Art is where the home is
Northstowe is a growing town, with local residents already shaping its identity and establishing a vibrant new community spanning the town and surrounding areas.
Through the Northstowe Heritage Art Project, local Willingham-based artist, Chloe Leaper, is working with the community to capture this defining time in the town’s journey, while reflecting on local roots which have come to shape the place it is today – and will go on to influence its future.
Chloe and the community are shaping a distinct piece of art in this project managed by Northstowe Arts, made possible by funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Homes England, Cambridgeshire County Council and Northstowe Foodies, and by working alongside project partners Longstanton & District Heritage Society, Homes England, Cambridgeshire County Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council.
Credit: Chloe Leaper
A sign of the times
The mosaic sculpture, which is in the later stages of its creation, makes the most of otherwise discarded and unused Roman pottery which was found onsite through archaeological work before construction began. The piece explores local heritage from the Iron Age to the present day, fusing elements from prehistoric to present times and drawing on influences from a Roman shrine to the former RAF airfield.
And looking to the present, the process behind the piece is enabling the community of Northstowe today to influence its creation, exploring the continuity of people and places and looking at similarities between past and present.
Putting people at the heart of the process
From the outset, the project sought to make the piece as inclusive and accessible to the people who will be engaging with it as possible, enabling people to understand their area better while learning more about how art is actually made through the shared process of creating it.
In the first instance, Chloe designed the idea of the ‘symbol’ to reflect the archaeology and history of the area, with the view that it could then go on to work in any format the creative process guided it to take.
The artist then led a series of meaningful community engagement workshops, some of which involved Homes England and Cambridge Archaeological Unit. These sessions engaged existing community networks, faith and religious groups and Willingham School pupils, involving local people from school children to retired residents in the process. Throughout this time, Chloe observed, researched and evaluated ideas generated in the workshops, before working on the creative expression and articulation of the art.
Now, the final pieces of the picture are – quite literally – being put into place, as local stakeholders and several people who’ve been involved in the project to date are taking the opportunity to lay the final pieces of the mosaic section.
