Hey! Earthlings! - a new heritage and arts project for Shropshire
This spring and summer a team of local artists are working with people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds to help them respond to our Shropshire heritage and landscape through artworks, words, sounds and video. The project, funded by the Heritage Lottery, is called Hey! Earthlings!
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From 16–25 June there will be an exhibition, ‘The Cabinet of Curiosity’, in Oswestry Library, where the artworks created by different groups of refugees and migrant people will be on view. Entry is free, everyone is welcome, and the Library is open Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm, and Sat 9.30am-4pm. The exhibition coincides with global Refugee Week, which celebrates the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
These artworks have been created by three different groups of people who visited Old Oswestry Hillfort this spring alongside artists Andrew Howe and Jill Impey, poet Jean Atkin, community co-ordinators Anna Martin and Martina Churm, and evaluator Cerin Mills. Together they climbed the hillfort, talked about its history and archaeology, and explored the ramparts. The groups also looked at the local botany and wildlife, exchanged stories and folklore – and even songs.
Poet Jean Atkin recalled: “On the very top of the hillfort, the artists and the refugees talked together about how 3,000 years ago the Celtic peoples used these same long views to observe the landscape of home. Then we identified the compass direction of each person’s country of origin. And then, quite spontaneously, everyone began to wave – to Kiev – to Istanbul – to Sierra Leone – to Afghanistan… It was very moving, and there were some tears”.
Visitors to the Exhibition in the Library will find ‘The Cabinet of Curiosity’ – an exploratory, eccentric cupboard created from recycled furniture. Inside its multiple small doors and drawers will be photographs and drawings, short films on screens, poems, objects and stories. There will be audio recordings that can be listened to on headphones. Visitors are invited to open the Cabinet’s doors and explore!
