Welcome to the first newsletter of the year!
There is new growth and new energy both in the land and in our organisation. The pottery and the garden are being renewed, the willow bed has been cleared and cut to encourage new growth and the spaces are echoing with the sounds of exploration and creation from a whole range of groups. Find out more below!
The pottery/workshop space has largely lain sleeping since Covid. Its time to wake it up again!
Lucy and Pete bring you updates! This is a great space with wheels, kiln, workshelves, slabroller, extruder, wedging table, and lots of ‘making’ space. It can also be used for other ‘dirty crafts’. Over a period of time we have got rid of the accumulated, unwanted, materials. It has been cleaned, equipment serviced and repaired, it now has an easily washable floor, and repainting has started. We’ve also got some new crafts volunteers to help out.
And to celebrate, Pete and Lucy are starting some new creative clay and mosaic workshop sessions for those who want to try something new or get back to being creative in a beautiful farm environment.
Come and make some pottery with Peter and learn about hand building techniques in a small group or learn about wild clay in Devon and make a special slip decorated pot with Lucy’s Clayworks course. Design and make your own mosaic using seconds and broken pottery pieces. Or if you just want to do one fun, informative session in clay work come to one of our April ‘Tasters’.
Interested in doing any of these sessions have a look at the poster below for dates and prices. Any questions or more information contact Lucy create@organicarts.org.uk or visit the What’s On page or buy tickets online here
The Community Garden has a new gardener. Joining Lou and leading the team is Julie. Already she has been putting lots of energy into the vegetable garden. Here are her words
“Contrary to what most people think, winter on a farm is always busy, despite the shorter days. We’ve certainly done plenty at organicARTS since I started mid-January, and it’s been a pleasure to work with the brilliant team of volunteers on the ground. We’ve made plans for the garden this year and we are implementing a 4 beds crop rotation: legumes (peas and beans), brassicas (all the cabbages), roots (carrots, beets and parsnips) and heavy feeders (the veg that are actually fruits as they contain seeds like pumpkin and tomatoes, and potatoes) will be rotated in 4 of our beds over the next growing season. We are going to commit the last two beds to a range of wildflowers to feed bees, butterflies and insects and provide some lovely fresh flowers for our honesty stand over the summer. We have done a lot of clearing and cleaning- the greenhouse is sparkling and both the greenhouse and the polytunnel will be fumigated with a garlic candle this week to kill any overwintering pests. Garlic candles aren’t damaging to plants so our existing seedlings can safely stay where they are while it happens. Some of the old wood and broken pots have been put to good use in a big insect hotel that we will continue building over the next few months. The broad beans and onions have started growing, and thanks to wonderfully build rabbit cage they have been spared from our long-eared neighbours. We harvested, cleaned and froze all our winter leeks- a brilliant harvest that will last us a couple of months! Andy, who now owns West Town farm, is kindly rebuilding the rabbit fence, so we are hoping to be able to grow more and better this year. The next step for us will be to start early sowing of carrots, salad and beets, and to plant our live willow tunnel- we are ready for spring!”
The images below are from the latest volunteer days when the organicARTS team were clearing the willow bed then harvesting and bundling the withies ready for use in weaving. This links quite nicely with the school session images further down where Brazilian students from The Globe Language School are busy making charcoal from … willow!
We have been running exploring and creative farm based learning visits for schools and other education for years and years! We are starting to book up for this Spring and Summer with visits on discovering clay, local geography, charcoal making and drawing, seasonal food and fireside cooking and simply the joy of exploring the farm through the seasons. We have a limited number of funded visits through West Town Farm’s HLS scheme. Outside the funding our charges are very reasonable and there is also the offer of using the organicARTS minibus. Our exploring and creating sessions are available to all schools and community groups. Do get in touch with Kevin to find out more. kevin@organicarts.org.uk
We work with a lovely range of groups from the community. Here is The Pelican Project…
We are The Pelican Project; a group of young people with learning-disablities from across Devon. We are at the centre of a collective that includes community organisations, teachers, creators, students, our carers and families. Together, we collaborate with partners from across our region. We aim to help each other thrive, to make a positive impact on our communities and to make sure the learning-disabled community belongs.
organicARTS runs a monthly afternoon session for the Pelicans called the Green Creators. We sit around the fire, sharing talk, go for an exploring walk and are creative with natural materials. To Caspar’s joy we always sing a seasonal song!
In terms of key outcomes, the most obvious at the moment is perhaps the most simple…having a quiet(ish), natural space for the Pelicans to feel unburdened from the heaviness that is permeating most of our lives, but theirs disproportionately, in light of the dismal state of the Care sector. Also the right level of expectation and activity that promotes engagement between us all and the farm without any of us really noticing that a specific ‘activity’ is taking place. This is always achieved! I noticed they asked for a story during the last session. It’s the rare opportunity for something gentle that is also profound, like with the stories, which is one of the differences to the rest of the program.
Charlie, The Pelican Project
Find out more about The Pelican Project here