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Discover Bedford Park with poet WB Yeats published their Delivery Report!1 month ago
Delivered 30 April 2023
Impact data and claims within this report are provided by the project creator and have not been independently verified by Spacehive.
By The WB Yeats Bedford Park Project
a total arts/educational/heritage Yeats-in-Bedford-Park visitor experience incl. ‘smartphone’ guided walk, school-groups' creative workbooks, lecture, community-groups launch/reception, + promo-video!
Bohemian Bedford Park's fostering of London-Irish-migrant schoolboy WB Yeats’s Nobel-Prize genius will be celebrated on Yeats’s next birthday (Mon 13 Jun ’22) with unveiling of Conrad Shawcross’s #EnwroughtLight! Help us create a permanent-legacy arts/educational/heritage experience for local community + international visitors radiating out from this dazzling artwork with: -interpretive signage + QR-code link to -smartphone/tablet/iPad guided literary/heritage walk round ten Yeats/BedfordPk poetry-places with Google routes, images, short info-talks + poems (audio+onscreen) +Yeats online+print poetry workbooks for visiting school-groups (to learn, study, inspire) +promo video (+ social-media news trailers) to engage local residents, encourage social cohesion by celebrating shared heritage, bring British, Irish & international visitors to BedfordPk culture quarter +‘unveiling’ reception for community groups, schools, media + free public event celebrating unique heritage of poet+place!
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
The project will: CELEBRATE Yeats’s poetry & drama HONOUR a local schoolkid who became a major international literary figure HIGHLIGHT Bedford Park’s role in fostering his genius INSPIRE local young people to participate in poetry, drama & visual arts ENCOURAGE shared community pride in the area’s unique cultural/arts heritage PROMOTE contemporary art IMPROVE public space ENHANCE the environment ATTRACT visitors SUPPORT the local economy RECOGNISE the mutually valuable Irish-British cultural interaction exemplified by Yeats’s life/work ACKNOWLEDGE migrant communities’ vital role in creating/enriching Britian’s arts/culture while benefiting from London as a cultural hub in which to develop their own art, ideas & identity REMEMBER Yeats’s own cross-cultural interest in Hinduism, Buddhism, & Eastern teaching & spirituality UNDERLINE Bedford Park’s historic significance as a progressive artistic community, the world’s first garden suburb, & a model for holistic housing developme
Steps to get it done:
Publicising the unique Yeats/BedfordPk story –not just that the only Nobel-Prize poet raised in England had no monument anywhere in Britain, but that a uniquely progressive/aesthetic world’s-first-garden-suburb was the crucible, its diverse community the catalyst, that transmuted his Irish-exile longing into Nobel gold—in order to raise £25K for planning approval + £135K for the artwork+installation, has meant being inundated with requests, from our 380 donors + others locally + internationally, for more arts/heritage information + promises from all over the world to come + visit Yeats’s BedfordPk. To make those visits informative + artistically enjoyable we need both to promote the local heritage story by short videos through social media etc, engage local community + schools in the high-profile launch celebrations, offer a public lecture on the area’s arts history + heritage + take those who do visit on a fascinating guided tour (via smartphone) of key poetry places in the story.
