Art workshops for children with artist Anna Clough - help create a new sculpture at Eskdale Mill

About

Youngsters are invited to help create a major art installation this half-term in a meadow at Eskdale Mill, Boot.

Working with Cumbria-born artist Anna Clough, children aged 7-11 will turn the clock back to medieval times during a series of FREE workshops.

Anna will guide youngsters to create rush mats - weaving with hay and willow, alongside drawing and writing about fantastical machines of the future.

Soft rushes are a keystone species. They grow aggressively, covering a large percentage of wetlands and farmers' fields. For multiple types of birds, invertebrates and aquatic life, they provide shelter, safety and food. They help to keep the correct water levels, keeping the ecosystem afloat, filtering the water, and cleaning out the waste from the tributes that have flown from the valley into the wetland.

Rush bearing is a Northern English Medieval tradition which would bring communities together to celebrate the changing of the season. The whole village would parade floats up to the church and change over the old floor to keep the church warm in winter.

Anna will work with children on Sunday 25th and Monday 26th October at Eskdale Mill to make rush mats. There are two sessions each day 1130-1300 and 1400-1530.

The workshops will draw on the histories of the rush - using them as a mirror to the landscape of West Cumbria. Children can book their FREE place.

The creations made in the workshops will form a brand new sculpture at the meadow at Eskdale Mill which will be unveiled on Wednesday 28th October. This celebratory event will run from 11am-3pm and include talks from local ecologists and sound installation of local environments by RL Wilson.

This sculpture will reflect the natural and industrial landscapes of Cumbria; where the fells are populated by mines and quarries, sheep and cattle farms, and its coast home to fishing ports, Sellafield and BAE.

This project is part of RE Drift which brings together artists, residents, ecologists and researchers - making responses to the environment of West Cumbria. Funding comes from Arts Council England and Everyone Here.

Anna Clough is an artist from Cumbria, currently based in Manchester. Led by process, her work spans sculpture, installation, and video. Anna Clough explores landscape, questioning the entanglement of industrial, natural and human ecologies.