Celebrating the local landscape

Shapeshift

Durlston Country Park was the scene for an exciting arts project that explored the common ground between art and science in looking at our environment. Taking the geology of the Jurassic Coast as a starting point, artist Abigail Reynolds was appointed to work with two scientists to look deeper into how the landscape has changed in the past and the changes that we face due to climate change.

Abigail worked with members of the Friends of Durlston Group to help her explore the local landscape better and how they perceive and value the landscape around them. The artwork that marked the culmination of the project was built from recycled materials, many of which came from Durlston Castle itself which is being refurbished. While the artwork is open to interpretation, it reflects graphs showing the changing levels of microfossils over the last 200 million years and encouraged viewers to take a long view when thinking about their landscape.

Dorset Farm Radio and archive of rural life

Trilith developed Dorset Farm Radio, a web-based radio station aimed at linking Dorset's rural farming communities. A variety of programmes, made by both professionals and volunteers, have proved very popular and a great way to celebrate some of the success stories in the farming world. Trilith also ran a hunt for cine films and recordings of Dorset life to develop a community film and audio archive, turning up19 films and recordings from the Dorset AONB.

Inside Out Festival

The first ever Inside Out festival in 2007 set out to run extraordinary events in extraordinary places, attracting over 30,000 people to the biggest free outdoor performance programme in the South West. The Sustainable Development Fund supported the West Bay and Hambledon Hill events to see how these outdoor spaces could be turned into performance spaces for the day.

‘Counter Currents' at West Bay laid on drama, music, acrobatics and dance against the backdrop of the Jurassic Coast. Young people from the area were offered the chance to perform in and dance to a 10 000 strong crowd on the day. ‘Enclosure' set up on Hambledon Hill attracted 700 people despite wind and rain, the atmospheric journey involving dance, music and fire that many described as a once in a lifetime experience. Local school children had been involved in pottery making in the run up to the event and took part in the procession up the hill on the night. Inside Out has since helped launch the Cultural Olympiad and hopes to return in 2010 for another ground breaking festival.

Landlines

4Reel Films used film celebrating our landscape heritage through dance, drama, music and animation, based on the work of Thomas Hardy. Through their ‘Landlines' project, the DVD film they created uses sequences drawn from Hardy's work and translated into different media, using his words as a soundtrack. It includes factual information about Hardy - the people and places that influenced and inspired.

Exploring the Coast

The Dorset Coast Forum also set out to get people thinking about the Jurassic Coast, this time focusing on primary school age children. Working with teachers from primary schools along the coast, the Forum identified what resources would be useful in the classroom and devised an Education Pack to meet their needs. The pack is far from dull text book style - it has games and an artefact box filled with things you might find on the beach so that children can understand more about our very special Coast.