One-day art exhibition 'Tranquil Tales: Kidsgrove Canal Art Trail’ takes place on Saturday 2 March, with family friendly activities and guided walks which draw attention to the canal as a site for leisure and to the nature living along our waterways.
Hosted in partnership with Appetite and the Canal and River Trust, Staffordshire University BA (Hons) Fine Art students have created the public art trail, responding to the history, ecology and potential future of the canal.
Visitors can wander along the canal from the Kidsgrove entrance to the Harecastle Tunnel, along to the steps leading up to Kidsgrove Train Station, and can experience the series of artworks installed along the route.
Hands-on activities, including crafts, meditation and nature watching activities will take place throughout the afternoon. There is an opportunity to go on a short guided walk where the Fine Art students will give a brief introduction to their displayed works, plus MSc in Entrepreneurship student Emma Cronin of Wild Pickle will host a foraging walk.
Anna Francis, Associate Professor of Fine Art and Social Practice, explained: “Each year our Fine Art students take part in a variety of professional opportunities which support them in developing key skills, experiences and networks which will help them in embarking on their creative careers.
“This year’s Kidsgrove Canal Art Trail is one example where our students have investigated and made works in response to an important historic local site, and have engaged with partners to deliver a public event which provides them with a whole host of important new skills. The emphasis of the project this year has been to show how spending time in our urban nature sites can give such important relief, while also recognising the urgent situation we face globally to address climate change and biodiversity loss.”
Student Lucy Shuttleworth’s artwork ‘Thought Gobbler’ is a mini trail of painted log slabs which invites visitors to hunt for Bob, an aquatic creature who can be found hanging around the canal, consuming all the negative thoughts of the passersby and releasing positive energy back.
This new folklore tale emphasises the importance of taking mental health walks in a peaceful environment, while connecting to nature.
Lucy said: “Taking part in the Canal Trail will further my goals to not only use art to interact with the community but to also communicate to them on a deeper level. Mental health and wellbeing is a big part of my life and I want everyone to benefit from taking a moment to appreciate the small things in life by enjoying the canal and our outdoor exhibition there.”
Tranquil Tales: Kidsgrove Canal Art Trail takes place at 12 – 3.30pm on Saturday 2 March 2024. Meet at Harecastle Tunnel (North Portal), Kidsgrove, ST7 1AQ to pick up your Trail Map.
Details of activities to get involved in:
12 – 1pm and 2 – 3pm Foraging Walk with Emma Cronin of Wild Pickle
Forager and fermenter Emma Cronin of Wild Pickle will lead two one-hour foraging walks during the afternoon. Along the way you will note the surprising number of things that can be foraged in late winter and also get an overview of the Forager’s Code of Practice.
Booking via Eventbrite is essential.
1pm Guided Art Trail Walk
A chance to hear about the art works displayed along the Canalside, meet at the Kidsgrove Canal Harecastle Tunnel North Portal at 1pm.
12 – 3pm Drop-in activities throughout the day
Hands on creative activities and meditation sessions with Art Students from Staffordshire University, plus take part in a Pollinator Habitat Survey with Biodiversity Specialist Andrea Ku.
About the Artworks:
The Three Portals is a mixed media piece created by artist Humaira Asghar.
The piece celebrates 1.6-mile-long Hardcastle Tunnel, once used to transport wares to the Potteries kilns, and then out to the world. Through this mixed media artwork, the artist aims to ignite the imagination of visitors and travellers alike: Are you entering an ordinary canal tunnel or is it a portal to another dimension in space and time?
Thoughts About Daffodils is a large-scale oil painting on Canvas by Kelsey Smith
Exploring the healing properties of natural environments and how a sense of romanticism intertwines itself with the tranquillity of the canal’s surroundings, Kelsey’s work is inspired by her own experience taking part in a Kidsgrove Canal Nature Walk. Drawing on aspects from Wordsworth’s ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’, Kelsey connects her own feelings of awe and wonder with romantic notions of the sublime to encapsulate how nature can elevate our minds and help the process of regulating emotions. The semi-submerged figure depicted in the painting is representative of this feeling of submersion in the city, and how we can find relief and solace in the “bliss of solitude” that Wordsworth famously reveres. The painting is accompanied by a daffodil bulb planting activity.
