What a busy March! We have been up to our necks in writing funding bids here at The Thrive Archive. Following some good advice from Creative Scotland our research bid for Come Awa has been redrafted and our big community project A Nest of Songbirds saw us flash-mobbing the port one sunny afternoon.
The story goes that there was once a willow tree in Fishermen’s Park. It supplied the raw materials for creels, skulls, crans and crab pots all used in the fishing industry. If the tree were to die then the fishing would stop. Today the park has been built on but Newhaven proudly boasts the finest Sculpture workshop in Scotland, the oldest school in Edinburgh – Victoria Primary – with the Wee Museum inside and so the youngest curators in Europe. So the perfect place to host the fishiest flash mob in history.
The bid title A Nest of Songbirds comes from a description of Newhaven in the 19th century when the village hosted 2 famous choirs. The bid is to enable a collaborative art project to effectively plan and develop a multi site specific performance to build community and to re-establish Willow as a sculptural resource in Newhaven. Working across the arts the project would include, design, new music, willow sculpture, a giant drawing, basket making and song and dance with local schools with the community and naturally the Newhaven Community Choir.
Please keep everything crossed for us. With the wind in the right direction we will hear more about our bids later in May and early in June! Sheila Masson kindly recorded our bid presentation that involved members of the choir flash mobbing us around the village, a goody bag of kippers thanks to Welch’s fishmongers and a song from Victoria School’s fantastic junior choir. No sooner had we sung ‘Nae boats noo doon by the harbour’ than the one remaining fisherman headed into port and unloaded his fresh sell fish onto the quayside!