"I am fascinated by the general creative environment in Ulverston. I hope that I will be able to visit it at some point in the future to see if for myself."
I replied:
Stephen,
I think the creative environment has a lot to do with the size of the town which has held fairly relatively constant for many hundreds of years (% of total population) - now 12,000 with the closest town Dalton some six miles away.
Being a market town with a long history it has also acted as the centre for the surrounding area . It has had little to do with the far newer Barrow which has a very different culture.
Forty years ago it had thirty active pubs of very varied character; one the Bee Hive was just someone's front room and acted as the home of the Morris Dancers of the area, others had special interest groups like pigeons, folk singing, teachers, historians. The Town has had many breweries - Hartley's was the last substantial one with a strong following and a folk group, Bag of Rags, that sung songs about the beer. They were very good and attracted crowds to their events.
The character of the town attracts creative people to come and live here - John Gill and Sue Fox (www.deadgoodguides.com) found us in the '70s and brought Welfare State International ( http://www.welfare-state.org/) to set up its home at what is now the Lantern House (http://www.lanternhouse.org/ ).
They started us off with several alternative activities on Carnival Day which they ran. It was a great activity which ran out of steam because of lack of support possibly because of too much input came from Welfare State - it's a difficult balancing act.
Some activities like the Flag Fortnight ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMqGGQutP10 ) and the Lantern Procession have survived but are in danger of being over managed by people seeking the limelight. Our Flag Group came into being because there was the very real worry that the tradition would cease because of lack of support for the then organisers.
For creativity to thrive it needs to be independent of authority. In some senses it needs a cause which can be just bucking against authority and refusing to conform.
In my view those depending on grants have a hard time because the self esteem of the facilitators is put into question.
We also have a school which has attracted some very impressive teachers both now and in the past. Now we have Richard Butler who stimulates small musical groups of all kinds who perform both officially going abroad to events in Europe ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BraWY-oCVXE ) and others that perform both at their own events and perhaps busk in the town to raise money for a pet charity.
In the past we had an outstanding teacher of dance at the same school who also led her pupils on European tours.
We also have several bands that play on a regular basis in the Market Square. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0XwnsPLYt4
I guess the answer may be that we have lots of little groups operating independently so there is always one that is in the ascendent when one starts to bite the dust.
Thanks for your interest.
I think Ulverston is well worth a detour and now with high speed trains is getting closer all the time - I think 3.5 hours from Euston is possible.
We here don't think of London as far away, we come down regularly for the day - in fact my partner and I will be visiting the Miro exhibition at Tate Modern with a quick visit to Tate Britain and the British Library - within the month.
Best wishes
Remember there's a belief in London that there's nothing much worthwhile north of Watford Gap.
We just feel sad that you're missing out.
Why else would I return time and again having first come here in 1960, lived in San Francisco and London in the mean time and back here to stay?
Geoff Dellow
If you were to write along similar lines what would your explanation be for "Ulverston's creative environment"
No comments:
Post a Comment