Reflections of Nature is a mixed media, painted installation by Kylie McDowell.
Kylie’s work responds to human interaction with the natural environment. Through the use of colour and shape the work interacts and responds to the plant life and architecture of the canal. The Painted shapes are forms that have been observed and then lifted from the canal and made from cork, a sustainable material, with paint poured onto the surface. The works interpret and intervene within the environment of the canal.
Worldbuilding is a mixed media diorama created by Leo Perkin.
Leo’s diorama takes inspiration from areas of nature along the canal, including plant and bug life - the miniature sculptural work hones in on micro-ecosystems: little worlds varying in size, location, and life within them, looking almost like separate islands or planets. The idea of worldbuilding interested Leo with this diorama, likening the small pockets of nature observed as akin to terrariums people keep in their own homes, man-made ecosystems within a glass container.
Rejuvenate is an oil painting by Lii Smith
Taking inspiration from the legend of the Boggart, Lii’s oil painting explores how small historical details can taint a space. Through research into the legend, Lii became fascinated by the negative emotions evoked by the Boggart, aiming to rewrite the story to emphasise the natural beauty of the site.
At the time the artist started work on this painting it was deep winter; demonstrating the beauty of a winter scene where the trees are bare, and the sky grey is a challenge, but the resulting image is a true reflection of the site. Focusing on the damp and mossy walls under the railway bridge, with bright, deep greens, no detail has been left disregarded, capturing the unique essence of place.
The Kidsgrove Boggart mixed media painting on board by Louise Pover
Louise has taken inspiration from the story of The Kidsgrove Boggart. Legend has it the Boggart is the spirit of a woman who was killed and beheaded by boatmen as she travelled to London through the Harecastle tunnel. Louise created a portrait aiming to give form to this lady using black and grey toned charcoal on tea-stained wood (which mimics the colour of the canal water). She applied the charcoal using brushes to give the Boggart a transparent and ghostly look.
Rest is a mixed media installation and workshop by Rico Sin
Rico's work is inspired by the experience of feeling healed after a walk at the Kidsgrove Canal. The hand built bench is created using glass bricks, iron, polycarbonate plate, and spray paint. By installing the bench canalside, he hopes to give visitors a chance to sit down and feel calmed by the natural environment around the canal and to experience a sense of healing, in the same way he has when visiting the canal. During the canal trail, Rico will invite participants to create a Hapa-Zome print, as a lasting memory of the afternoon.
Recovery is an acrylic painting onto a wooden panel by Vania Cheng
Vania is inspired by the healing power of nature. Although the Kidsgrove Canal and the Harecastle tunnel may have lost its original industrial purpose; as time passed the plants nourished the canal and supported it to regained its former vitality. The baby depicted in the artwork is a vessel that also heals the canal, welcoming the visitor as they walk through the canal, embodying this sense of healing through plants, using acrylic to combine the canal folk art to accentuate the canals natural features.
Meditations is a series of Prints and artworks by Yuliia Holovatiuk-Ungureanu.
A series of Lino prints depicting meditation at Kidsgrove Canal, plus a diptych of 2d works representing teasels, one of the plants to be found growing along the canal. These works are inspired by the canal's meditative beauty, its nature and calming landscapes.
Thought Gobbler is a mini-trail of painted log slabs by Lucy Shuttleworth
A series of paintings on log slabs that depicts a small aquatic creature named Bob. Bob can be found hanging around the canal, consuming all the negative thoughts of the passersby and releasing positive energy back. This new folklore tale emphasises the importance of taking mental health walks in a peaceful environment, clearing your mind of all the clutter and improving your mental well-being while connected to nature. Lucy invites visitors to enjoy a game of hunt for Bob during your visit.