I find there's a totally different take on this book if you dig a little.
My main problem with this project is understanding what it's all about.
The Book doesn't help itself - it doesn't give information about how the photographs came about.
The Lantern House hasn't communicated well.
The press could have helped us more.
Now it's my task - self imposed!
First I still approve of spending money , even £30,000 on the arts even if some of that money comes from our taxes. In this case perhaps some of it wasn't.
So first of all perhaps none of the money for this kind of project should come from taxes. There are plenty of people still loaded with money who could fund this kind of project.
For me there are plenty of opportunities to encourage creative expression without spending much - pottery on the railings - for instance.
If we're talking £30,000 , how about a sculpture by Chris Brammall - the money would have been spent here and the result could have been long lasting.
So what was the book about.
All the photos are linked directly to a person's view of colour. I guess it was an attempt to get us to reflect.
The video that has been made on Youtube helps though you need patience to hang on and listen to it all.
If you do, you'll get a much better idea of what the project is about as students interview themselves to describe what a particular colour means to them.
What would be interesting would be to hear from the rest of the people involved in the project what it meant to them.
I still come away thinking that the book is more about the Lantern House rather than the people in the town. However I've still to talk ato someone involved in the project directly.
I'm told that when 20 off the street were interviewed by Radio Cumbria, 16 liked the book.
It certainly is helpful to each one of us to be got to stop and reflect.
However this kind of initiative has to be finely tuned to the people one is dealing with.
Now the book means more to me than it did but I'd still prefer a Chris Brammall sculpture for the same money!
Below are links to most of the newspaper articles, provided by the Lantern House, some of them include participants stories:
book-launch-marks-end-of-colourful-art-project-
painting-the-town-red
bright-ideas
-art-book-project-branded-a-waste-of-money
Hundreds_help_to_paint_Ulverston_red____and_green_and_blue
Ulverston_book_spreads_word_about_the_town
1 comment:
Not sure what impression the book would make on someone who knows nothing about the background (we knew nothing about the background when the book arrived through the letterbox).
Ulverston? How? Why? Grey streets? This is Ulverston? Certainly not how I see it. I see it far more vibrant.
If a lot of people got something out of it so be it. But why impose it onto people who know nothing about the project and not likely to know by looking at the contents. This to me is the waste — of precious resources and money that could have been used usefully elsewhere. (Even if helping you expand your pottery etc.)
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