Arts Programme

Rock and the Arts

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The process of gaining designation as a World Heritage Site involved more than eighty stake-holders along the coast, who during the process began to question what it is that makes people interested in the story of the coast and the rocks which form it. Gaining the status of global significance drew attention to communities right along the coast that they live somewhere special, but begged the question 'what does this actually mean to me?'

The World Heritage Site is 95 miles long, and the exposed rocks from one end to the other contain 185 million years of earth history. There are, then, a lot of stories to be told. The Arts Programme will assist with telling some of these stories, and creating new ones inspired by the beauty and meaning of the coast. It is expected that this will be achieved by enabling individuals and organisations to develop new arts projects, events, festivals, exhibitions and artist residencies and exchanges, or to adapt existing projects and programmes so that they are genuinely linked to the WHS.

The purpose of the Arts Programme is to encourage residents and visitors of all ages to visit and experience the Jurassic Coast for themselves and to understand it more profoundly through high quality arts experiences.

If you are interested in finding out more about this please read:

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We aim to provide expertise and guidance in working up your proposal within the context of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, and potentially suggest links to partners and funders. Each month we will run a day of one-to-one surgeries up and down the coast - these give you a chance to discuss your proposal in depth. The next five dates are:

1st December, Wareham
12th January, Bridport
1st March, Weymouth
18th March, Sidmouth
12th April, Wareham

To book, please email Daisy Sutcliffe with your preferred date and time ensuring that you include your contact details for confirmation or to re-arrange.

In 2003 Tessa Jowell and Margaret Beckett wrote:

"The Dorset and East Devon Coast is one of the most significant earth science sites in the world. The natural beauty of the Site has inspired many fine works by some of the world's most prominent novelists, poets and artists, including Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, John Fowles, John Keats, Joseph Turner and John Constable. It has attracted many visitors from both this country and overseas down the years, and this continues to the present day. The Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP (then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport) and The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP (then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) in the Foreword to the Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site Management Plan, First Revision (2003)"

The Jurassic Coast Arts Strategy aims to take forward the outstanding artistic legacy outlined by the then secretaries of state for culture and the environment above, by supporting and co-ordinating the creation of contemporary arts work which together add to the enjoyment and understanding of this fantastic natural resource. It is believed that this is the first ever natural World Heritage Site with an arts strategy.

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The programme has been planned to develop over time. This will enable it to both genuinely engage with local communities and also respond flexibly to the growing interest and involvement of arts and other organisations in the area. There are currently 878 World Heritage Sites all over the world, and working within this network will add an international dimension to the programme. Through helping to identify shared goals, encouraging co-operation and unusual partnerships, and and a strong sense of working together, the programme will seek to support the Olympic legacy vision for 2012 and beyond.

Future Projects:

Amanda Wallwork and Jeremy Gardiner: Mapping the Jurassic Coast

The Atrium Gallery, Bournemouth University 23 July - 26 September
Black Swan Arts, Frome 10 October - 14 November

Artists Amanda Wallwork and Jeremy Gardiner create and exhibit their work mapping the Jurassic Coast through its geology and archaeology. Investigating the landscape through its natural and human influenced history, both artists view their work as a form of map charting journeys in time as well as place. Working in partnership with the Dorset County Museum the artists will use the museum's extensive collections and archive to undertake a period of research to inform the creation of a new body of work following two paths in time through the archaeological and geological layers of history imprinted on the earth. This is the initial exhibition of first stage work, which will be subsequently developed and presented as a national touring exhibition.

Without Us Lulworth Cove on September 12 at sundown

Part of the Universal Value commissioning strand in partnership with PVA MediaLab

Without Us is a site-specific night-time performance event which takes place on the beach in Lulworth Cove, Purbeck. The work, created by director Charlie Morrissey, is a mix between live performance and projection onto the cliffs, and looks at the relationship between humans and their environment - at our place in the landscape. It is part of Universal Value - a trilogy of events taking place along the Jurassic Coast.

Come and join in.

All you need to do to be a part of the performance is come to the beach at 4.45 on September 12. You, along with lots of others, will be taught a very simple sequence of movements on the beach and then, as darkness falls everyone will perform the piece to music with the sea in the background. Once the live performance is finished, there will be a film projected onto the cliffs.

The piece will be very simple and fun to do - you don't need to have any performance experience - just come along and take part.

