Claire and Tim are just back in the UK after the wonderful concluding partner meeting in November for Sparse – Supporting & Promoting Arts in Rural Settlements of Europe with AMAT as our Italian hosts in Ancona and Camerino. Tim is reflecting on what a superb journey we have been on in the past 5 years conceiving and delivering this rural touring expertise exchange with such a diverse group of partners. It was so uplifting to see the work of the three seasons delivered in Lithuania, Romania, Estonia, Italy and to discuss with the country partners the successes and the pitfalls encountered which sounded so familiar to us in Cornwall at Carn to Cove where the SPARSE journey began with the visit to the South West of England in 2019
Many Carn to Cove promoters will recall the Cornwall visit at the outset of the project with a diverse group of visitors who stayed at the Penventon Hotel and visited Calstock, Lamorna, Carleen menu party, in minibuses drive by Ralph Lister from TakeArt and Claire from Carn to Cove – the one man King Lear made a big impression and one Romanian/Hungarian visitor was memorable for showing us his bullwhip skills in the hotel Car Park.
During the Italian visit, it was fun to meet Pietro, Donatella and Isabella and like so many others (!) have stepped up as community promoters in the performing arts on the small scale in village communities in the project. Our visit to Camerino in Macerata just showed how local promoters have shaped the rural touring model to challenging circumstances in creative and inspiring ways. A beautiful hilltop town in the Sibillini mountains, Camerino was heavily damaged by the 2016 earthquake and the community has had to relocate into temporary accommodation out of the glorious ancient town to safer territory further downhill – we visited both with Donatella as our guide, sipping a Cappuccino in the new cafe on the lower slopes – a local community rough and ready hangout. Up above, the scale of the engineering challenges were clear in our guided visit through the deserted Centro Storico during a misty December afternoon and evident solidarity of the local and student community (a university is located in the town) in committing to reviving the community spelt out in the graffiti opposite the Student dorm building. The town streets have been the site of, among other performances, a dance animation in a promenade live event.
Our visit also included a stay in Ancona – on the Adriatic coast which felt familiar to the Cornish contingent as it was close to the harbour and our hotel rooms overlooked the ferries leaving for Greece and Slovenia and animated by wonderful Christmas market – with many regional food and gift stalls.
Food as you might imagine, featured as a critical part of our visit …we enjoyed wonderful Italian country food and also the local wines e.g. Verdicchio di Iesi. Claire and Ralph bought seasonal truffle shavings from Aqualunga (near Urbino) in the market and Tim brought home pecorino and serrano from the Calabrian stall.
The next step for this team SPARSE 2 is currently being shaped by our hosts AMAT who will lead the development of this hugely rewarding project for all. While the UK team will be handing over the lead (congratulations Take Art) and continue to support the project the financial resourcing of the project did come from Creative Europe and we are going to be on the side-lines (cheering) in the next programme.
Carn to Cove has been an Associate partner along with Swedish partner RiksteaternVarmland ; and Norwegian partner Vestland Cultural Schoolbag. These partners along with lead partner Take Art and the indefatigable Ralph Lister have provided the varying models for structuring rural touring in the delivery countries where most of the live event action has taken place.
By developing strong and confident relations between the organisations, Cornwall and the South West of England will be hoping to host further international interactions in the future building on those shared values, confidence and understanding reached in this project.
A wider European group involving Carn to Cove and Take Art with partners in Germany, Hungary and Poland have already been successful in securing Perform Europe pilot scheme funding for cross border sharing. The first results will be seen in the tour in Cornwall by Kuuki – a Polish/Japanese production for parents and babies in Carn to Cove’s Spring 2022 programme.
