North Lands Creative Glass

With the funding from the Radcliffe Trust, North Lands Creative ran a 3-year Glass Skills Programme of 21 individually designed skills classes in their extensive glass-studio facility alongside the support of an excellent, highly qualified and experienced team of visiting artists to foster individual creative growth and expertise.

360 participants benefitted from the classes and it is anticipated that the on-line tutorials produced as part of each class will reach a wider online audience (est. 7,350 views).

North Lands Creative learnt that currently there is extraordinary talent coming out of UK courses in glass and the demand for these skills programmes is greater than expected.

There has been a revival of interest in flameworking and lampworking classes which will be included in future programming. North Lands Creative is delighted to play a part in safeguarding this technique and have brought a contemporary focus to a discipline that had seen a decline in practice sustainability.

Photo credits: Tim Savage

Britannia Sailing Trust

The grant awarded to Britannia Sailing Trust by The Radcliffe Trust was spent on putting together a traditional toolkit of hand tools necessary in the craft of wooden boatbuilding. This toolkit always stays with Britannia and is for the sole use of the volunteers, trainees and crew who do not have traditional tools of their own.

Over the last year The Britannia Sailing Trust have been supporting five young people who are learning traditional skills, how to look after tools, sharpen and keep them clean and in good order. As well as the young people, volunteers of all ages have benefitted from using the tools.

Hull planking and the deck have been caulked by volunteers using caulking mallets and sets of caulking irons, allowing several people to be doing the job at the same time, thus speeding up the task. This is just one example of a traditional skill that is being passed on to young and old alike, ensuring that the skills are not lost but preserved.

Independent Arts Project Ltd

Support from the Radcliffe Trust allowed Independent Arts Projects (IAP) to realise their plans to tour the UK with live performances of Sound Symphony by Ellie Griffiths in co-production with Oily Cart in spring 2022 and deliver Sound Symphony “At Home” experience in February 2023.

The Project involved an eight week physical and one week virtual UK tour of IAP’s critically acclaimed music production Sound Symphony, a sound based, immersive sensory production specially developed with and for children with profound autism and additional support needs.

Without this funding, Independent Arts would not have been able to go ahead with the project as they have found it increasingly difficult and expensive to present high quality work for their audiences.   The Radcliffe Trust were able to support them at a critical time for ‘return to live work’ post pandemic for their autistic audiences.

Lettering and Commemorative Arts Trust

The Radcliffe Trust’s grant enabled the Lettering Arts Trust (LAT) to connect with nine primary schools to offer Wild Little Letters days. Some 150 children were able to join in the cross-curricula sessions.

These daylong workshops comprised a visit to Lettering Arts Trust’s gallery to view the ‘On A Knife Edge’ exhibition about endangered British habitats, animals, flora and fauna followed by a nature walk on the Snape nature reserve to look at and appreciate the environment, and identify lettering shapes in the landscape, trees, grasses and plants. In the afternoon the children drew upon their morning’s experience in their classroom where a professional lettering artist showed them how to draw, paint and craft (collage) letters inspired by forms from nature.

For the Lettering Arts Trust the initiative represented a really positive way to engage with the local East Suffolk community, and brought their work to the attention of teachers, children and, by association, parents as well.

At a reception at the gallery, councillors from East Suffolk Council heard about the Wild Little Letters initiative and consequently some council funding has been offered to allow more schools to be offered the day workshops.

The Lettering Arts Trust has now developed an excellent relationship with the Suffolk Wildlife Trust who are keen to work together to expand the programme for family visitors to their centres.

Wild Little Letters was also nominated for an award from the Association of Suffolk Museums for work with young people.