Appledore Arts - Homepage

“The Appledore Arts Festival demonstrates that high quality art in the more rural parts of our region can be just as exciting – and important – as those in metropolitan centres.“
Nick Capaldi, Regional Executive Director, Arts Council England, South West.

Appledore Arts Festival is a four day Festival supported by the Arts Council, which is now in its thirteenth year. It is based in and around the village of Appledore in North Devon and every year a mix of young and internationally established artists exhibit work and run workshops which reflect the theme of the festival and respond to some aspect of the village and its community. The Festival offers over seventy diverse events for all age groups and attracts over 7,500 visitors.

Appledore Arts Fellowship is an initiative by Appledore Arts to support the development of the work of Visual Arts students from SCAT and Petroc by providing them with the opportunity to showcase their work professionally within the Festival.

Entry Criteria

* You must be either in your second year or have recently completed a degree in a Visual Arts area at Petroc or Somerset College of Arts and Technology.

* Applications may be from individual students or small groups (2 or 3) whose collaborative work is integral to the project.

* Work can be in any media.

Support will include (Subject to grants/sponsorship)

* Contributions to the cost of materials, travel etc and provision of accommodation in Appledore if required.

* Provision of professional support : critiques/masterclass/tutorials /studio visits as appropriate to the work being done.

* Provision of a showcase/catalogue/display/website as appropriate to promote your practice to a wide audience.

Application Process

Deadline Wednesday January 13th 2010 - Complete the Application Form including a Word processed proposal and submit it with some images of your current work (prints or CD) to Appledore Arts Fellowship, Appledore Arts, 3 Marine Parade, Appledore, Devon, EX39 1PJ. Forms can be downloaded by using the link http://www.appledorearts.org/fellowship/ where you can also see last years Fellowship.

Short List and Presentation

Wednesday January 20th 2010 Applicants notified of the short list.

Wednesday February 3rd 2010 Shortlisted applicants to give a 30min presentation of their proposal backed up by their existing work to an advisory/ selection panel consisting of Sandy Brown (Artistic Director), Gavin Robbins the Fellowship Manager and at least one other member of Appledore Arts on Tuesday. To gain additional experience all those shortlisted will be invited to sit in on each others presentations.

February - June 2010 Attend any agreed professional support events/tutorials.
Produce a body of work for display

June 3rd - 6th 2010 Work displayed at the 2010 Festival

APPLEDORE ARTS FELLOWSHIP BRIEF 2009-10

The theme is “COASTLINE”

We want a project :

* which has a real sense of exploration and journey.
It may not have any clear cut outcome at the beginning or be specific in terms of medium as both could be an inherent part of the development of the project.

* which includes an involvement with some aspects of the local community.
State how you might interact with the local community both during the development of the work and within the festival week.

* which is challenging, innovative and risk taking.
Be prepared to use the experience as a means of meeting new challenges in your work. How is your proposal going to do this?

There could be many starting points

* Respond to the wide range of environments of the North Devon Coast from its sandy beaches to the burrows and the cliffs. From marine biology to the surfing culture there are many aspects and issues which run along the coastline.

* Explore how the wind modifies the vegetation that grows around the coast, how water erodes the coastline over time. What would it be like without the influence of grazing animals? Walk the coastal path, search the flotsam and jetsam.

* Research Bideford Bar which is one of the most dangerous in the world, the tidal rise and fall is the second highest in the world. Research shipwrecks, geology or history. Consider how global warming might effect the future coastline.

* Use the tidal rhythms which draw a waterline every 12 hours of every day, every week, every year, every decade, every century.

* Did you know that Lundy Island is considered by some to be Avalon, the gateway to the other world through which King Arthur passed? Explore the folklore and history of the coast.

Background Information

Charles Kingsley's 'Little White Fishing Village' in North Devon

Appledore : grid ref: SS 465 305. Appledore is a village situated at the mouth of the rivers Torridge and Taw in North Devon of 3 square miles, 1,508 households and a population of 2,956 which has grown by 43% over six years. However the birth rate is declining as there are 106 children aged 0-4 compared to 160 aged 15-19. Over half the population : 57% is between 40 and 79 and 18% between 0-19

Environment and Natural Resources - Appledore’s history revolves around the river and the sea lying as it does at a point where ships can safely come to anchor or lie aground awaiting conditions to sail. Buried in the mud are the remains of old ships and a thousand pieces of ceramics if you know where to look. The winters’ Atlantic gales are reflected in the stunted trees which lean inland seeking shelter.

The Quay is central to life in the village. There was no formal quay until 1845 when property owners on the eastern side of Market Street joined their garden walls together to form the Market Quay. In 1939-40 the old quay was doubled in width and in 1997-98 a flood defence scheme was constructed raising the height of the quay by one metre.

Bideford Bar refers to a sand bank that forms a barrier to the estuary between Crow Point and Instow. Navigating the bar represents danger to both visiting vessels and local sailors. Vessels usually have to wait for the tide to give them enough ‘draught’ to lift them over the bar. The bar is responsible for a great many wrecks and over the centuries hundreds of lives have been lost there and nearby on Saunton Sands and Northam Burrows.

Records of wrecks in the area began in January 1627 when two vessels were wrecked and their goods cast ashore. Two more ships followed on 28 November 1735. The Johannah and Mary carrying tallow, wool and linen was wrecked on her way from Bristol to Africa. Martha followed, on her homeward journey from the Carolinas, and Amoretta laden with tobacco from Virginia. Salisbury ran aground laden with rum, sugar and general cargo from Jamaica and had only four survivors. For the next two hundred years, the cycle continued, seeing the loss of a wide range of ships – Penguin, Revenge (both sailing from Appledore to Newfoundland), Dieppe Packet, Union, Charles, Britannia, Cwmgwily, Susanna, Prosperous, Beulah, Three Brothers, Seaflower, Sally, Three Brothers, Juba (carrying palm oil from Africa), Phoebe, Two Patricks, Scourrier, Mary & Alicia, Endeavour, Alfred Emma, Bee, followed by a brig whose entire crew was lost, and Kitty (who lost all but one member of crew).

Geological History
The pebble ridge has been wholly formed by the forces of nature; chunks of cliffs from the coast between Hartland and Westward Ho! being rounded and shaped by the sea, and finally deposited as a bar at the entrance to the Taw/Torridge estuary - a classic case of long shore drift. The pebble ridge moves back approximately 1 metre a year, and used to be recharged with pebbles annually. In previous centuries the ridge has been positioned a good deal further out to sea and remains of a prehistoric forest are occasionally exposed on the beach at low tide during stormy weather when the sand can be scoured away from the beach.