Northumbrian Stories from Sill to Sea

We are proud to say that our Northumbrian Stories from Sill to Sea Installation has been commissioned by Great Northumberland.  

These co-creative workshops combine storytelling and textile to connect local people to the landscape. We are using local wools, hand made felts and fabrics such as Otterburn tweed and the Northumbrian Shepherds Plaid and other beautiful materials to depict stories in textiles. Allie has designed a structure inspired by the landscape into which these community made pieces will be woven, co-creating a larger textile installation of 5 x 2m x 1m hand painted silk screens.

Workshops are suitable for all ages and experience. If you or your group might like a workshop do get in touch with allie@headwayarts.co.uk

The finished artwork is touring galleries and community venues across the region, dates to be announced.

 

Sill to Sea Performance and Filmmaking with Haltwhistle Film Project

This project is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and connects learning disabled people with heritage and the northern landscape through storytelling. We are taking inspiration from research into local archives at Woodhorn. We are working with amazing landscape discovery officers from our partners at the The Sill and the wonderful storyteller Laureate Taffy Thomas.

Taffy is a living legend and widely thought of as the best storyteller in the country, if not the world!

See Taffy on Youtube

We’ve got together a world-class creative partnership to connect with Northumbrian heritage, develop new skills, discover stories to help inform our learning disabled actors and film makers research.

The material is as vast as the Northumbrian horizon with tales about Duergars, Boggles, Wild Goats and of course the Faery folk but also The Reivers, Romans, Farmers and independent spirited people of the land of Northumbria.

The exciting next stage is to gather our learning and then devise and script a new film and live performance to retell and share this wonderful heritage with a wide audience – from Sill to Sea.

Anyone interested in getting involved – we’d love to hear your story…

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of all our funders which currently includes:

  • Arts Council England
  • Blyth Town Council
  • Community Foundation
  • Edward Gostling Foundation – RW Mann Trust – Shears Foundation
  • Erasmus+
  • Great Northumberland
  • Hadrian Trust – High Sheriff of Northumberland – Rothley Trust
  • Heritage Fund
  • National Lottery Community Fund
  • Northumberland County Council
  • Postcode Community Trust
  • Scope
  • Sir James Knott Trust
  • The 1989 Willan Trust – Wellesley Trust
  • the Coalfields Regeneration Trust