Today marks the launch of the much-awaited New Saints Website! Ta dah:
www.newsaintslangport.co.uk
From now on, this will be the main online base of operations for the project. You'll get news about upcoming events and meetings, other community events in Langport, follow our twitter feed, view our gallery (and contribute!), meet the team, meet the project, and meet the building, find out what has inspired us to create the project and why, and (quite importantly) have the opportunity to fill in questionnaires about how you feel about the project.
The questionnaires will be used by the the New Saints to influence the next stage of the project - how we will use the building in future, so be sure to let us know!
We're very excited about the launch of our website, we've worked long and hard with Cosmic Ethical IT to get it looking and working exactly how we want, so we hope you like it!
Saturday 20 April 2013
Thursday 11 April 2013
Hunky Punk workshops - check out the dedicated blog!
Our SAW artists have been working hard in March and April, visiting local schools and doing Hunky Punk- making workshops. They've got a great dedicated blog to showcase their efforts:
http://hunkypunksproject.blogspot.co.uk/
All the Hunky Punk creations will be presented at our Showcase event at the church, 8th June 9am-5pm, with the final workshop from 2-4:30pm and the competition with special guest judge at 4:30!
http://hunkypunksproject.blogspot.co.uk/
All the Hunky Punk creations will be presented at our Showcase event at the church, 8th June 9am-5pm, with the final workshop from 2-4:30pm and the competition with special guest judge at 4:30!
Wednesday 6 March 2013
JOBS! Bountiful Jobs!
Recently the New Saints Project has grown huge in terms of number of people involved, soon its going to get even bigger because I've just submitted four job adverts to heritage/arts websites for consultant/contract style jobs attached to the project.
First of all, the speedy growth of the Hunky Punk Project
Initially, we created a partnership with Somerset Art Works, who're based in Langport, which created 1 day/week of work for a SAW Development Officer.
Then, we created our partnership with the Event Management Students at Bridgwater College, providing an extra 22 young brains with approximately 3hrs/week time on the project.
Then, we used that partnership to expand our Hunky Punk Art Workshop part of the project, and advertise for a professional freelance artist to lead school/community workshops.
From that we found three artists that we wanted to work with, and two of them were 'young'! (according to HLF guidelines!) The dilemma here was that we only had the funding to pay for one artist, but SAW came to the rescue with Progression Support grants for young professional artists, which ultimately meant that the project could employ one young lead artist, and support two more artists to work on the project, hooraaaaaay!
This much increased capacity in-turn meant that we could organise more Hunky Punk workshops, and share the projects with more primary and secondary schools, which we're embarking on in March and April. The involvement of Bridgwater College has meant that we can hold two public events rather than one; one community workshop to build more and more Hunky Punks, and one Showcase Exhibition during Langport Community Festival (another valuable partnership!)
Now, onto the jobs!
Today I've spent a lot of time submitting job adverts to heritage and arts job websites. This has been a little bit scary because the contract salaries represent a sizeable chunk of the project finances, and I'm effectively spending it all in one go... eek!
As of tomorrow, our Evaluation Consultant, Interpretation Consultant, Community Archives Adviser and Community Archives Expert jobs will be live on:
- University of Leicester Museum Studies JobDesk
- Our profile on Creative Somerset
(I'm still working on a few other sites which involve calling in favours, diplomacy and membership registration... I'll keep you posted...)
Does anyone have any recommendations for other (free) heritage/arts job sites that I can use?
If you're interested, pleased get in touch and ask, I'm very happy to send out briefs, answer questions, and put people in touch with people.
First of all, the speedy growth of the Hunky Punk Project
Initially, we created a partnership with Somerset Art Works, who're based in Langport, which created 1 day/week of work for a SAW Development Officer.
Then, we created our partnership with the Event Management Students at Bridgwater College, providing an extra 22 young brains with approximately 3hrs/week time on the project.
Then, we used that partnership to expand our Hunky Punk Art Workshop part of the project, and advertise for a professional freelance artist to lead school/community workshops.
From that we found three artists that we wanted to work with, and two of them were 'young'! (according to HLF guidelines!) The dilemma here was that we only had the funding to pay for one artist, but SAW came to the rescue with Progression Support grants for young professional artists, which ultimately meant that the project could employ one young lead artist, and support two more artists to work on the project, hooraaaaaay!
