Future Bridges
Project Outline
Having almost completed the second bridge, "Mama Africa", we now aim to secure funding to do the other five bridges all at the same time. We are in the preparatory phase of applying for funding to a number of public bodies and private sponsors.The artwork of the next bridges will relate to railway journeys in separate continents and each bridge will have a signature colour as follows (orange being the designated colour for the recently completed Loughborough bridge / "Mama Africa" bridge) :
- Flaxman Bridge- India - Indigo
- Hinton east west Bridge- Far East Asia - Yellow
- Hinton north south - South America- Green
- Shakespeare - North America - Blue
- Station - Australasia - Violet
Our project is not only about turning the bridges into artworks: being part of the Loughborough Junction Action Group which has worked incessantly for the last 10 years to make the area a better place for its residents, our goal is to help tackle social issues as well as preserving and sharing the industrial heritage and history of the area. By taking the project to other continents, we want to offer to both local artists and artists abroad a chance to exchange skills, collaborate, learn new crafts and, ideally, set up new enterprises.
We would like now to move forward by assigning to five major UK artists leadership for each bridge: they will choose an itinerary along their continent of choice and visit the communities along the way learning new crafts, and will be responsible to commission a local artist in their chosen location in order to create a similar, smaller artwork in that location. Artists will be encouraged to exchange artistry and crafts, so that there will be an artistic link between the artworks in Loughborough Junction and those in the various continents. Prior to the journeys we will encourage UK artists to research and consider the predominant cultures present in LJ, so that the journeys can link to as closely as possible with them. Similarly to the schools involvement we've had while making the fossils of the first completed bridge (the Cambria Bridge), we would like to twin each bridge to a local academy or school, to set up art workshops and get the students to participate. Likewise we will invite foreign artists to involve local communities and schools.