Sculpture trail at Holy Island
My family and I had a lovely evening on Holy Island, taking part in the launch event for the new willow sculpture trail, hosted by the Peregrini team and Natural England. The sculptures are incredible and it was great to meet the volunteer artists who created them and who are so passionate about the Peregrini project. Unfortunately, the fading evening light didn’t make for very good photography but my best attempts are posted below.
The sculptures, which are situated at eight points on the walk, depict island wildlife - lapwings, eider ducks, artic terns, short eared owl, the endemic Lindisfarne helleborine, swallows, Brent geese and the green hairstreak butterfly. Sarah Winlow from Peregrini explained that the sculpture trail project aimed to:
1. Draw people away from the village and encourage them to explore the rest of the island.
2. Support heritage skills and enabled new people to get involved in the traditional craft of basketry.
3. Celebrate the wildlife on Holy Island
The project has also produced a trail leaflet to interpret the walk but, unfortunately, this was not available on the night.
The evening walk, in the fading sunlight at the end of a beautiful day, had a real celebratory feel. The volunteers who had contributed to making the sculptures were thrilled to see their artworks in situ and many, many photographs were taken. Overwhelmingly, they were proud of what they had achieved. Feedback from the participants (many of whom had taken part in several projects provided by Peregrini) was all positive with comments such as “Do more of it,” “Keep it going,” and “Don’t let it end”, reflecting on their experience of the whole Peregrini programme.
Evaluation questions for this project are:
1. Does the trail encourage new people to explore the island (i.e. people who would otherwise not have ventured out of the village)?
2. Do the people that use the trail learn about the wildlife on Holy Island?
3. Has the project engaged new audiences in basketry skills (i.e. people who have never tried this before) or provided opportunities for people to continue a skill that they couldn’t have done otherwise (i.e. people who have tried basketry before but didn’t have access to a group or other means to keep doing it)?
4. What is the legacy of this project? Can the groups and people involved keep going after Peregrini ends?
