corridor arts dot org dot uk

the visit now seems very real. i can relax and look forward to the weekend, all the necessary care for pets and children are in place and the maps of grizedale have been looked at and mulled over.

i can’t remember just how much detail i’ve gone into about how we arrived at visiting grizedale. it was a long period of searching online to find somewhere to visit after our choice in the application was affected by some unforeseen circumstances.

there of course was a great benefit in those unforeseen circumstances as we discovered more and more activities and endeavours happening around the uk. along that path we discovered big lunch extras at the eden project too.

somehow we arrived at where it all began. grizedale being the first place in the uk to make a collection of site specific art. (1)

this week i’ve spent sometime on the mighty fine archive site set up for grizedale through a phd ship.  one of the best bits of the site are the podcasts of  some of the artists talking about their work made at grizedale.  for me hearing the artist speak is always so much better than reading what they have said.  for me to hear their intenation, their pauses, their moments of realisation about something act as increases in the arc of the door to understanding.

i really recomend the grizedale archive site http://www.grizedalearchive.org/

(1) http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-7hyebb

in preparing for the bursaried visit thanks to a go and see bursary from a n, i find myself again being reflective of the journey to this point.

in thinking about what to write down, i find myself considering writing a post about things that didn;t qite work out. i note that i don;t often find posts about things not working out, in fact i seem to experience posts where everything is amazing and wonderful and just occassionally i’d like to read about how a plan went skewy.

our plan that went skewy was for a year long endeavour in a park near where we live. we planned for a celebration of it’s ecology, history and to make new activities to allow it to be seen in a different context.

in attempting that we had a funder interested, the local authority who own the park interested and several local groups who would benefit targetted as partners.  the plan skewed at the point where we tried to get the groups to commit to showing interest via something in writing to evidence to the funder that their money would benefit a broad base of local citizens. the plan also skewed when it became apparent that we were struggling to commit oursleves to a programme of activities. across the group the question of activity or money became one that caused us many a difficult conversation.

months after the heartache and unhappiness caused by the breakdown of that idea, we have a few elements of that original plan still on the drawing board.  our go and see visit is to the grizedale sculpture trail in cumbria.  the visit there will help to inform our plans to make an art walk in the park near where we live next april.

in reflecting again about how the go and see bursary has helped us i note that it’s helped the group to continue to make new plans despite several external unforseen circumstances evolving that we needed to work through.  the bursary has continuously been a source of a keep going spirit. it was the difference between giving up and continuing.  i can’t begin to explain the benefit that being in receipt of the bursary has given us. it’s way more valuable than the amount of money actually held in the bursary.

in sport there’s a focus on the winner. the individual or team who do all the necessary actions to comply with the rules of the sport to become the best at that particular moment … wether it be world darts or motogp … there’s evidence of how getting through troubled times help to make them a winner.  one of my favourite quotes is by a darts player on the occasion of their second world darts title …. his comment was that first he had to learn how to loose.

i have written about this before.

in cultural activity there are not the same rules as in sport.

however one thing that is very important is that for any activity there are followers / backers of the idea for their backing will make the difference when the troubled times happen and they might just happen as one never really knows how an idea will evolve over time.

the other guiding condition is how simple is the idea? and in it’s simplicity, does it unfold to show many layers ?

speaking from a personal practice level i seem to be continously learning to loose. being part of this group activity funded by a go and see bursary from a n is helping me to continue and believe that my voice can further form to further be heard.

for any group out there thinking about making a project, i urge you to consider a go and see bursary as part of your plans, it might just be the difference between a successful project and another idea that stalls because of a lack of external backing.

in my second post about the journey of our go and see bursary i have a lot to reflect upon with regard to how easy it all is.

as i indicated in the first post the application process is very straitforward.  at the time of our application we were very focussed on our idea, our visit place and what we wanted to get out of it.

what was not simple was an as yet unseen dynamic in the group.  adopting a reflective position for this post, i can add that the unforeseen circumstances helped the group to see that there were differences that could not be satisfactorily resolved enough for the full plan to be implimented.

applying for the go and see bursary helped us to form a critical path upon which we ventured.  having recieved it, the preparations to use the bursary facilitated us to make further steps along that critical path.  in making those steps, the path has evolved and we find ourselves in a slightly different place.  without the go and see bursary from a n, i would not have experienced this.

because we are in receipt of the go and see bursary, we’ve rescued the plan and evolved it so that the research and thinking made so far can still be applied into making an event.

today i reflect that being in receipt of the bursary has helped the group to keep driving forward with an idea, albeit that the idea has had to evolve as we’ve learnt things about the idea and those in the group.

even today i’ve found out that there is a slight risk that our soon to be made visit might have to be further re-arranged as a result of yet another outside influence.

i feel my fourth year re teacher was wide of the mark when he wrote about me in a report that i had “inadequate determination.”  each time there is a set back, i bounce back even more determined to make full use of the opportunity granted by a n.

at a personal level, all this deviation within the attempt to make a go and see visit is helping to further build my robustness and hopefully confidence in my own ability to respond well in situations that i find quite emotional.

all being well our visit will be made the weekend after next. all the travel and accomodation are reserved and booked. i have a week to research further where we are going to, and i am looking forward to being away from all the everyday distractions and niggles. the weekend was always inteneded to be a time where the idea for the event is the focus and discussions are inspired by what we see.

i’ve waited so long for the go and see visit to take place, it’s almost like a dream.