The Long Way
Go Happen
Plymouth Art Weekender, 2018
Photo: Rod GonzalezPlymouth Art Weekender is a three-day city-wide festival that celebrates Plymouth, its people and the visual arts, promoting the city as an exciting contemporary art destination. Under our leadership as Programme Coordinators in 2018, The Weekender hosted 140 projects, events and exhibitions across 63 venues, 22 of which actively engaged local communities in the development or delivery of the projects, and showcased the work of 300+ artists to an audience of over 24,000. For the fourth iteration of the festival, we commissioned three temporary public art works, a writing commission and supported a small number of artists’ projects realised during The Weekender.
Photos: Rod Gonzalez
The Long Way, Go Happen, 2018
Wooden boat on wheels, audio, headphones
Collaborative duo Go Happen were commissioned to develop an interactive, promenading work for the city centre. Inspired by the story of Bernard Moitessier’s participation in the Sunday Times Golden Globe around the world boat race, Go Happen collected Plymouth residents’ stories of their own unexpected journeys; which were played back into a boat pulled along Armada Way. A broad range of people interacted with the work over The Weekender: from ex-marines and sailors, to artists and PAW explorers to families and shop workers.
The work explores the story of the solo sailor Bernard Moitessier and his non-stop one and a half time circumnavigation of the world in 1968-69, providing an accessible, playful celebration and re-telling of a romantic departure from Plymouth 50 years ago. Taking his journey as a starting point, Go Happen worked with local people to record accounts of departure, expedition and turning points in their lives.
During development of the work Go Happen ran creative writing and audio workshops at Union Corner in Stonehouse, at High View School and at the Plymouth School of Creative Arts; engaging 38 individuals in the production of The Long Way. The High View students created an exhibition of writing and drawing in response to the work, which was shown at the Atheneaum during The Weekender, and Drama students from The School of Creative Arts created audio recordings which were used in the final installation.
Go Happen received in kind support from Blagdons Boatyard and a volunteer boat builder as well as volunteer transportation of the boat.
Wooden boat on wheels, audio, headphones
Collaborative duo Go Happen were commissioned to develop an interactive, promenading work for the city centre. Inspired by the story of Bernard Moitessier’s participation in the Sunday Times Golden Globe around the world boat race, Go Happen collected Plymouth residents’ stories of their own unexpected journeys; which were played back into a boat pulled along Armada Way. A broad range of people interacted with the work over The Weekender: from ex-marines and sailors, to artists and PAW explorers to families and shop workers.
The work explores the story of the solo sailor Bernard Moitessier and his non-stop one and a half time circumnavigation of the world in 1968-69, providing an accessible, playful celebration and re-telling of a romantic departure from Plymouth 50 years ago. Taking his journey as a starting point, Go Happen worked with local people to record accounts of departure, expedition and turning points in their lives.
During development of the work Go Happen ran creative writing and audio workshops at Union Corner in Stonehouse, at High View School and at the Plymouth School of Creative Arts; engaging 38 individuals in the production of The Long Way. The High View students created an exhibition of writing and drawing in response to the work, which was shown at the Atheneaum during The Weekender, and Drama students from The School of Creative Arts created audio recordings which were used in the final installation.
Go Happen received in kind support from Blagdons Boatyard and a volunteer boat builder as well as volunteer transportation of the boat.
Photos: Go Happen
“I believe my mother (who donated the boat to their sailing club, and named it) would be delighted it could be used in an art themed way (being a art teacher at DHS for girls in the 60s).”
Will Blagdon
“I took part in a workshop run by Go Happen as part of Plymouth Art Weekender. Colette and Jacob were both extremely welcoming and supportive. They clearly guided us through a number of interesting explorative exercises to help us begin creating stories and looking at pivotal moments in our own life. It was an inspiring process for me, and gave me ideas to use within my own work in the future.”
Workshop participant at Union Corner
FUNDERS AND PARTNERS
Plymouth Art Weekender was coordinated by Visual Arts Plymouth and funded through the city wide Horizon project, a collaborative programme developed between Visual Arts Plymouth, KARST, Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth City Council and University of Plymouth. The two-year programme of visual contemporary arts was funded through Arts Council England’s Ambition for Excellence fund and supported by Plymouth Culture.
GET IN TOUCH:
info@fieldnotes.org.ukThe development of this website was supported by Cultivator Cornwall
