Four Acre 2011

‘We’re turning the remembering into reality- into art.’ Ray

St Helens MBC commissioned artist maker Lois Blackburn and poet Philip Davenport were engaged to reach older people in the arts. This took place in an economically deprived area.

The project included several activities. These were poetry, writing, and art workshops at the local Bingo. Other locations were the Chiropody clinic, Tescos, and the local library. There was also a day centre and intergenerational workshops with the Primary School.

Some powerfully moving encounters brought forth beautiful, fragile, funny work from a community that has been isolated and beleaguered.

Memories became drawings and poems. These, in turn, became saucy postcards, cakestands, tea cosies, embroidered bunting, napkins, tablecloths, and ceramics. In editing the work, we aimed to balance the playfulness of childhood reminiscence and the narrowing poverty that people described.

‘I’m learning a lot from everyone- the sessions are making me grow.’

The local community celebrated the work during a garden party. It has been left with the community as a lasting legacy.

We created a large-scale poem installation in St Helens town centre. This was done as a culmination of the project. The poem was written in icing sugar. The poem was a single line. It stretched along the bottom of the entire shop front of an abandoned Woolworth’s store. It was a work of collective reminiscence. The poem was verbatim from the older residents. It literally captured the voice of the community. The poem celebrated their past and also subtly reflected on the transience of all things.