Goonhilly School / Skol Gun helghya
Goonhilly Village Green, 2015 & 2019
Photos: Artur Tixiliski
In addition to The Community Programme and The Gathering, Goonhilly Village Green developed and ran two exciting days of outdoor learning for 200 local primary school children from the Keskowethyans Multi-Academy Trust.
For GVG 2015, we welcomed Year 5 & 6 pupils from schools across the Lizard for a programme of hands-on activities produced by commissioned artists Liminal, with Claire Scott and the National Trust Outdoor Rangers.
As part of their commission, Liminal built a 6m-tall tower for the Village Green. The tower held five bells; one for each of the parishes whose boundaries converge at the Dry Tree Menhir on Goonhilly Downs. Children from the five parish schools composed chimes to be rung from the bell tower, bringing the sounds together to create a ‘parish peal’. This Transient Parish was struck throughout the day of The Gathering. The workshops were supported by students from Falmouth University’s BA Architecture course and storyteller Mark Harandon rounded off the day with a selection of local legends.
Liminal also designed a sound treasure hunt for the pupils, made up of five stations. The children were divided into five groups that blended the schools together.
The activities for the various stations involved:
•lifting sound - a workshop to raise sound as high as you can
•capturing sound - using ‘ear trumpets’ made of coiled plastic
•magnifying sound - with ‘sound collectors’ which operated like mini satellite dishes
•building small towers
•creating their own peals using numbers
As part of their commission, Liminal built a 6m-tall tower for the Village Green. The tower held five bells; one for each of the parishes whose boundaries converge at the Dry Tree Menhir on Goonhilly Downs. Children from the five parish schools composed chimes to be rung from the bell tower, bringing the sounds together to create a ‘parish peal’. This Transient Parish was struck throughout the day of The Gathering. The workshops were supported by students from Falmouth University’s BA Architecture course and storyteller Mark Harandon rounded off the day with a selection of local legends.
Liminal also designed a sound treasure hunt for the pupils, made up of five stations. The children were divided into five groups that blended the schools together.
The activities for the various stations involved:
•lifting sound - a workshop to raise sound as high as you can
•capturing sound - using ‘ear trumpets’ made of coiled plastic
•magnifying sound - with ‘sound collectors’ which operated like mini satellite dishes
•building small towers
•creating their own peals using numbers
“Thank you to everyone involved in the organisation of such an exciting, thought-provoking and informative day.”
Coverack Primary School
In 2019, the GVG team collaborated with Great Scott! Adventure Outdoors and Miraclewood Outdoors to devise another enjoyable day of outdoor learning for local children. Year 6 pupils from the same five local schools participated in workshops that responded to themes explored in the GVG artists’ commissions:
Lost and Found was held on The Green. The workshop introduced pupils to using a compass and directions before making their own working compass from everyday objects and items found in nature. It played with ideas explored in Sara Bowler’s audio work Boundaries, thinking about how we find our way around, even if we don’t know where we are.
Why our Planet? drew on Goonhilly’s history of sending messages through space, both to people and potentially passing extraterrestrials! In pairs, the children used mirrors and reflections to create secret messages before attempting to decipher one another’s, akin to the Goonhillygrams workshop led by Phyllida Bluemel at The Gathering and The Community Heritage Programme. The correspondence was themed around what they would tell an alien about planet Earth and considered why an alien might want to land here.
Catching Shadows ran outside the Happidrome, where school groups created shadow drawings and ephemeral contact photos to explore fleeting shadows and shapes in the surrounding natural environment, drawing on Goonhilly’s ever changing weather and unpredictable seasons. The workshop was influenced by Oliver Raymond Barker’s commissioned work that involved a camera obscura; utilising simple photographic techniques to inspire new ways of seeing.
Lost and Found was held on The Green. The workshop introduced pupils to using a compass and directions before making their own working compass from everyday objects and items found in nature. It played with ideas explored in Sara Bowler’s audio work Boundaries, thinking about how we find our way around, even if we don’t know where we are.
Why our Planet? drew on Goonhilly’s history of sending messages through space, both to people and potentially passing extraterrestrials! In pairs, the children used mirrors and reflections to create secret messages before attempting to decipher one another’s, akin to the Goonhillygrams workshop led by Phyllida Bluemel at The Gathering and The Community Heritage Programme. The correspondence was themed around what they would tell an alien about planet Earth and considered why an alien might want to land here.
Catching Shadows ran outside the Happidrome, where school groups created shadow drawings and ephemeral contact photos to explore fleeting shadows and shapes in the surrounding natural environment, drawing on Goonhilly’s ever changing weather and unpredictable seasons. The workshop was influenced by Oliver Raymond Barker’s commissioned work that involved a camera obscura; utilising simple photographic techniques to inspire new ways of seeing.
“The feedback at school has been overwhelmingly positive. The children had a fantastic time.”
St Keverne Primary School
FUNDERS AND PARTNERS
Goonhilly Village Green was an experimental project led by artists Sara Bowler and Elizabeth Masterton and produced by Field Notes. In 2019, 5 artists were commissioned to work with partner organisations and a programme of talks and workshops took place in locations on the Lizard and in nearby towns, ahead of The Gathering, a village fete style event, on Goonhilly Village Green on 18th May.
Goonhilly Village Green was supported by funds from Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund, FEAST, Ernest Cook Trust Enviroment & Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter and the Elmgrant Trust, and in partnership with Natural England, GES Ltd., The Museum of Cornish Life, Trelowarren Estate, Lizard Outreach Trust and Goonhilly Heritage Society.
Goonhilly Village Green was supported by funds from Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund, FEAST, Ernest Cook Trust Enviroment & Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter and the Elmgrant Trust, and in partnership with Natural England, GES Ltd., The Museum of Cornish Life, Trelowarren Estate, Lizard Outreach Trust and Goonhilly Heritage Society.
GET IN TOUCH:
info@fieldnotes.org.ukThe development of this website was supported by Cultivator Cornwall
