Keswick – Crow Park – Derwent Water North Lakes, CA12 5DJ Trust New Art: Socially engaged artist residency Artists’ Brief: The view down Derwent Water and Borrowdale from Crow Park Summary of initial ideas and themes: Crow Park was one of the original c1750 of Thomas West’s Lake District “Viewing Stations” and still boasts classic panoramic 360 views across the town towards Skiddaw and Blencathra, and across Derwent water to Catbells, Newlands and the Jaws of Borrowdale. 125 years ago the local vicar in Keswick, Hardwicke Rawnsley, along with his wife and other local people campaigned to secure the Lakes for a much wider constituency of people to enjoy: the vision was that the Lakes were a “national property”, and led to the creation of a “National” Trust, eventually a National Park in the Lakes and finally a “World” Heritage Site. What has been the impact of this vision on the local community, and especially on how they feel about the places on their doorstep, their home turf? And how can we ensure that they remain at the heart of this landscape in terms of feeling a stake in its use, enjoyment, protection, and plans for its future. What we want to achieve: We want to work with artists alongside community consultation to explore what people need from the places we care for NOW and in the future, and how that is different (if it is) from why they came into our care in the first place. In collaboration with our audiences, local partners and arts organisations we will creatively explore alternative visions of the future of this area and test ideas at Crow Park through events and installations working within the leave no physical trace philosophy. 1 Call for submissions DEADLINE: Sunday 10th November 2019 The North Lakes team want to work with an artist, or artist collective who work in socially engaged practice to develop an artistic programme for July – October 2020 that helps audiences explore the relationship between the people of Keswick and the landscape of the Lake District, with a particular focus on Crow Park and Derwent Water. This brief describes the context in which we see it working and gives details of how to apply. On behalf of the nation, the National Trust, looks after, conserves and promotes access and engagement with Crow Park, the lake and almost the entire view from Crow Park (looking south). About the National Trust The National Trust is a conservation charity founded in 1895 by three people who saw the importance of our nation’s heritage and open spaces, and wanted to preserve them for everyone to enjoy. Nearly 125 years later, these values are still at the heart of everything the charity does. Entirely independent of Government, the National Trust looks after more than 250,000 hectares of countryside, 780 miles of coastline and hundreds of special places across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. More than 26 million people visit every year, and together with 5.2 million members and over 61,000 volunteers, they help to support the charity in its work to care for special places for ever, for everyone. 1. Context Crow Park is a deeply significant location with many layers of meaning and resonance. It was chosen to host the official UNESCO plaque when the Lake District was designated as a World Heritage Site in 2017. Crow Park’s location, between the town of Keswick (population 5,000) and the lake creates a green ‘buffer zone’ between the town and the open countryside. It is used by dog walkers and local sports clubs as a recreation space. However, many visitors to Keswick are unaware that there’s a lake just ½ mile from the market square (a 20th century by-pass road effectively cuts the town off from the lake). Keswick used to sport the name of Keswick-upon-Derwentwater. We’re interested in exploring whether Crow Park could play a role in re-connecting the town to its lake. Historical relevance The park was an oak woodland until the mid 1700s when the trees were felled by the then landowners to raise income for the Greenwich Hospital for injured sailors. This action prompted what is possibly England’s first written expression of environmental protest: “Oct 4 – I walked to Crow Park, now a rough pasture, once a glade of ancient oaks, whose large roots still remain on the ground but nothing has sprung from them. If one single tree had remained this would have been an unparalleled spot;” Thomas Gray, 1769 2 Felling the trees revealed the incredible view, which helped to inspire the fledgling Picturesque movement, and Crow Park became established as a ‘Viewing Station’ or recommended viewpoint in early guidebooks to the Lakes. “Of all the lakes in these romantic regions, the lake we are now examining, seems to be most generally admired. It was once admirably characterized by an ingenious person who, on his first seeing it, cryed out Here is beauty indeed – Beauty lying in the lap of Horrour [horror]! We do not often find a happier illustration. Nothing conveys an