This much increased capacity in-turn meant that we could organise more Hunky Punk workshops, and share the projects with more primary and secondary schools, which we're embarking on in March and April. The involvement of Bridgwater College has meant that we can hold two public events rather than one; one community workshop to build more and more Hunky Punks, and one Showcase Exhibition during Langport Community Festival (another valuable partnership!)
Now, onto the jobs!
Today I've spent a lot of time submitting job adverts to heritage and arts job websites. This has been a little bit scary because the contract salaries represent a sizeable chunk of the project finances, and I'm effectively spending it all in one go... eek!
As of tomorrow, our Evaluation Consultant, Interpretation Consultant, Community Archives Adviser and Community Archives Expert jobs will be live on:
- University of Leicester Museum Studies JobDesk
- Our profile on Creative Somerset
(I'm still working on a few other sites which involve calling in favours, diplomacy and membership registration... I'll keep you posted...)
Does anyone have any recommendations for other (free) heritage/arts job sites that I can use?
If you're interested, pleased get in touch and ask, I'm very happy to send out briefs, answer questions, and put people in touch with people.
Wednesday 5 December 2012
Clearing out the Vestry
One of the small but very important parts of our project at All Saints Langport has been to clear out the Vestry at the far East end of the building. The room has been used for storage since time immemorial and is a veritable treasure trove of documents and material culture exhibiting the life of a church (that's quite a cool way to describe a store room, eh?)
The original use of the room was for the incumbent priest of the church to change into his sacred vestments (robes and scarves), hence the name 'Vestry', and do the administration work attached to running a parish church, but in a lot of churches its regularly used as a storeroom now. The Vestry is also traditionally where the married couple go straight after the ceremony to sign the marriage register, our's isn't the nicest of spaces to do that yet though!
Here are some 'before' image of the space:
... and here's how it looked 'after' we cleared out and cleaned up:
Much better!
Gems that we found included...
Whilst we were doing the clear-out our blue sky thinking included installing a phone line, letterbox and wifi (as well as a lot of heaters and insulation) to turn the Vestry into a real office for the New Saints, or space that could be rented out on a daily basis as hotdesking space... what do you think?
The original use of the room was for the incumbent priest of the church to change into his sacred vestments (robes and scarves), hence the name 'Vestry', and do the administration work attached to running a parish church, but in a lot of churches its regularly used as a storeroom now. The Vestry is also traditionally where the married couple go straight after the ceremony to sign the marriage register, our's isn't the nicest of spaces to do that yet though!
Here are some 'before' image of the space:
... and here's how it looked 'after' we cleared out and cleaned up:
Gems that we found included...
- The marble top of a tomb for James Heron, the architect who made changes to the church in the 18th century, originally located in the South Chapel, now used as a table top (complete with historic graffiti!)
- Lots and lots of very rich Bible bookmarks and altar cloths
- The very fragile Roll of Honour showing the names of soldiers from Langport who died in World War One. We'd like to put it on display eventually, once it's been conserved and looked after by the CCT
- A book recording all the weddings at the church between 1722 and 1822
Whilst we were doing the clear-out our blue sky thinking included installing a phone line, letterbox and wifi (as well as a lot of heaters and insulation) to turn the Vestry into a real office for the New Saints, or space that could be rented out on a daily basis as hotdesking space... what do you think?
Wednesday 28 November 2012
Hunky Punk artist recruitment with SAW (with a deadline this Friday!)
Just a quick update about our art and community project about the Hunky Punks at All Saints Langport.
We're using some of our Heritage Lottery Fund grant, as well as match-funding from SAW to hire an artist to help us develop the project to run workshops in schools and the local communities. I'm bringing it up on the blog because if you're a textiles artist, and especially if you're under 25, there's an opportunity for you to work on this part of the project with us! Check out the application form on SAW's website, and get filling in, the deadline's on Friday!! (I'm on the interview panel, eek!!)
The workshops will be designed for the attendees to learn how to make as many Hunky Punk sock monsters as they like (see previous blogpost's image) to take home and keep... providing that they're brought to the Hunky Punk toy product launch event at the church.
Our aim is to have the church absolutely brimming with Hunky Punk sock monsters, all made by local people of all ages. (If you're interested in attending a workshop and creating your own Hunky Punks, keep checking back on the blog, or also follow our twitter feed to find out when and where they'll be!)
The serious bit behind this fun spectacle will be that by creating your own Hunky Punk, you'll learn a bit more about the stone Hunky Punks on the church, what they're for, why All Saints has so many, and the history of these particular Hunky Punks. What's not to enjoy?
