BBBOX tour during ‘Why we left the village and came back’ / Bishops Castle
year 2007
location BRITAIN, Bishops Castle
region West
host Adrian Plant and The Six Bells pub
 
 
about the travel One of the tours the box made during ‘Why we left the village and came back’ was to Bishop’s Castle on Sunday 14 January 2007. Bishop’s Castle is a small town in the south-west of Shropshire. The host, Adrian Plant, organized an informal evening for the artists of myvillages.org, initiators of the Bibliobox, to meet a number of Bishop’s Castle people.
 
Bishop’s Castle is well known locally for its cultural life, being a magnet for creative people and activity. As well as the base for a number of visual artists and craftspeople, it is also recognised as a hot spot for musicians and live music, and home to ‘Spotlight’ a project devoted to supporting and promoting young and emerging musicians.
 
Plant booked a small room at The Six Bells, a well known pub and meeting place, with it’s own beers brewed on the premises including Cloud Nine; Duck and Dive and Big Nev’s – a brew named after the landlord. A poster in the pub advertised the evening. Plant also invited a number of people involved in the ‘Spotlight’ project who, as well as being musicians, were interested in the visual arts as well.
 
About twenty people came along during the evening, ranging in age from 14 to 50, to share in a drink and the opportunity to meet with and find out informally about myvillages.org. Wapke Feenstra gave a general introduction to the Bibliobox before talking about ‘Why we left the village and came back’. She highlighted the ‘Sounds like Shropshire’ part of that project.
 
Animated discussions followed about a wide range of subjects including life in a rural location for young people, youth music culture, how artists are exploring sound as a medium and the concept of ‘sound-healing’. Two of the local young bands present (‘Funk the System’ and ‘Fight the Bear’) offered to send Wapke a copy of their upcoming CDs for possible inclusion in ‘What does Shropshire sound like?’. Photographs were taken and some moving image footage was shot (by Josh, aged 14) as a record of the evening.
 
According to Adrian Plant, who made this report, feedback from the evening has been very positive. It created a sense of the art and music ‘spaces’ in Bishop’s Castle having connections to and sharing issues with the many other places and projects represented in the Bibliobox archive. This sense of wider perspective was particularly valuable according to Plant. It also encouraged people to attend the symposium ‘Rural Art Space’ held in Shrewsbury and to visit the sites of myvillages and the bibliobox.
 
about the host Adrian Plant is exhibitions officer of the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery. Bishop’s Castle is his home-town.
 
contact Adrian Plant, 01743 361196, adrian.plant@shrewsbury.gov.uk
 
 
 
 
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