Growing Together: Artists & Farmers Meet in Lancashire

Straw-bale gateway to the conference at University of Lancaster by Amazon Nails. Click for a slideshow of additional images. All photos by Linda Frye Burnham unless otherwise indicated.

Two major themes emerged during "Creative Rural Industries," a conference organized by Littoral at the University of Lancaster, England, September 10-13, 2006, and both of them had to do with community self-reliance. The arts community proposes to get a foothold in the coming "rural renaissance" at the policy level. The farming community is taking an asset-based approach to its own regeneration after the decimation of their livelihoods due to epidemics of BSE ("mad cow disease") and FMD ("foot-and-mouth disease").

The timing of the conference was key: A major EU funding initiative is helping to spark rural regeneration in England. Ian Hunter and Celia Larner of Littoral, a nonprofit arts trust based in Lancashire, see this as a rich opportunity to grow the "new zones for art practice" in which they have a deep interest. These zones are flowering in the confluence of arts and agriculture, rural arts and culture, crafts and environment, and art and sustainability. For years they have been fostering community-based projects in the North that bring artists and growers together to address the overwhelming crisis for life on the English farm. They have helped create a new community to document the physical, emotional, cultural and spiritual effects of the epidemics that required cattle and sheep growers to kill millions of their animals, and they hope to help to revitalize the rural culture at the very heart of the country.

Woodland worker Maurice Pyle crafting coppice wood at Hogarth Trust. Photo courtesy Hogarth Trust

Ringing these "agri-cultural" concerns are economic elements like globalization – as other countries step into the British agricultural gap, importing dairy products and other foods – and the rise of the "creative industries," clusters of entrepreneurs poised to reinvent the country the way they reinvented the city in the 1990s.

The Lancaster conference brought together a dizzying array of people – from Britain and elsewhere – with a dog in this fight: artists, craftspeople and artisans; farmers, growers and local rural authorities; cultural and arts agents; social service and government agents; and program officers from major international initiatives like Leader +. Through four days of keynote addresses, panels, workshops and field trips, attendees were introduced to ideas that ran an enormous gamut – from projects by artists and farmers exploring new uses for rural resources like wool, to projects gathering visibility and support for artists who work and live in rural settings.

Middle Rocombe Farm, an organic farm near Newton Abbot, Devon, and site of the Art Farm Project (2003, 2004, 2006). A group of artists in South Devon have used the redundant farm buildings and surrounding landscape to produce large exhibitions and create an artist network. Peter and Suzanne Redstone of Rocombe attended the conference. Photo courtesy of Art Farm Project

Of special interest was the structure of the conference, which raised topics like "creative industries," then clustered speakers with opposing viewpoints. It was interesting to learn that many artists do not wish to see themselves portrayed as industry or business figures, and that rural residents fear gentrification of their ancestral regions more than they fear mad cows. Solutions like cultural heritage tourism – around, say, the recent attention to Kurt Schwittters' Merz Barn in Cumbria – bring with them a kind of panic, illustrated by the impossibility of navigating our giant tourist coach down the charming country lanes of the Lakes District.

The conference was a success in that it actually became a fulcrum in which an unusual community of culturemakers learned to listen to each other. Its events were facilitated by a farmer who is also a community organizer. Its energy was invigorated by weavers and tanners and wood crafters who know the land and its history. Its ideas were illuminated by artists and academics who live close to the moors and dales and are themselves descendants of farm families. It generated a discourse all its own, a 21st century international language with a Lancashire accent.

NETWORKING:
Here is a linked list of projects and organizations we learned about at the conference that we thought CAN readers would like to know about. All are in England unless otherwise indicated.

Art on Farms, on the land or in historic rural buildings
Andy Goldsworthy's "Sheepfolds," Cumbria http://www.sheepfolds.org
Art Farm Project, Devon http://www.artfarmproject.co.uk
Brewery Arts Center, Cumbria http://www.breweryarts.co.uk
East Cumbria Countryside Project http://www.eccp.org.uk/html/recent-projects.html
Farnham Maltings, Surrey http://www.farnhammaltings.com/
Kurt Schwittters' Merz Barn, Cumbria http://www.littoral.org.uk/HTML01/pro_kurtschwitters.htm
Land, Lancashire http://www.land.uk.net/
Panopticons, Lancashire http://www.panopticons.uk.net
Shute Farm Studio, Somerset http://www.shutefarmstudio.org.uk/
Skateraw Farm Project, Dunbar, Scotland http://www.demarco.uk.com/skateraw.htm

