A series of free workshops will be held in Lowestoft – with people being encouraged to join in and 'be part of a legacy.'
Marking the 65th anniversary of the 1953 floods, arts charity FlipSide is working with the team behind Lowestoft's £32m Flood Risk Management Project to deliver an exciting heritage and literacy project called Watertight Words.
The project, which is part of Great Places – Making Waves Together, will include a commissioned piece of public art.
Funded by Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery, and supported by Historic England, Watertight Words will bring together award-winning artist Gary Breeze and Lowestoft-born poet Dean Parkin to create a piece of large-scale public art to be showcased on the glass section of the brand new sea wall, located on South Pier.
With the FlipSide charity having already visited schools across Lowestoft, they have engaged with more than 1,000 young people. And now a series of free poetry and visual art workshops are being held this month in Lowestoft – with residents invited to get involved.
With the project creating a series of striking typographical installations in various locations around the town, as well as a legacy engraving as part of the permanent flood defences, the free community workshops start this weekend.
Exploring through language and poetry people's responses to the sea, its history of flooding and what the building of this extensive new flood wall will mean – for the town's future resilience as a safe and sustainable environment in which to live and work – residents are invited to come along to any of the workshops.
They are being held on Saturday, May 12 at Lowestoft Library with a drop-in session from 10am to 4pm; on Wednesday, May 16 a poetry workshop is held at Kirkley Community Centre from 1.30pm to 3.30pm; on Friday, May 18, a poetry workshop will be held at Sam's Coffee House from 10am to noon; a visual arts workshop will be held on Wednesday, May 23 at the Kirkley Community Centre from 1.30pm to 3.30pm; with a visual arts workshop also held on Friday, May 25 at Sam's Coffee House between 10am and noon.
The words and phrases developed through both the schools and community workshops will then be used in the art installation.
To find out more visit www.flipsideuk.org
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