Creative Scilly
Imagine an area that is very remote - it is exceedingly beautiful and loads of artists and craftspeople live there - but the Covid pandemic more-or-less completely closed down its tourism industry for a while and, added to that, the area’s main cultural centre, a famous museum, was shut down literally overnight because of severe structural problems.
It is the exact scenario which has hit the Isles of Scilly over the past year and which has left the cultural side of island life struggling. After all, where exactly do you rehouse more than 10,000 valuable and historic items which have lived happily in a museum for decades? Where can you display them for the benefit of the huge surge in tourists which returned to the isles this summer? And how do you rekindle an interest in the archipelago’s cultural offer?
Artists at the Phoenix Studios
Well, those ever-resourceful islanders have come up with an answer and it begins this weekend. The Creative Scilly Festival is a celebration of music, theatre, storytelling, visual arts and island life which continues until the end of the month.
“It’s all about promoting the cultural dimension of the visitor economy and it’s also for residents,” says Jeremy Brown, project manager for Creative Scilly who invited me to take a preview recently.
“Getting to Scilly feels rather an adventure in itself; the tiny twin otter Skybus takes off from Land’s End airport and immediately you’re looking down at Longships lighthouse below, before crossing the short stretch of Atlantic, where often you glide above its counterpart, the Scillonian passenger ferry - and minutes later the islands themselves come into view”
Jeremy explained that for years the archipelago has staged an event known as Arts Scilly each spring… “It allows people to throw open galleries and studios, run pop-up events, workshops and classes - and it encourages participation in a lot of our creative industries. But last year was a disaster - I had to cancel 70 events - so we’ve been reviving things under the Welcome Back fund to stimulate business and increase footfall.”
Working with local artists such as the women who run the Phoenix arts cooperative just outside the island capital, Hugh Town, Jeremy’s team have booked a couple of theatre companies which will be staging performances and running workshops and bringing in writers and bands to compliment the arts and crafts offering already burgeoning across the isles.
“It’s a bit of an experiment to see if we pull some additional visitors over here during the autumn half-term period,” he told us as we began a tour of St Mary’s in one of the island’s fleet of hireable golf buggies that are a handy way of touring the myriad lanes.
First stop was the temporary new museum space which has been put together at the town hall. Called Isles of Scilly Museum on the Move, it has been replicated across the four off-isles where other mini-museums have been step up in hotels and public halls.
“We had to do something fast because the old museum, which was built in 1967 and which was held up on a metal frame, was condemned,” explained Jeremy. “The structure was more or less disintegrating and the surveyor literally said, ‘Put on your hard hats and clear out everything of value!’
“So the trustees have been phenomenally resourceful and we’ve had support from Cornwall Museum Partnership in helping to store some 10,000 artefacts from small pieces of ancient pottery to large scale gigs.”
Now there are ambitious plans to completely rehouse the vast and impressive collection in a new extended museum at the town hall which, having structural problems of its own, is to be massively refurbished.
But until that happens the resourceful Scillonians have developed a mobile phone app. “The Museum on the Move allows visitors to still enjoy some of our artefacts with the help of the free app,” explained curator Kate Hale. “A barcode leads you to a walking companion app which was developed with Cornwall Museums and Falmouth University Gaming Academy, funded by ERDF. You come to the museum here at the town hall at the beginning of your holiday to see what’s on offer.
“People really get into it - it is a walking companion app so you have to walk to the actual spot to gain the information. And the off-island communities really appreciate it - there are a lot of artefacts relating to shipwrecks around the different isles and people love to see them.”
Jeremy added that the museum was a crucial cultural ingredient of the isles, partly because of the fact that, for years, it had been the archipelago’s only wet-weather tourism facility.
Electric buggies are a great way to get around St Mary’s
Driving the buggy out of Hugh Town on our Creative Scilly tour, we were told that there are some 40 freelance artists and designer-makers currently living and working on the islands. “Obviously all that was really hit by Covid, but in normal times there is a real market for Scillonian made products - from gin to watercolour paintings, from cosmetics to chocolate.
“We’ve just been granted priority status by the Arts Council last week - one of just of 53 regions in the UK which have been recognised as areas that have not had enough arts funding,” said Jeremy. “There is a job to do - partly about rebuilding confidence after Covid. All our accommodation providers took a hit and we are recovering from that.
“There are opportunities for ‘experiential tourism’ - with these additional experiences our visitors can go away remembering what made that trip more special. It is perhaps about recognising that we can’t be too complacent.”
Our trip took us to the Phoenix Craft Studios (to be found on theislandmakers.com) where eight female artists and craftspeople create all manner of Scilly inspired treasures.
Studio founder and glass-artist Oriel Hicks told us: “Scilly is becoming a bit like what happened in St Ives and with the Newlyn School 100 years ago. Artists come here for the light, the granite and the silver sands. There is nowhere else quite like it - there are no rivers pouring into the sea here so there’s no sediment, which gives the water that perfect clarity - and that, in turn, allows for all those amazing colours people love to see.”
Artist Vicky Heany
“There are new people coming to the isles because they’ve been inspired and want to create things - and quite often it’s alongside another job,” added linocut artist Vickie Heany. “Most of the work here at the studios does reflect the islands and the landscape - but people aren’t just buying something to take home, they are also buying a memory of coming to see the artist at work. And every time they look at the item they remember that.”
Next, our tour took us to the watercolour artist Stephen Morris’s Glandore Galleries, after which there was lunch at the ever popular Juliet’s Garden perched so scenically above St Mary’s Harbour. And in the afternoon there was a chat with island story-teller and wildlife expert Lucy McRobert who will be entertaining Creative Scilly festival goers with tales of the now famous Wally the Walrus.
Stephen Morris painting on the beach
“The story-telling is part of the festival’s wet weather alternative and my tale, When the Walrus Came describes the absolute chaos he caused around the islands. I am a marine medic, so I attended the various meetings which took place once Wally was here - first it was called the Walrus Management Group, but soon it became the Walrus Emergency Management Group.
“In many ways it was hilarious,” said Lucy. “Even though it was serious about how kept the walrus safe and how we also kept people safe. He sank a fishing boat and did all sorts of damage, but the tourists loved him. There was even talk at one point of importing pool bear poo to gently scare him away!”
Only on Scilly, as they say.
Story Republic on the quay at St Mary’s
There is no doubt the archipelago’s new autumn cultural festival will be varied, different and interesting, if nothing else.
Isles of Scilly Travel Skybus prices start at £93.25 from Land’s End, Scillonian passenger ferry starts at £59.95 from Penzance. Day trips start at £30 for return Scillonian or £84 for the Fly/Sail option. www.islesofscilly-travel.co.uk
Scilly Cart hire – start at £46 for the day http://www.scillycart.co
About Islands’ Partnership- who programme and manage Creative Scilly; The Islands’ Partnership (IP) provides strategic leadership of Scilly’s visitor economy – an industry that support 80% of all employment across the islands. The IP also leads the marketing of the islands under its Visit Isles of Scilly brand. It is funded entirely by membership subscription together with corporate sponsorship. It also sup-ports 300+ member organisations by providing them with the resources, energy and focus to grow their individual businesses – thereby enabling Scilly’s tourism economy to develop to its full potential. The IP reaches out to all sectors of the business community championing their needs and providing a shared platform to develop and achieve common goals. www.visitislesofscilly.com