Rural artists, arts organizations and arts projects about rural issues
Aune Head Arts, Dartmoor, Devon http://www.auneheadarts.org.uk
Beacon Art Project, Lincolnshire http://www.beaconartproject.org/
Bill Hogarth MBE Memorial Apprenticeship Trust, Cumbria, http://www.coppiceapprentice.org.uk/
Blaize Theatre Company, North Yorkshire http://www.blaize.uk.net/
Cheshire Dance, Cheshire http://cheshiredance.org
Chrysalis Arts, North Yorkshire http://www.chrysalisarts.org.uk/
CraftSpace Touring, Birmingham http://www.craftspace-touring.co.uk
Eden Arts, Cumbria http://www.edenarts.co.uk
Exstream Theatre, Exeter http://www.spa.ex.ac.uk/drama/staff/staff_somers.html
FRED projects, Cumbria http://www.fredsblog.co.uk
Greenclose Studios, Lancashire http://www.greenclosestudios.co.uk
Grizedale Arts, Cumbria http://www.grizedale.org/
Horse + Bamboo, Lancashire http://www.horseandbamboo.org
Ilton Heritage Project, Yorkshire http://www.communityarchaeology.co.uk/Ilton.htm
Kala Sangam South Asian Arts, Bradford http://www.kalasangam.org
Lowood Environmental Arts and Pet Centre and Village Bakery, Cumbria http://village-bakery.com
Potfest in the Pens, Cumbria http://www.potfest.co.uk/potfestpens.htm
Prism Arts, Cumbria http://www.prismarts.co.uk/
Quilting Mellons, the Trough of Bowland, Lancashire http://www.quiltingmellons.co.uk
Rural Arts North Yorkshire http://www.ruralarts.org
The Shed, Yorkshire http://www.theshed.co.uk/
Word Market, Cumbria http://www.word-market.co.uk

Locals on Forest of Dean Radio, a community station in Gloucestershire (listen on the Web). Photo courtesy of FOD

Rural entrepreneurs
Adrian Fisher Mazes, Dorset http://www.mazemaker.com/
Amazon Nails Straw Bale Building, Lancashire http://www.strawbalefutures.org.uk/
Ample Bosom, North Yorkshire http://www.amplebosom.com/
Herdwick Woolies, Cumbria http://cumbriaherdwiskwoolies
Woolfest, Cumbria http://www.woolfest.co.uk
Woolclip, Cumbria http://www.woolclip.com
Wooly Rug Company, Cumbria http://www.woollyrug.com/

Rural media arts, design, communications
Amber Films, Newcastle http://www.amber-online.com/
Cybermoor project, Cumbria http://www.cybermoor.org
Folly Lancaster: Grow Your Own Media Lab http://folly.co.uk
Forest of Dean Radio, Gloucestershire http://www.fodradio.org/
New Start Magazine, Sheffield http://www.newstartmag.co.uk
Ruralnet Online http://www.ruralnet.org.uk

Government agencies, projects and publications
Arts Council England http://www.artscouncil.org.uk
"Cream of the crop. Case studies in good practice in arts development
in rural areas of the North West of England,"
Arts Council England, North West, publication
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publications/ publication_detail.php?sid=14&id=403
"Creative Industries: helping the North West to flourish,"
Arts Council England, North West, News, January 2006
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/regions/ newsletter_detail.php?rid=5&id=187
"Our agenda for the arts in the North West 2006-8," Arts Council England
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publications/ publication_detail.php?browse=recent&id=531
"The Arts and Rural England," Arts Council England
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/aboutus/ project_detail.php?rid=7&id=377
Creative LeicesterShire, Leicester http://www.creativeleicestershire.org.uk/
Cumbria Art in Education http://www.cumbria.gov.uk
Defra UK - Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs http://www.defra.gov.uk/
Leader + http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rur/leaderplus/index_en.htm
Leader + in the U.K. http://www.ukleader.org.uk/
Mid Pennine Arts, East Lancashire http://www.midpenninearts.org.uk/

Farm, agriculture and food organizations
Clitheroe Farm Auction Mart, Clitheroe http://www.auctionmart.co.uk/
Doors of Perception, Newcastle http://www.doorsofperception.com/
Framework for Change Sustainable Farming and Food Initiative, Yorkshire
http://www.f4c.org.uk/index.htm
National Non-Food Crops Centre, York http://nnfcc.so.uk

Creative Industries consultants, cultural organizers, advocates, networks
Artists@Work, Cheshire http://www.artistsatwork.org.uk
Arts in the Peak, Derbyshire Dales http://www.artsinthepeak.org.uk/
Burns Owen Partnership http://www.bop.co.uk/
Creative Clusters, Sheffield http://www.creativecluster.com
Cumbria Network, Cumbria http://www.thecumbrianetwork.co.uk
Littoral, Lancashire http://www.littoral.org.uk
"New Rural Arts Strategy report" (pdf)
http://www.littoral.org.uk/HTML01/pdf/NRA_Strategy.pdf
"Cultural Strategy for Rural England" (pdf)
http://www.littoral.org.uk/HTML01/pdf/RCStrategyDCMS_Paper.pdf
Made in Cumbria http://www.madeincumbria.co.uk
Natural England http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/

Projects outside England
A.T.E.L.I.E.R, France (European Association for Study, Liaison, Innovation, Research into Textiles) http://perso.wanadoo.fr/atelier.laine
Culbilog, Netherlands http://www.culiblog.org/
IASKA Project, Western Australia http://www.iaska.com.au/
Kultivator, Sweden http://www.kultivator.org/
My Villages, Germany and Netherlands http://www.myvillages.org/
On the Edge, Aberdeen, Scotland http://www.ontheedgeresearch.org/

Milk Hill, Wiltshire, poster for Littoral's Rural Arts & Culture program; copyright Steve Alexander; reproduced with permission from Littoral.

Linda Frye Burnham is the co-director of Art in the Public Interest and the Community Arts Network on the World Wide Web.

This story was written (in a briefer form) for the November 2006 issues of a-n magazine, a publication of The Artists Information Company, based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England.

Original CAN/API publication: October 2006