Summer project No.3 is a slate sculpture garden and wall pieces for the shared grounds of Sandgate special needs school and Queen Katherine school in Kendal, Cumbria. The town was very badly affected by flooding last December (impacting the schools and their pupils and staff). The project was aimed at commemorating the community bonding that resulted from the trauma as well as acknowledging the hardship. I worked with small groups of young people from both schools to design powerful imagery which they painted and engraved on slate that we chose from the Honister Slate Mine (the last working slate mine in England). Images ranged from a wounded house and raging water overlaid with an ECG heartbeat line, to a food bank rainbow and rescues in action. (Articles about the project can be found in the Westmorland Gazette and Cumbria Crack). Due to to torrential rain, we couldn’t install all the work at the time, so I hope to post more pictures once the schools can complete the process at the beginning of the Autumn term.
Sheridan Quigley 