Annual Report 2019-20
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deveron projects annual report 2019/20 April 2019 - March 2020 1 Introduction Staff, Partners, Board, Artists Residency Programme / Projects Town is the Garden Slow Marathon FLAX B Means B Future Fruit Bordered Miles Heritage Bakehouse Neep & Okra Kitchen Weeping Willow Tree The Square Deal Research Programme / Events Kittelfrauen March Movement of Freedom Sound, Image and Place The Last Brexfast GRAFT Home Programme Friday Lunch Food Chain Farmers' Market Appendix Thanks 2 3 Introduction Now in its 24th year, there isn’t much Deveron Projects hasn’t addressed in our home town of Huntly. Always responsive to an ever-changing socio-political environment, 2019-20 saw the or- ganisation focusing on food culture, sustainability, town centre regeneration, political division and freedom of movement in a local context and beyond. The Town is the Garden completed a successful three year programme of growing, learning and sharing skills. Norma D Hunter investigated the context of a local poem and the people’s com- mons during the annual Slow MarAthon. Christine Borland gathered growers in Huntly and began a multi-year investigation into flax. David Ward was commissioned to compose B means B, an operatic exploration into the social divisions intensified by Brexit. Ela Orleans returned to Huntly for Sound Image Place, where she premiered Sylvan Ghosts / Viridian Echoes – an audio visual composition created during her 2018 residency. The Edinburgh Art Festival saw a collabo- ration with Many Studios to question barriers facing international artists working in Scotland and to draft a manifesto titled Movement of Freedom. Claudia delivered a 90k pilgrimage, co-cu- rated with Gabriele Konsor, to investigate the meaning of Partnerlook! Jonathan Baxter and Sarah Gittins, with the new addition to the family Ben, came to Huntly to consider how a Future Fruit orchard can respond to our current ecological and climate emergency. Clemens Wilhelm returned to plant the Weeping Willow Tree, collaborating with Richard Demarco and others to mark that important Day in History when the UK was officially split from the EU, while remain- ing in Europe. Iman Tajik was resident in Huntly to explore our relationship with Bordered Miles. Social architects Drassana helped shape the vision for the redevelopment of Square Deal, a Staff major capital project which continues into 2020/21. Deveron Projects launched the Neep & Okra Director: Claudia Zeiske Kitchen Huntly Heritage Bakehouse Project Manager: Robyn Wolsey and , two food initiatives allied with community efforts to Artists Art & Community Worker: Petra Pennington HOME regenerate the town. The programme continued to explore themes of community, identity, Ela Orleans / Clemens Wilhelm Town is the Garden Green Coordinator: Joss Allen locality and cultural exchange. / Gabriele Konsor / Christine Town is the Garden Project Gardener: Lindy Young Borland / Norma D Hunter / Town is the Garden Project Assistant: Caroline Gatt / Rhian Davies Throughout 2019/20, Deveron Projects employed 14 people, ran 8 internships, produced 4 short David Ward / Jonathan Baxter Neep & Okra Project Manager: Bill Logan / Kawther Luay Neep & Okra Chef-Artist: Kawther Luay / Nele Hinz films, raised over £630,000, delivered over 200 events with over 4000 participants, had 3039 & Sarah Gittins / Drassana / Iman Tajik Neep & Okra Chef Assistants: Daniel Mackie / John Sergison followers on Facebook, 1666 on instagram, and 73k website views. Heritage Baker: Robert Singer / Kate Taylor Beale Capital Project Consultant: Bryan Beattie Whew! We’re excited to ask, what’s next? Partners Capital Project Team: Jill Andrews, Architect / John Pascoe, CQS Creative Scotland Project Interns: Zeynep Yildiz / Will Gore / Xavier Verger / Midori Do- Aberdeenshire Council bashi / Alex Severn / Najmeh Doostdar / Rhian Davies / Trisha Mandal Big Lottery Fund Volunteers: Kjell Herben / Ingrid Wylie / Leo Gibson / Patrick Tumelty / British Council Lucy Edwards / Nicola McPherson / many more Wellbeing Festival Cleaning: Hilda Fowler / Alison Cockburn Foundation Scotland Website: Dorian Fraser-Moore Scottish Refugee Council Design: Mark Samouelle Marr Area Partnership Media: Lesley Booth The Orchard Project Board Climate Challenge Fund Dummuies Windfarm Yunior Aguiar / Steve Brown / Pauline Burmann / The Gordon Schools Camilla Crosta / Sinead Delaney /Andrew Dixon Private Donations / Iain Irving / Chloe Billy Kift / Tracey Mackenna / Goethe Institute Kevin MacIntosh / Alan Macpherson / Lynn Syrian New Scots Rutter / Christine Sell / Chantelle Thomson / Paths for All Jason Williamson / Mike Whittall and many more 4 5 Residency programme / projects From April 2019, a section of a circular flax planting was seeded every week for 6 weeks in the Brander Garden where it grew as a literal test-bed for the FLAX project. Participants are led through the aeons on a Cosmic Walk guided by Patrick Geddes at Huntly Community Orchard. The Neep & Okra team explored Pantry Food Fayre through a series of cookery workshops in Huntly Community Kitchen with the Huntly Food Bank and Alexander Scotts Hospital. Square Deal open day building tour. Lantern lit procession to The Weeping Willow Tree site by the banks of the River Deveron. 