The continued research and discussions eventually got to the point of where I was able to define the areas of focus and ambition under the tile of MTP (More Than Ponies) which I describe as:
MTP (More Than Ponies) is an enquiry into the New Forest as a real and metaphorical site for idea generation and creation. Focusing on the inter-relationship of people and place, the project seeks to adopt ethnographic and anthropological processes as research methodologies and engages contemporary art making as an explorative process. The ambition is to present an itinerant contemporary artist-led programme that invites artists and audiences to radically rethink, reimagine and reanimate the New Forest.
The New Forest is a National Park, one of ‘Britain’s breathing spaces’, protected as a place of outstanding beauty and special interest. It is a highly inhabited environment with over 13 million international visitors a year, plus 35,000 residents. It is a unique place of expansive large open spaces of forestry, coast and heathland. As a ‘common’ land, donkeys, pigs, cattle and New Forest ponies roam freely.
MTP is an artist-led initiative with no core funding, it is intended to be sometimes big and sometimes small.
