Reaching Out from Prema

Prema regularly works with schools, community groups and other organisations on creative projects—everything from glass to pottery, video to dance, sculpture to singing. The arts is a great way of bringing people together and finding creative solutions in the community, the workplace and in further developing all sorts of learning and recreation.

Is there a project that you’d like to try in your school? Perhaps there’s a project you’d like to do in your town or village and need to talk through making it happen and where you might get funding? Why not contact Prema’s new Community Development Manager, Helen Rimmer, by calling the Office on 01453 860703 or by emailing helen@prema.demon.co.uk

Top Marks for Drawing

Illustrator Imogen Harvey-Lewis has been selected as an overall winner of the Big Draw (through the National Campaign for Drawing), for her community drawing project "Listening to Radiohead", which took place in and around the town of Tetbury. Imogen (who lives in Horsley in the Stroud District) has strong links with the Tetbury community through her close affiliation with Sir William Romney School and the families therein. She explains “My son attends Sir William Romney and I’ve always been struck by what a great school it is and how they have a real passion and commitment to developing creative individuals which is reflected in the school’s visual and performing arts college status and the building of their Quad” (a space for gallery exhiitions).

Imogen is a long-standing collaborator with the team at Prema Arts Centre, Uley and so she and the Prema gang got their heads together and cooked-up a plan to inspire and to get a whole town drawing. Prema’s Director, Gordon Scott illustrates the point “Drawing is one of those things which we feel we can or can’t do. Imogen’s infectious, can-do approach has been a real asset to Prema’s own participatory arts programme here at the Centre and in many schools and community venues throughout Gloucestershire. We talked about how people often want to replicate what they see by drawing it, sometimes copying and so for this project our aim was to use a different kind of inspiration for drawing”.

The inspiration was listening. Simply listening. To the sounds around us, to music, to snippets of conversations, to stories and to each other. The project “Listening to Radiohead” was conceived and through October and early November the people of Tetbury were invited to draw, to make and to get creative with one another. Sir William Romney School listened to their environment and constructed huge trees from withies and wire and adorned them with hand-sculpted birds, accompanied by a string duo from the Tetbury Music Festival. A week-long residency in the school invited every student to draw, sketch, listen and take drawing to “the next stage”. In short, a forest environment was created from scratch – a space where the students could continue to explore drawing and storytelling.

One crisp Autumn evening in November saw Imogen and a bunch of hardy faithfuls take a walk in the exquisite Horsley Valley (at Ruskin Mill College) to listen to ghost stories while charcoal was made in a brazier, then the spooky stories were illustrated (with the help of sculptural and woodland artists Adam Morrigan and Rayner Grant). Sea stories from storyteller Fiona Eadie were told to children and families at Tetbury Library during the half-term break in October and drawings were made in response to the salty maritime tales.

In 2009, Imogen hopes to work again with the people of Tetbury (in partnership with Prema Arts Centre) on an extension of the initial project. The next stage of Prema outreach project with Imogen has been funded by Awards for All – National Lottery and the Ernest Cook Trust. “We hope to work with some of the oldest people in Tetbury and surrounding parishes” explains Imogen “and we want to undertake a really fun drawing project with the Youth Centre when we look at bringing drawing to life with paper and digital animation”. Following her project in the Autumn, Imogen Harvey-Lewis nominated the project and the people of Tetbury for an award from the National Campaign for Drawing and was delighted to learn that the project has been successful – an award has been forthcoming.

“This is great news,” said Gordon Scott, Prema’s Director “Imogen has worked her socks off on this project. It was great to visit Sir William Romney on the Music Festival afternoon and see over 250 people really loving drawing and getting involved. This award is a very well-earned recognition for Imogen’s vision and passion for drawing and for the people of Tetbury and their now unbridled creativity. And, of course, it’s nice to be a winner with Big Draw, especially when we’re in such good company as the Royal College of Art!”.

Imogen Harvey Lewis moved to Gloucestershire in 1996, having studied at De Montfort University. She will shortly be starting a residency in a GP surgery in Tewkesbury as part of the NHS funded Art Lift project through Gloucestershire County Council. For further information about Imogen and her work, take a look at www.imogenharveylewis.com.

Listening to Radiohead was realised through a partnership of Prema Arts Centre and Imogen Harvey-Lewis with Ruskin Mill and Sir William Romney School.

Uley Dragon

The picture shows the Uley Dragon—a mosaic project led by David Bowers from Mosaic Madness. The project was run in collaboration with the GL11 Community Project and helped along with the generous financial support of The Friends of Prema, Uley Brewery, Wykeham Trust, Hydegate Pet Resort, Extended Services, Stroud District Council and the Learning Community.