Stainforth Library - Outdoor Art
I have been experiencing problems with regards to finding information on the group behind the wonderful presentation of outdoor art which can be seen outside Stainforth Library. The library staff have been most helpful and have done some searching on my behalf. They have managed to find me a photocopied report from "Youthstart Stainforth" - Paula Jackson (Org.) & Ailsa McInnes (Project), who were at the time based at East Lane House.
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The report is an update on the group's activities after five sessions of working with local "young people" and defines the outlines of the project, which was, "To work with the youth group of Stainforth and to carry out consultation and practical workshops which will lead up to the fabrication of a public art work". Being a photocopy, the photographs used to illustrate it are of poor quality and are not worth reproducing for the internet, but the picture on the right shows a sketch for an early outline of the "time window" |
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Local Poet, Ian McMillan joined the group for a few days during Spring Bank holiday (2000?) and, using photographs of Stainforth taken by the group, created collage landscapes which acted as inspiration for poetry about Stainforth.
Using elements from the poetry and from reference to a local history book, an idea was formed to create a "time window" containing still life imagery, looking from the present into the past.
The report mentions planned future sessions
during which the young people will be encouraged to meet with some of
Stainforth's older members in an effort to gather information of Stainforth's
past and also to find out what their aspirations for the town were when
they were teenagers themselves.
Future workshops were also planned during which groups of young people
would create carved individual blocks for placing around the window, or
leading to it as "a trail of memories".
Hopefully, I will acquire copies of photographs taken at these workshops and post them on this site later.
Finally, the report tells how finding
a suitable site for the sculpture posed something of a problem for Youthstart
Stainforth.
After considering several sites around Stainforth, most of which were
deemed unsuitable due to location or vandalism problems, it was decided
that Stainforth Library would be the ideal place. The report describes
the library as, "not the most attractive of buildings from the outside",
and goes on to say how the organiser "feels a piece of artwork could
raise it's profile".
This is the poetry which inspired the artwork
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Stainforth Stainforth Stainforth Stainforth Stainforth
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