests were presented with 4 new art commissions created as part of the Lift the Lid project on Sunday 15 September 2019, 2pm at Quay Arts.

Lift the Lid: A Look Inside was an event especially for people who were involved in any of the art commissions and the audience represented a number of those including those from Totland Parish Council, East Cowes Town Council and Ventnor Exchange.

Sue Bailey retells a story about the Ventnor Giant

Guests were treated to a story inspired by Phlegm’s Ventnor Giant mural, presented by storyteller Sue Bailey and created by pupils from an Island school. The Great Light and Dark Show, an event in Totland by artist Julie Myers back in June 2019 was represented by a film documenting both the event and the people of Totland. BearFace Theatre CIC then performed ‘We that breathe’, a community theatre show inspired by folklore stories from The Sacred Isle’s Paul Wilson, workshops with residents at Mountbatten Hospice and those involved with WOW Women’s Centre in Newport, with help from a puppet workshop at Barton Primary. Finally the audience were shown a excerpt from Dmitri Galitzine’s film Back and Forth, featuring many of East Cowes residents. 

So what’s next for Lift the Lid? Jacqui Cusack, Arts Manager at Quay Arts, lead partner of the Cultural Education Partnership who commissioned the art said

“The past year has been about exploring the cultural heritage of the Island through art commissions in unexpected places and we’re so pleased with progress. Now we are focusing on helping teachers get to grips with OFSTEDs mandate to build cultural capital in children and young people, and so we have expanded our annual Cultural Expo event to a full blown conference featuring the well-known educationalist Professor Mick Waters. We’ll be at Oakfield CE Primary School in Ryde on Friday 11 October, and I’d like to invite all headteachers and arts coordinators, plus school governors with a focus on the arts, to join us for this inspiring day.”

Lift the Lid - The Ventnor Giant - Ventnor, Lift the Lid - We that Breathe - Newport, Lift the Lid Project

Hullabaloo 2019

Sarah Girling

Were you at Hullabaloo in Sandown on the weekend of 11th and 12th May? Hullabaloo is the annual arts, environment and science discovery event led by Shademakers, Artecology and others near Browns Golf Course and Dinosaur Isle Museum. If you were there, you might have seen Sue Bailey from But that’s another Story in the red and yellow children’s activity tent or perhaps you might have met the Three Medina Sisters? Actually, they were from BearFace Theatre, testing out public reaction to their community theatre ideas for Newport.

The Medina Sisters on the walkabout at Hullabaloo 2019 (BearFace Theatre)

BearFace Theatre will be presenting their work to residents and visitors at Mountbatten and at the Isobel Centre in Pan (next door to Barton Primary School) on Monday 16 September. It is one of the four commissioned artworks for Lift the Lid.

Sue Bailey was using Phlegm’s Ventnor Giant mural (the first of our commissioned artworks) to inspire clay work and stories with children and young people. You can see some of their work here:

Schools can still benefit from involvement in Lift the Lid, especially if they take up our offers linked with registering for Artsmark.

The general public can be involved in Lift the Lid at events this year including a special family picnic during Ventnor Fringe Festival 2019. Come and join us at Ventnor Park on Friday 26 July at 12noon until 2pm, for a picnic with a twist. Our arts and heritage partners will be asking you to ‘Lift the Lid’ on their very special boxes to discover what is inside and how it connects with the Island’s cultural heritage. And you can take away your own box to fill with your own important momento…

Lift the Lid - The Ventnor Giant - Ventnor, Lift the Lid Project

Phlegm’s Ventnor Giant inspires Island children

Sarah Girling

Since the Project’s first art commission was complete in August 2018, during the Ventnor Fringe Festival, school children have had the opportunity to respond creatively to the Ventnor Giant mural.

The children’s work was temporarily stuck on the wall under the mural.

Having trained as an Arts Award advisor through Lift the Lid, teacher Clare Wright has been working with a group of Year 6 pupils from Oakfield Primary School in Ryde, using the artist Phlegm as inspiration for their own work.

“Year 6 has been researching a world famous street artist, who has created the Island’s largest mural in  Ventnor.  It depicts one of the artist’s famous characters holding the town of Ventnor on it’s back or letting it fall into the sea.  The inspiration for the mural was the architecture, geography and people of the town. As part of ArtsMark, Oakfield Primary is working with Lift The Lid, a new island wide campaign which aims to foster a sense of pride and passion in Island towns and their cultural heritage. The students’ artwork was temporarily stuck to the wall, under the mural,  in Ventnor, before being transferred to our gallery in the school’s Creation Station”

Meanwhile, schools near Ventnor have been working with storyteller Sue Bailey on developing stories about the Ventnor Giant. We hope to share some of these with you in the next few weeks.

If you want to join in the creative fun, then join us at Sandown’s Hullabaloo event on 11 and 12 May, where you can take part in a storytelling workshop with Sue Bailey, or go and watch BearFace Theatre to see what they have developed so far as part of the Newport art commission, with Mountbatten, Barton Primary School and WOW Women’s Centre, based on a story told to them by Sacred Isle‘s Paul Wilson.