6 7 Town is the Garden Duration: April 2017 - March 2020 Activities: Discussion, Growing, Eating, Think- ing, Reflecting Funders/Partners: Climate Challenge Fund / The Finnis Scott Foundation / Action Earth / Tes- co Groundworks / The Grow Wild Fund Website: www.deveron-projects.com/town-gar- den/ The Town is the Garden began in 2017 with Joss Allen (Green Coordinator), Camille Si- neau (Project Assistant) and Lindy Young (Project Gardener), and was joined by Car- oline Gatt (Project Assistant) in 2018 and Rhian Davies (Project Assistant) in 2020. For 3 years, Town is the Garden explored the future of food production in Huntly through a programme of skills-sharing workshops, reading groups, seed swaps, educational in- terventions and explorations into alternative economies. Read a farewell from the Town is the Garden and a summary of the project’s events in their own words on p.25. The project leaves lasting legacies in Huntly and Deveron Projects, one of which is the Strathbogie Seed Collective - a community seed library located in Orb’s Bookshop, cu- rated by Dawn Finch, Katrina Flad and Joss Allen. The aim of the seed library is to share and disseminate viable seeds, especially heirloom and new local varieties that might otherwise be lost. The Town is the Garden Library, a collection of research, recipes and practical guides is hosted in the Neep & Okra Kitchen at No.8 Castle Street. Pictured: Conversations on the future of food at the Peoples Assembly, Hairst 2019; Queer Garden of Abundant Possibilities with Joe Crowdy 8 9 Norma D Hunter / Slow Marathon 2019 Duration: 20th & 21st April Activities: Walking, Reading, Po- etry, Right to Roam Funders/Partners: Creative Scot- land / Paths for All Website: www.deveron-projects. com/events/slow-marathon-2019/ The 2019 Slow Marathon ex- plored themes of poetry and our common right to roam through a route inspired by Huntly’s lo- cal poem; The Ba’Hill, the Battlehill, the Clashmach and the Bin, they all form a circle and Huntly lies within. Curated with Norma D Hunter, collaborating with Huntly Writ- er’s, the Rambling Rhymes Slow Marathon 2019 invited walkers to challenge their en- durance and participate in ar- tistic activities that helped the appreciation of the local envi- ronment and our access to it. The route took walkers on a circular walk around Huntly, as- cending and descending each of the four hills in the poem on the way. The start and end point of the walk was Huntly Town Square, and a booklet was made that illustrated the route of the walk. As part of the Slow Marathon weekend of events, we host- ed a Pathmakers’ Gathering at the Gordon Arms Hotel, where Claudia and Norma chaired a discussion between poets Calum Rodger and John Bol- land, which was entitled ‘Walk- ing, Poetry and the Commons’. Pictured: Walkers on the Castle Hotel avenue, returning to Huntly during Deveron Projects’ annual walking event ‘Slow Marathon 2019’ Pictured: Setting off from the Town Square; Preparations in the Brander Garden; Walkers at the top of the Clashmach; Collecting stamps en route 2 3 David Ward / B Means B Duration: April - August 2019 Activities: Composition, Opera, Brexit-Noise, Bureaucracy Funders: Creative Scotland Website: www.deveron-projects.com/b-means-b/ Local Huntly composer David Ward joined the Deveron Projects team in Summer 2019 to produce a chamber opera on and around the theme of Brexit and its impacts on our lives. Brexit has global implications, but also touch- es the smallest facets of our everyday lives. B Means B questioned whether we can get be- yond the ‘noise’ of the discord inherent within Christine Borland / FLAX the Brexit debate, and in doing so, whether we Duration: April 2019 - Ongoing can reach any points of shared understanding. Activities: Gardening, Local History, Colonialism Funders/Partners: Royal Scottish Academy / Royal Working with librettist Neville Rigby, David Botanics Edinburgh began composing an operatic piece reacting Website: www.deveron-projects.com/flax to aspects of the noise and confusion around Brexit. As a chamber opera, it is expected to Developed out of visual artist Christine Bor- be about an hour in duration, written for a small land’s time in Huntly as Thinker in Residence, company of four singers and six instruments. the FLAX project involves a 2-year research and The work will examine the opposing attitudes production period, with the aim of establishing a of Brexit through the eyes of a domestic family community of flax growers around Huntly. household in Scotland. Huntly once had a thriving linen industry. Re- Taking this global/local parallel approach placed by cotton, this has been reduced over the further, David plans to pair professional op- decades, along with the flax fields surrounding era-dramatic voices with singers, both profes- the town. After seeing the artefacts in the for- sional and amateur, from the folk music tradi- mer Brander Museum that document this thriv- tion of the North East of Scotland.