We're using some of our Heritage Lottery Fund grant, as well as match-funding from SAW to hire an artist to help us develop the project to run workshops in schools and the local communities. I'm bringing it up on the blog because if you're a textiles artist, and especially if you're under 25, there's an opportunity for you to work on this part of the project with us! Check out the application form on SAW's website, and get filling in, the deadline's on Friday!! (I'm on the interview panel, eek!!)
The workshops will be designed for the attendees to learn how to make as many Hunky Punk sock monsters as they like (see previous blogpost's image) to take home and keep... providing that they're brought to the Hunky Punk toy product launch event at the church.
Our aim is to have the church absolutely brimming with Hunky Punk sock monsters, all made by local people of all ages. (If you're interested in attending a workshop and creating your own Hunky Punks, keep checking back on the blog, or also follow our twitter feed to find out when and where they'll be!)
The serious bit behind this fun spectacle will be that by creating your own Hunky Punk, you'll learn a bit more about the stone Hunky Punks on the church, what they're for, why All Saints has so many, and the history of these particular Hunky Punks. What's not to enjoy?
Friday 28 September 2012
New Saints Needs You!
A couple of things to update on this time.
First of all, our recruitment drive is well and truly kicking off - we're looking for young people (aged 16-25) who live in or around Langport and the surrounding area that are interested in gaining career skills and working to improve their local community. We're looking to increase the capacity of the core group of New Saints, so you would be required to attend fortnightly meetings (in the evening so they don't clash with school or work), and be able to give about 5hrs per fortnight of work towards the project. If this is you, (or your children, grandchildren, neighbour, etc. etc.), get in touch!
This is our poster for recruitment - spread, share, reblog, retweet please!
Second update: we had a great meeting earlier in the week with Somerset Art Works (SAW), who are our partner for the Hunky Punk Toy part of the project. The plan at the moment (though this is subject to change depending on the artist that we hire to lead it) is to create kits for everyone and anyone to make 'sock monster' versions of our Hunky Punks, as well as making a good few of our own. On top of this we hope to be running workshops in schools and for communities around Langport so that we can have a church full of Hunky Punk Toys for the launch event (full details of this are yet to be confirmed)
Whilst it is obvious that these sock monsters don't look too similar to our Hunky Punks (check out Walter for reference), there are (and can be) an awful lot of similarities. For example, all of our Hunky Punks are unique - we've got dragons, griffins, lions and other anonymous hellish creatures all looking different, either by design or by natural weathering, and each sock monster Hunky Punk that our project creates will be unique. When we're creating our kits for making your own toy, we can substitute ears for horns, and arms for wings, or you can make a cat-like one look even more lion-y! The possibilities are endless. Anyway, this is all at the planning stages, so I'm not allowed to get too excited as it all might change!
Third and final update: the build up for this one has been a long (long, long, long) time coming, but we finally have the first semblances of a New Saints website! At long last, that link on the right over there >>> will finally be live and send you to our brand spanking new website!
Here's a very tiny sneakpeek just for you lucky readers:
Tuesday 14 August 2012
'Walter' the Hunky Punk, back in his rightful place
Last Friday the churchyard at All Saints Langport was echoing with applause and cheers as our brand new Hunky Punk (affectionately known whilst he was residing in the church porch as 'Walter') was cemented into place on the South wall of the building.
Walter has had a long journey from being a lump of stone with sketchmarks on in one of Corbel Conservation's stonemason workshops,
to occupying the South Porch and keeping an eye on the visitors,
We were lucky to have a front page photo on the Western Gazette last week in a build-up article for the event, and the reporters were there again on the day to write an article for the next issue!
The event was a great opportunity for the groups of people with vested interest in the building - New Saints, keyholders, the CCT, Corbel Conservation, and local Langportians to come together and celebrate the building, as well as discuss the exciting plans for the future!
For more photos of Walter's journey from sedimentary to elevated, have a look at the CCT's facebook photo album
Walter has had a long journey from being a lump of stone with sketchmarks on in one of Corbel Conservation's stonemason workshops,
to occupying the South Porch and keeping an eye on the visitors,
to finally being winched up the scaffolding and manouevered back into
place with one of the best views of the Levels you could possibly hope
for!
We were lucky to have a front page photo on the Western Gazette last week in a build-up article for the event, and the reporters were there again on the day to write an article for the next issue!
For more photos of Walter's journey from sedimentary to elevated, have a look at the CCT's facebook photo album
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