Gallery
Journey
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https://tinyurl.com/super-saturday To all who contributed to Phase#3 "Explore Bedford Park with WB Yeats" A day to remember "When you are old and grey", to borrow from the Yeats poem with which Anne-Marie Fyfe opened on Saturday morning, introduced by Torin Douglas and followed by #PollyDevlin's reading of "The Lake Isle of Innisfree", penned a few hundred yards from this spot, and by The Jeremy Vine's dramatic delivery of Yeats's "The Second Coming", though his opening line, "Turning and turning in the widening gyre" might have referred to the drama of Conrad Shawcross's spiralling "golden and silver" gyre, #EnwroughtLight, which captures the artistic genius of the young Yeats and the progressive, egalitarian, multicultural and spiritually-questing ethos of 19c Bedford Park... ..and which is the focal point of the eight/ten-stop first-ever📱web-based poetry-places walk which tech-savvy Jeremy celebrated and demonstrated, with, at each stop on the trail, images, history and info on the people and places that inspired and encouraged the young poet, and at each, a site-specific Yeats poem, in text and with audio from celebrated Irish actor Ciarán Hinds! So Bedford Park's no longer merely a social experiment, as the first garden suburb, copied around the world, but is properly recognised as the progressive artists'-colony that fostered Yeats's poetic genius, channelled his love of Irish landscape, legends and lore into Nobel Prize gold (the only poet raised in England to win that honour!), sparked first forays into drama, enlightened a lifelong interest in Eastern religions, nurtured his siblings' love of the visual arts, hosted his meeting with the woman he'd love and lose, facilitated the founding of the Irish Literary Revival, and much more – eight locations all, incredibly, within a few hundred yards of each other (plus two slightly farther afield). The walk itself isn't just an invigorating and enlightening experience whether you've known the neighbourhood all your life or are simply interested in poetry, drama, the arts and architectural beauty, but effectively offers a 24/7, free, always-open, outdoor writers'-museum for those who'd never dream of attending an architectural lecture or a poetry reading but are at ease with iPhones and earbuds! And teachers/professors, when bringing your students to London, no need to check when the next in-person guided tour is scheduled, for Bedford Park Festival, #CoffeeHousePoetry or Chiswick Book Festival: it's all there any day of the week at the click of a QR-code! Thanks to all who've helped make it happen, and all those who joined our celebrations at Conrad's #EnwroughtLight unveiling in September and again on Saturday (Yeats's anniversary) at the smartphone walk's first official outing. You've helped open up a new arts/education/heritage experience, a new understanding of the centuries-long intertwining of Irish and British literature and culture, and a recognition of the importance of the supportive community in nurturing creativity and communal happiness! (More to watch out for in 2023, Yeats's Nobel-Prize centenary year, so check-out/bookmark our website, and you can donate to support ongoing project costs and our 2023 celebrations, subscribe-to/unsubscribe from newsletter etc all at www.wbyeatsbedfordpark.com, and, of course, follow us on Twitter @YeatsBedfordPk.) Many thanks again!
Reminder to join BBC/C5 presenter Jeremy Vine tomorrow at 11 by Turnham Green Tube as he launches London's latest poetry invention/adventure, Discover Bedford Park with WB Yeats, with MC Torin Douglas, me (Cahal Dallat) and Yeats poems from local (Irish) poet Anne-Marie Fyfe, (Irish) novelist Polly Devlin, and Jeremy himself (yes! reading a Yeats poem!) and introducing the first ever poetry-places web-based smartphone/tablet literary-walk available 24/7 at the click of a QR code on the info-signage by Conrad Shawcross's spiralling Yeatsian gyre , near Turnham Green Tube Station at the gateway to Yeats's boyhood London neighbourhood. That's Bedford Park, the progressive artist's-colony that fostered Yeats's poetic genius, channelled his love of Irish landscape, legends and lore into Nobel-Prize gold, sparked first forays into drama, enlightened a lifelong interest in Eastern religions, nurtured his siblings' love of the visual arts, hosted his meeting with the woman he'd love and lose, facilitated the founding of the Irish Literary Revival, and much more – eight locations all, incredibly, within a few hundred yards of each other (plus two slightly farther afield)... ...with, for each stop on the trail, images, history and info on the people and places that inspired and encouraged the young poet and a site-specific Yeats poem, in text and with audio from celebrated Irish actor Ciarán Hinds! A fitting celebration of the young London-Irish poet on the occasion of his anniversary (d. 28th Jan 1939). And thanks to all who've already responded to say you'll be there, should be great fun, a momentous moment for our project, a rare first and a super added attraction to literary London! Hope lots more of you can make it. _________________________________ Sat 28 Jan, 11am, Discover Bedford Park with WB Yeats, smartphone poetry-places launch with Jeremy Vine Free public event: everyone welcome! Hosted by: Chiswick Book Festival director, Torin Douglas, with @YeatsBedfordPk project organiser Cahal Dallat and guests Anne-Marie Fyfe and Polly Devlin At: the green triangle outside St. Michael & All Angels (opp. Turnham Grn Tube), Bath Rd, Chiswick, London W4 1TX Come along and join us as we launch an exciting and unique visitor experience focused on Conrad Shawcross’s @YeatsBedfordPk artwork #EnwroughtLight and taking phone/personal-device users around eight great Yeats poetry places in the immediate locale, each with directions, images, a short talk on the Yeats/Bedford-Park context/inspiration, and, at each, a Yeats poem on audio by 2022-Oscar-and-BAFTA-nominated actor Ciarán Hinds. With tech-savvy Jeremy Vine showing us how it all works and starting off the trail: bring your smartphone/tablet and no, you don’t have to do the walk on the day, just enjoy the launch! Jeremy’s been an enthusiastic supporter of our project from day one, as well as of so many Chiswick ventures including Bedford Park Festival and Bedford Park Bicycle Club ...
