School and Community Projects
A small selection of recent projects
Writing Inspired by Landscape
Over a year of lockdown, a group of people living in the Fens came together to write about their experience and interconnections with the natural world.
Their writing is published on a blog. The group has grown and gone on to create a podcast of texts and music for listening while walking.
This project is in collaboration with MarketPlace as part of the Creative Conversations In Isolation commissions project. MarketPlace is part of the Creative People and Places programme, initiated and funded by Arts Council England through the National Lottery.
![CPP MarketPlace Logos Banner[66704].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cc8ea9_b0fe79ab15d4490ba007e4bdd22199c9~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_289,h_96,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/CPP%20MarketPlace%20Logos%20Banner%5B66704%5D.jpg)
Click Therapy’s second book SURVIVING LOCKDOWN - is a powerful combination of photography and heartfelt writing about life during the lockdowns of 2020/21.
The written contributions by Wisbech residents and community organisers was developed through lunchtime online workshops with writer Belona Greenwood acting as editor and mentor.
Fenland performers Jodie Hicks, Christopher Crowther & Glen O’Gorman brought the words to life in a staged rehearsed reading in Wisbech on October 22nd 2021.
![20220103_175653[174183] (2).jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cc8ea9_55dbdda3597942ecb08f36374084a037~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_385,h_227,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/20220103_175653%5B174183%5D%20(2).jpg)
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Marsh, Mills and Us
Marsh, Arts and Us is a 3 year scheme of projects that combines activities in the landscape of the Broads National Park with creative activities to increase the health and well-being of residents in Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. During each project, participants from Access Community Trust, Herring House Trust and DIAL enjoy trail walking and boat trips around various beautiful locations in the Broads followed by creative sessions reflecting and responding to these experiences.
The projects are funded by Arts Council England, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Suffolk County Council, Norfolk County Council and the Broads Authority.
Bernardo Bellotto, The Fortress of Konigstein from the North, 1756-58,
The National Gallery, London
A Spell for Understanding by Fenland Young Carers
We worked together to create a group poem to describe how young carers feel about their roles.
Conjured up during lockdown, this spell for understanding ‘all that we are, not all that we say’ was created by Young Carers in Fenland.
Watch their animated film here!
Walk, Talk, Create - Stories, Nature and Environmental Art
I had a magical summer term 2021 in the beautiful wildlife garden at Browick Road Primary and Nursery School. Working with all year groups, we created wonderful writing and environmental art inspired by original stories, such as The Little White Calf Who Wanted to Walk to the Moon, The Goddess of Growing Things and The Miracle Egg, an exploration of the environment, activities, conversation and art.
Read one of our group poems inspired by being outside.
SPAIN CLASS GOES WILD IN THE GARDEN
THE WIND SWAYS THROUGH THE TREES
A MYSTERY
THERE ARE 26 TREES IN THE GARDEN,
LEAVES UPON THE GROUND,
A BEAUTIFUL POND,
HAPPY FROGS HOP ABOUT.
THE TREES ARE LIKE GIANT HANDS
COMING OUT OF THE GRASS,
THE SKY LAYS LIKE A BLANKET
OVER THE GARDEN,
THE BIRDS SING BEAUTIFULLY,
BLUE TITS ARE NESTING,
SWEET FLOWERS SMELL OF LAVENDAR.
THE LEAF-GREEN AROMA OF APPLES,
AND HONEY-SCENT OF POLLEN,
OUR DAMP HANDS ON WET GRASS,
SOFT, SPONGY GRASS,
IT IS HAPPY AN JOYFUL,
PEACEFUL AND CALMING
WALK SOFTLY IN THIS WILD PLACE.
UNEXPECTED, SURPRISING,
AND OURS.
Writing Bellotto
Writer Belona Greenwood has collaborated with children from Browick Road Primary School in Wymondham, Norfolk, transforming their responses to Bernardo Bellotto’s masterpiece The Fortress of Konigstein from the North into a magical story called The Human Nightingale.
Commissioned by Norwich Castle Museum
Read some of the children's haikus here.
TESTIMONIALS
We have been lucky enough to work with Belona Greenwood on very different Restoration Trust projects, all involving people with serious mental health challenges in creative responses to heritage. She's a go-to creative writer for us because her kindness encourages people to risk being imaginative, she's a natural collaborator, and her own work is of high quality.
Laura Drysdale, Director, The Restoration Trust.
Belona is a wonderful writer and inspirational teacher. Her gentle manner encourages everybody to get involved, even those that have never written before. Belona's understanding, sensitivity and enthusiasm for a range of subjects, including ecology and the landscape, has enriched the Broads Authority's community engagement work no end and she has been a true asset.
Anna Collingbourne, Project Manager, Water, Mills and Marshes, Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Authority.