September 2020

Back in Jan 2020 Vik created work for Celebrate Chelston project to make a willow wander sculpture trail with and by the Community of Chelston, connecting all ages with live willow workshops in the local parks. Working with local schools and members of the community we created beautiful live willow sculptures depicting a hedgehog, a hare and an owl, three of Chelston’s parks 

This project gave us the opportunity to work with fellow artist Kate Linden and producer Laura Carus to create a cultural event that brought the community together to celebrate the green spaces of Chelston. The workshops proved really popular with the community, where together we planted and wove these large living sculptures.  The sculptures are providing pride & positive focus to those who use the parks for daily exercise. Further workshops were due to take place but we had to be adaptable evolving the project to creatively respond to lockdown.

We wanted to ensure that the community continued to engage creatively the with the project so we created 200 willow sculpture kits which were posted to residents of Chelston via the Celebrate Chelston Facebook Page. The kits were really popular, it’s offered barrier free opportunity to develop creative skills. The culmination of the project eventually took place in early  September where we managed to bring a pavement parade through the streets of Chelston. It was fantastic to entertain people safely on their doorsteps and via the facebook live event. Huge thanks to  The Crooked Tempo Samba Band, Higher Beings, Elric the Juggler, Trio of Men, Doorstep Arts and many more who got involved and bought a bit of Summertime Rio to Chelston.

This project is funded by Torbay Culture as part of their Great Places Scheme.

The Great Places Scheme is funded by The National Lottery, Arts Council and Heritage Fund.