🌳 Free public event: Yeats in Bedford Park talk + poetry reading, with Cahal Dallat and Anne-Marie Fyfe, introduced by Fr. Kevin Morris 🌳 All finally coming together, thanks to your support, the dazzling new Yeats in Bedford Park artwork plus wraparound total arts/educational/heritage poetry-places experience. First chance to hear more about Yeats's importance to Bedford Park and vice versa next Wednesday in the first free public lecture since our campaign began last year! 🌳 What did WB Yeats ever do for Bedford Park (and vice versa)? 🌳 Wed April 20th, 7:30pm at St. Michael and All Angels, Bedford Park Who was WB Yeats? What makes him unique in twentieth-century world literature? And unique among so many Bedford Park writers & artists? And how does Conrad Shawcross RA's Yeats-inspired #EnwroughtLight, to be unveiled this summer, symbolise and celebrate progressive, aesthetic, multi-cultural, 19c Arts-&-Crafts Bedford-Park's fostering of a Chiswick schoolboy from an Irish migrant family – a fostering that led to some of the world's best-loved poems, to a Nobel Prize, and to Yeats's status as Ireland's national poet! WB Yeats Bedford Park project leader, Cahal Dallat, conjures up the Bohemian/Utopian atmosphere that made Yeats a poet, explores the meanings of Shawcross's dazzling Yeats/Bedford-Park vision and its significance at the gateway to Yeats's boyhood London neighbourhood, and describes the visitor experience currently under development which will share Bedford Park's unique history and Yeats's poetry with the local community, future generations, and poetry/arts-lovers worldwide. With readings from Yeats's poems (and life) by poet Anne-Marie Fyfe. With music. Introduced by Fr. Kevin Morris. 🌳 Free public event. No booking required. 🌳 Venue: St. Michael & All Angels Church, opp. Turnham Grn Tube, Bath Rd Chiswick London W4 1TX 🌳Cahal Dallat, poet, musician, critic (b. Ballycastle, Co. Antrim) and founder/organiser of WB Yeats Bedford Park Artwork Project, has lectured on Bedford Park and WB Yeats for the Bedford Park Festival, Poetry Society, Somerset House, Yeats Society (Sligo) and Yeats societies and academic conferences here and in the US; regular BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review contributor; 2019 joint Writer-in-Residence (with Anne-Marie Fyfe), Lenoir-Rhyne University, Hickory NC; 2018 Harry Ransom Center Research Fellow, University of Texas, Austin TX; 2017 Charles Causley Centenary Writer-in-Residence, Launceston, Cornwall. Latest poetry collection, Beautiful Lofty Things (Salmon Poetry, April 2022). www.wbyeatsbedfordpark.comwww.cahaldallat.com 🌳Anne-Marie Fyfe has published five books of poetry & a literary/travel/personal memoir, No Far Shore, Charting Unknown Waters (Seren Books, 2019). Born in Cushendall, County Antrim, she lives in London where she runs Coffee-House Poetry's readings & classes, organises the annual Troubadour International Poetry Prize, is a Poetry Co-ordinator for the John Hewitt International Summer School in Armagh, is former Chair of the Poetry Society, and was 2019 Writer-in-Residence at Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina. www.coffeehousepoetry.org www.annemariefyfe.com 🌳 Fr. Kevin Morris is Vicar of St. Michael and All Angels Church, a centre for the arts at the heart of the Bedford Park/Chiswick community, and the Yeats family's parish church from 1879. The WB Yeats Bedford Park Project www.wbyeatsbedfordpark.com @YeatsBedfordPk Organiser: Cahal Dallat, Patrons: Rowan Williams (Baron Williams of Oystermouth PC FBA FRSL FLSW), Martin Enright (Former President, The Yeats Society, Sligo), Fergal Keane, Marie Heaney, Ciarán Hinds, Committee: Fr. Kevin Morris (Trustee, Chair), Polly Devlin OBE (Trustee), Cahal Dallat (Trustee, Hon.Sec.), Gerald McGregor (Hon.Treas.), Matthew Fay, Torin Douglas, Hon.Advisor, Shevaun Wilder, Registered Charity:#1172224
Brilliant news, thanks everyone!
