A guest blog entry by Natalie Dowse and Phil Illingworth aka IDprojects
We have had the very good fortune to be working with Jan and Chris (The Caravan Gallery) over the past year helping to shape and create publications, publicity, design and a great number of other ‘bits ‘n’ bobs’ involved with being a part of Team Caravan!
Back in April we were lucky enough to visit the Sunderland extra{ordinary} exhibition at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (NGCA), an exhibition consisting of a selection (over 100) of The Caravan Gallery’s finest, fantastic, thoughtful and witty photographs, beautifully curated and hung throughout the entire 4 floors of the building.
We were also able to visit the Sunderland Pride of Place Project space based in a vacant shop on Fawcett St just along the road from NGCA. It was a great opportunity to see the project in action, and of course, meet some lovely people and (a first for both of us) explore this delightful city.
During the few days we were there we heard a very small selection of the brilliant stories the people of Sunderland have to give about the place they live. We even got to meet Dave the Rave (World famous in the North East!)! It was amazing to see so many people engage with the project and the many activities on offer.
Images: A friendly face, a sneaky biscuit and collecting stories
It was important for us to see the project first hand because we will soon be designing the Sunderland Pride of Place Project book once the vast amount of materials collected have been collated… from photographs, questionnaires, anecdotes, artworks, creative contributions, comments, jokes, local knowledge and stories … and of course The People’s Map … the list goes on!
Images: Photographs from a Sunderland family album and the extra{ordinary} book
Thank you Caravanners and good luck in Bradford!