idea of beauty more strongly than the lake; nor of horrour, than the mountains;” William Gilpin, 1772 In the 19th century, the local vicar at Crosthwaite church in Keswick was an active campaigner to defend public access to open spaces, inspired by Wordsworth and Ruskin. He protested against mining railways in the Lake District, founded the Keswick School of Industrial Arts to provide year-round income for farm labourers, instigated mass trespasses along nearby footpaths closed by private landowners and then co-founded the National Trust to protect open spaces for public benefit. Rawnsley was perceived by local residents as being an explosive activist force in the local community: “Ah doot yon’s the most active volcano in Europe” Keswick resident pointing at Rawnsley’s vicarage, late 19th century In this way, the landscape seen from Crow Park has both a significance to the people who live in the town, and also a significance as ‘a kind of national property’ as Wordsworth described the Lake District, and part of ‘a national gallery of natural pictures’ as Rawnsley described the National Trust, and now it’s recognised to be part of the heritage that belongs to humanity across the globe. The Lake District’s role as the birthplace of the modern conservation movement is one of the three ‘Outstanding Universal Values’ recognised by the World Heritage Site inscription We hope to engage with the local resident audience and to explore with them what the area means to them, and how they feel about its national and international significance. A creative arts project provides a new opportunity to explore this. We are looking for artists who are focused on socially engaged practice and who are interested in making work in relation to open air sites. Trust New Art helps to grow people’s love of our special places by using contemporary arts to explore and express ‘Spirit of Place’. It is supported by partnerships with Arts Council England. The programme helps to build new and repeat audiences for the arts and our properties and follows the Trust’s approach to programming. It provides commissioning and career opportunities to both emerging and established artists and has become recognised in the arts sector as a mark of quality. In 2020 there are eight TNA projects in the North region exploring different aspects of Art and Environment, Nature and Culture. 3 2. The project The Unesco World Heritage Site plaque at Crow Park, Keswick, © National Trust Images, John Malley 2.1 Our aims in launching this project are to: 1. Use a socially engaged approach to explore the interconnectivity of people and place. 2. Commission contemporary work that responds to place and explores the tensions between: a what this landscape means to the people who live here and b what it means to a global community following the Lake District’s (and local hero Rawnsley’s) role in inspiring a global conservation movement. 3. Facilitate inspiring and dynamic experiences that bring the heritage of this outdoor site to life using experiences that are in keeping with the philosophy of ‘leave no permanent trace’ and our conservation principles. 4. Facilitate community engagement and promote active participation of local residents at Crow Park. Why we’re doing this in 2020: • 2020 is the 125th anniversary of the National Trust was founded to protect special places for the benefit of the nation • 2020 is also the centenary of National Trust founder and local campaigner Canon Rawnsley. Through this project we would like to explore ideas about how we could mark the centenary. 2.2 We’d like to deliver these aims through the following objectives: • To commission, plan and deliver on site arts activity between July - October 2020. • To have a virtual hub for the project to signpost audiences to the project, which will include documentation of the project and its processes • All activities will be free or low cost, and designed to be inclusive 4 2.3 Themes These have been identified by the partners as possible starting points for the artists to develop the ideas, however the subject matter is for the artist to decide: • What places mean to people • Living in a World Heritage Site • The centenary of local ‘volcano’ Canon Hardwick Rawnsley 3. Project Structure & People 3.1 Project team members: Tom Burditt, General Manager North Lakes – Client for this project. Jessie Binns, Visitor Experience & Engagement Manager – Project Manager for this project Sophie Badrick, Visitor Experience Officer, Crow Park – Project team Cathy Newbery, Contemporary Arts Consultant, North – Project sponsor this project Clare Perry, Visitor Experience Consultant, North – project team Kerry Morgan, Derwent Riverlands Project Community Engagement Officer – can input as required Roy Henderson, Area Ranger for Borrowdale and Newlands Valley – project team 3.2 Permissions & maintenance Please note that Crow Park is an outdoor site with no covered or indoor space and no visitor facilities.