12/02/2024

The biggest theatre engagement programme ever staged in Cornwall is opening a treasure trove of stories and inspiring creative talents from the Isles of Scilly to the Tamar.

Wildworks, the UK’s leading landscape theatre company, will employ more than 60 artists with a dazzling array of skills for the latest exciting phase called Hello Stranger.

It is part of We Are Shining, an 18-month celebration led by the acclaimed company and supported by Cornwall Council’s Good Growth programme.

The bold aim overall is to reach more than 70,000 people and inspire towns, schools and diverse communities across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Hello Stranger will explore how they would describe the place where they live and its history, myths and character to a stranger arriving on its shores today.

Activity ranges from a dramatic collaboration with the leading homelessness charity St Petrocs to working with refugees on a project where nine Cornish artists will be paired with nine people displaced from their homeland, resulting in a touring installation.

Other teams of artists are now engaging with disadvantaged and marginalised young people, connecting with people living with disabilities, building relationships with Women’s Institute members and reaching out to those in farming and hospitality.

Another creative project involves Death Cafes – where people meet for food and drink and discuss the end of life.

As a big part of Hello Stranger, Wildworks has forged partnerships with secondary schools and colleges across Cornwall.

One-day workshops in ten schools will allow the team to introduce their innovative approaches to theatre to hundreds of pupils.

On a bigger scale Wildworks will work intensively with five secondary schools – Five Islands Academy on the Isles of Scilly, Fowey River Academy, Bodmin College, Looe Community Academy and Treviglas Academy, Newquay – and their wider communities.

Wildworks CEO Emma Hogg said: “We have named this huge range of creative activity Hello Stranger because anyone and everyone is invited.

“Our ambition is to engage with as many different people as possible across the length and breadth of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, spanning geography and demographics by working with schools, colleges and a whole host of diverse groups and organisations.

“We will spark conversations through live and digital creative activity, drawing people together and generating and rediscovering a treasure trove of ideas, artefacts and stories in a way and on a scale that has never been done before.”

We Are Shining is a celebration of Cornwall’s long traditions of welcoming strangers, of community and outdoor performance. It will peak this autumn (2024) when many of the stories gathered will be brought to life in an open-air spectacular at a well-known venue soon to be announced.

We Are Shining launched late last year (2023) with an initial strand named RE:WILD a live and digital training programme that equips people and organisations with new practical skills and tools.

The training also develops Cornwall and Isles of Scilly’s internal networks, channels of communication and opportunities to collaborate, which are crucial for the creative sector to thrive.

The first RE:WILD gathering at the Trelowarren Estate near Helston brought 49 artists and 36 participants together.  A second RE:WILD is due to take place later this year and will also include work experience placements and paid internships.

Author and artist Sam Horton, who took part in the first three-day programme, said: “My head was crammed with ideas and thoughts and new friendships. I shared stories I hadn’t shared in years, hadn’t thought about in years.

“It was honest, and beautiful and very freeing. I suddenly had all these amazing connections, to new amazing people and they seemed interested in me. In the ideas I had. I felt so valued and part of the group and listened to.”

The £995,000 investment in We Are Shining from Cornwall Council’s Good Growth Programme is funded by the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund.

Wildworks is one of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations and will receive over £600,000 of public funding throughout 2023–26, made possible by National Lottery players.

The company has also just become a Cornerstone Employer for the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Careers Hub, which aims to transform careers education around the county by linking education with business.

For more information on Wildworks go to: www.wildworks.org.uk