Blakeney Duck Race & artsFEST

Blakeney Duck Race goes arty with the support from Canopy’s artsFEST

We’ve had a fantastic lead up of FREE events across the community in preparation for the upcoming Blakeney Duck Race & artsFEST this Saturday 24th August! Did your take part? If so, share your photos with us by hitting reply or tagging us on social media.

In the build up to this years Duck Race and our involvement with orchestrating Blakeney ‘artsFEST’, we have been been working with local artists to put on a series of free workshops leading to art work that can be shown off and celebrated at artsFEST Blakeney at the Duck Race.

This has included free batik workshops in Blakeney creating nature inspired flags and banners and 3D ducks on sticks to be carried in the parade. We have provided a free creative walk for families in Blakeney to celebrate the beautiful area that the duck race takes place and created a sensory art experience at the Orchard Trust. All of which we hope helps more local people get involved in what we’re sure will be a fabulous day!

Joanne Callaghan, Batik Artist worked with members from the local community in four workshops at Blakeney village hall. Participants made flags and banners with many duck designs which will be celebrated at the Festival on 24th August. Joanne also worked with young people at Blakeney Youth club making a collaborative banner and a flag in one session!

John Slater has been working at the DHC with children to make 3D paper collage ducks with letters/words incorporated reflecting words associated with water. These will be placed on sticks to be showcased in the opening parade at the festival and around the Canopy area site. Like Joanne, John made ducks with young people at the local Youth Club one evening.

On 15th August, Krysa Haselwood and Sara Rickard ran a Creative Walk in Nature in the woods alongside the Rec ground in Blakeney. This walk targeted young families with activities ranging from woodland wand making to rubbings and storytelling. Krysa will be offering two similar walks at the festival.

We ran a promotional stall at Bream Flower Festival on 17th August with a stand offering a painting workshop. The stall provided the opportunity to promote the work of Canopy in the community, the forthcoming artsFEST in support of Blakeney Duck Race and we had many encouraging and positive conversations with local people about the arts across the Forest of Dean.

We also thoroughly enjoyed creating a full sensory art experience at the Orchard Trust on Friday 16th August for their coffee morning with pizza. With a focus on sensory approaches Canopy provided a table full of familiar smells, bunches of lavender, fresh mint, chives, sage and rosemary for the community to explore. Very large paper covered a picnic table for people to work on, and another large paper covered 2-3metres of a path. Purple paint mixed with lavender oil and green paint mixed with peppermint oil were provided for creative play and mark marking. A range of applicators on long 1.5m sticks were made available for people to paint with. These sticks encourage those wheelchair bound with ease of application.

All these inspiring workshops were tailored towards participation in the Duck Race & artsFEST, forming part of our campaign to engage with a diverse community to cultivate creative communities in the Forest of Dean with a final celebration at Blakeney Duck Race and artsFEST on August 24th!

Listen to Director Sara Rickard talk about the Duck Race artsFEST with Nicky Price on BBC Radio Gloucestershire