Rachel Clarke has been appointed as the new Heritage and Environmental Arts Officer at tees valley arts. She introduces an exciting new project on which she is embarking in partnership with Tees Valley Wildlife Trust and Tees Forest.
Rachel said,
I am really looking forward to getting outdoors and getting to know some more of the fantastic green hearts in the Tees Valley.
Green HeArts is the first project to take shape with Tees Forest, Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, artists and five primary schools in the area. Schools involved will visit a local wildlife site and work with three artists using natural material, sound and writing to interpret the environment. The art work created will be brought together in a leaflet and manual so that other schools can experience different ways of learning about the wildlife in their local area.
The schools and artists are really excited about starting the project and it’s a great time of year to be out and about. The sites paint a very varied picture of the Tees Valley landscape and include Skerningham Woods in Darlington, Greenabella Marsh in Hartlepool, Bowesfield in Stockton, Ormesby Beck in Middlesbrough and the Margrove Heritage Centre in Redcar and Cleveland. They all offer a wealth of industrial and natural inspiration for the artists and children to draw from.
The artists involved have had previous experiences working in wild places including Antartica and Finland.
“This is a fantastic project”, said composer Craig Vear who will be working on the project. “It provides great opportunities to work with young people, teachers and environmental organisations creating a lasting legacy.”
Over the next few months I will be fostering further projects that have already started to grow with the Wildlife Trust, Tees Forest and other organisations in the area and planting new project seeds for the future.
Green HeArts has been supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.