Celebrating Art in Fleetwood

Artists Residency at The Mount, Fleetwood

As Louise Wood’s artists residency at the Mount, Fleetwood has come to an end – we have been busy organising a celebratory event to showcase each of the ten sculptures she has made. Each piece reflects the maritime history of Fleetwood and has been on a journey before arriving back in time for today’s event.

I didn’t think we’d get all the exhibition ready in time,the last two pieces which had been over to Northern Ireland, arrived back at noon, and we opened the doors of The Mount at 1pm. Actually, we opened up at 9am to let Tony, the skipper of the Knott End ferry see his artwork!

Another artwork reflected local men’s involvement in the royal Naval Patrol Service, and they did us proud by bringing along their standards. The Mayor officially unveiled their artwork. He and the Mayoress (Fleetwood born and bred) stayed to talk to residents who had contributed during the community workshops, or who contributed stories. All this was set to a musical accompaniment provided by local musicians.

Children were catered for by storyteller Domonic Kelly. We’d scattered cushions upstairs and there was so much to see from the ten-sided clocktower that he was never short of inspiration for a story. To follow that, we’d devised a quiz about the park keeper in times gone by (the Mountie) and solvers all received a prize.

Many people were amazed at the beauty of The Mount and looked to what the future use of the building might be. All agreed that Louise Wood’s sculptural pieces both looked at the history of The Mount and saw a rosy future for the building.

 Jean Laurie, Arts Development Officer

Writing on the Wall

Creating masterpieces in the sunshine!

It’s been none stop for last few weeks and I completely forgot to share what a great event we had on the 10th October at Marine Hall in Fleetwood. ‘Writing on the Wall’ was part of the National Drawing Campaign, The Big Draw, with events across the country.

We had a fantastic day, the sun was smiling on us and everybody really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere, lounging around on the grass watching the artists at work, exploring the beach with Len, our Waterside Ranger and then doing some lovely observational drawings of their finds. The great team from Spearfish in Manchester then helped everyone transform their ideas, with spray cans, into vibrant graffiti boards that will be used again and again to decorate the Marine Hall.

Louise Smith
Arts Development Assistant