Brilliant news, thanks everyone!
Whoop, 160 people have pledged since fundraising began!
How will the money be spent?Total £24,439
Costs Breakdown
This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.
Overfunding
This project is enabled for overfunding. If the project hits its funding goal before the end of the campaign period, any extra funds raised will be spent (in order of priority) on:
Total £24,439
Our Volunteer List
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VolunteerA community-based organisation in Bedford Park in London Boroughs of Ealing + Hounslow, with all group members living locally, we're committed to
* PROMOTING pride in the community's artistic heritage as a centre of culturally diverse arts/creativity through
* HONOURING - with a major Yeats-inspired public artwork - the life of Nobel-Prize-winning poet WB Yeats (brought up here by his migrant Irish family, Willie attended local schools + went on to create a revolution in modern drama, write some of English Literature’s best-loved poems + start the cultural revival that led to Ireland's independence),
* INSPIRING interest in poetry, drama + the visual arts
* CELEBRATING the local progressive, cosmopolitan, artistic/Bohemian, ambience of 19th-century Bedford Park (the world's first garden-suburb, which, with its networks of actors, architects, anarchists, poets, playwrights + publishers, many of them exiles + migrants, fostered Yeats's unique literary genius)
* RECOGNISING London as a cosmopolitan capital + creative hub which has brought out the best in migrant communities allowing us/them to develop our/their own culture, add to a shared culture, + give something unique back to our/their home places + to the wider world
*ENHANCING Bedford Park’s prominence (60% in Ealing, 40% in Hounslow) & West London’s generally, as the go-to place on London’s cultural tourism map, attracting local & international visitors to an area of small shops, cafés + local businesses
*IMPROVING local amenity, enhancing the environment, making more attractive the public spaces we’ve all come to rely on more since the pandemic
SUPPORTERS include Rowan Williams, Roy Foster, Jimmy Page, Michael & Edna Longley, Bob Geldof, Fergal Keane, Polly Devlin, Phyllis Logan, Ciarán Hinds, Marie Heaney, Jeremy Vine, Kevin McNally, Tom Paulin, Carmen Callil, Gillian Clarke, Martin Enright, former president of Yeats Soc. in Ireland, plus Royal Academy, Irish Embassy, Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation, Dukes Education + WB Yeats Societies worldwide…
WORK-TO-DATE has involved registering as a charitable organisation, creating Yeats/Bedford-Park information website, exploring public artworks + artists, leading literary walks, giving lectures locally & internationally & raising, through those routes & local donations & gift-in-kind some £30K to cover planning approval costs + raising £135K to commission Conrad Shawcross’s #EnwroughtLight
Project Owner: The WB Yeats Bedford Park Project The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
Contractors: Rippleglow Ltd (ChiswickBuzz.Net),Lab 99 Web Design,Street Furnityure Limited (Soho Voices) The team responsible for building or installing the project.