If you'd like to take part, please contact Mandy Rathbone on 01308 459071 or mandy@pva.org.uk

Artist Charlie Morrissey has been commissioned by PVA MediaLab in partnership with the Jurassic Coast Arts Programme to produce three site- specific works in Dorset and Devon. Titled ‘Universal Value', the works will use the UNESCO World Heritage Site as a backdrop, stage and cinema screen to draw our attention to the global significance of the site, exploring its geology, natural history and environment.

More information

Past Projects:

Jurassic Coast Carnival Group Offer

Grants are available for four groups to create a presentation on the theme of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site to bring to Weymouth Carnival on August 19 2009 - if you are interested please read the following letter:

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Evolution Rocks!

We have been working with the Lyme Regis Development Trust on several projects which will feed into the Fossil Festival including Herbie Treehead's Jurassic Underworld, a new show developed by this fantastic clown which re-creates what the world might have been like around Lyme Regis 180 million years ago; and Forkbeard Fantasy's Jurassic Coast Discovery Box, a treasure chest full of fun and facts for all the family which will entertain and amaze. Forkbeard Fantasy are also going to do some live shows, so look out for them at the Marine Theatre.

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There were also many related activities and events taking place up and down the coast:

Amanda Wallwork and Jeremy Gardiner: Mapping the Jurassic Coast

Dorset County Museum, 9th May - 27th June

Artists Amanda Wallwork and Jeremy Gardiner create and exhibit their work mapping the Jurassic Coast through its geology and archaeology. Investigating the landscape through its natural and human influenced history, both artists view their work as a form of map charting journeys in time as well as place. Working in partnership with the Dorset County Museum the artists will use the museum's extensive collections and archive to undertake a period of research to inform the creation of a new body of work following two paths in time through the archaeological and geological layers of history imprinted on the earth. This is the initial exhibition of first stage work, which will be subsequently developed and presented as a national touring exhibition.

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Purbeck Aware

Swanage 6th June

Catch Herbie Treehead's show again plus Fossil Dig Trays and a literary landscape and geology walk with the Hardy Society.

Rocks: from axe heads to Zennor Head

Bridport Art Centre, 2nd May - 6th June

The exhibition is drawn from the collection of Portland artist Judith Frost. Over many years, Judith has brought together a disparate and idiosyncratic group of objects, ranging from ancient stone tools to contemporary art, all of which demonstrates the impact made by human action on stone. Her fascination with rock stems from her situation - her studio is close to the sea in Portland - and her realisation some time ago that, as she puts it, "the rock beneath my feet was moving and the world was not as stable and secure as I had assumed".

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MEMO project Festival

Portland, 16th - 31st May

MEMO (Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory) is an extraordinary project to create a truly global monument to the species being lost, now and ongoing, in the Earth's sixth mass extinction. Memorials mark a life well lived or tragically ended - in either case they are about reflection. We are seeking to build something that is the ultimate vehicle of reflection: a living monument to the fragility of life, the razor blade of existence we all live on. But this project has optimism too.

16-17th May: 'Founding Festival' Portland Bill: stonecarving, including
stuff the public can join in with; bell-founding by moonlight on the
Saturday night (moon-willing) this time in a mould of Portland roach;
mask-making, and, if the Crown Commissioners will agree, a barbecue on
the Saturday evening.

22nd May: International Biodiversity Day: Bell-ringing all over
Portland, with the new bell - all invited to ring it; similar
bell-ringing all over London with the bell we cast last year; continuous
chain of bells between the two ending with the Great Bell of Bow. Bells
rung in India, Brazil and USA as well, if we get lucky, rung by some
interesting people.

21st May-21st June: Exhibition and carving on site of the old Chapter
House at St. Paul's, further exhibition in the South Transept with ZSL.

21st-31st May: Carving at the Hay festival.

23rd-24th May: Carving (including public participation) at Fossil Fest.

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Here Now Universal Value show

Budleigh Salterton west beach, 29th April at sunset.

Artist Charlie Morrissey builds on his first piece at West Bay last September, and works with the community around Budleigh Salterton and dance groups across Devon to celebrate International Day of Dance. The piece, inspired by the question 'what does Outstanding Universal Value mean in the context of our World Heritage Site?' is a comment on human presence as "inconceivably brief in the scale of geologic time, our time as visitors, guests watched over indifferently by the land". The work will combine live movement and projection and includes a specially commissioned soundtrack.

More information

Universal Value (Sept 2008)

Universal Value in partnership with PVA Media Lab

Jurassic Coast Seminar 2008

Wise World Heritage Words - Seminar Poet