engedi easter story review

8/1/2019 Engedi Easter Story Review

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Engedi Easter Story review - May 2012

This review is meant to be used in several ways. It can be used as a reference point as to where Engedi is at.

Individuals might want to jump to the section they have interest in order to review their involvement, leaders might

want to use the copy to inform their people about Engedi involvement and reviewers can hack up the various

sections accordingly to create their own copy.

Overview

Engedi Easter Story was held over the month of April at the Imperial Hotel Colwyn Bay. 40 local and

national artists were invited to submit a piece of work based on a passage they had been commissioned by

Engedi based on the biblical Easter story text starting from Jesus Raises Lazarus, to the Ascension of

Christ.

The concept was that the story would be retold from the artists personal understanding and engagement

with the text and that those responses would be curated into one exhibition open to the public. The

event would be held for two weeks initially and would host a series of mini events throughout its run;

promoting performing arts and culture, community engagement and health and wellbeing.

This review aims to highlight some of the many activities within which people interacted in at Engedi, give a

brief outline of the practical hurdles faced during the show, and to touch on the future vision for Engedi

over the coming months.


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Build up:

Engedi secured a deal with Princes Drive Baptist Church to fund the short term, informal lease on the

ground floor of the Imperial Hotel Colwyn Bay in early Jan 2012. The lease was 3000 and paid into the

Conwy and Prestatyn Methodist Circuit funds, which subsequently made payment of the same to St.

Davids Commercial Properties of Colwyn Bay.

From this starting point a small team of volunteers coordinated by Gavin Mart (Engedi project manager),

were able to gain access to the building and begin to regenerate the space. The venue required many coats

of paint, a serious clearout, re-wiring in places, re-plumbing and new carpets and floor coverings. The

volunteering gathered momentum and over the course of three months around 100 volunteers had joined

the effort and restored the venue into a safe, clean and inviting space within which to host the exhibition,

performances and community events.

The journeying together of the volunteers involved in the restoration itself helped to create community.

A strong sense of ownership from by those involved developed, and many of the volunteers expressed

how much they had enjoyed the sense of togetherness and achievement through the renovation alone. In

itself, the project or mission to restore the venue might be seen as a single most important driving factor

to developing community and a sense of wellbeing throughout the whole project.


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Promotion

During the build up period a promotion campaign surrounding the vision and activities taking place

gathered steam. A logo and concept for Engedi was commissioned and a website and social networkinghub was built. The Website concentrated heavily on the use of an almost daily blog, and regularly updated

twitter feed. Images of the community engagement were beamed out across the various online platforms

creating a buzz throughout the Arts, business, culture and community organisations throughout Wales and

beyond.

Each of the forty Artists were given a personal promotional section through the Engediarts.com website,

helping to boost their own online profile whilst their own online following naturally spread the word

surround Engedi. This, coupled with a 40 day blog following the idea of Lent helped to infuse the artists

with their chosen texts, whilst gently integrating the theology surround the Easter festival and opening anew cultural dimension to the entire project.

A planned press release campaign was programmed and targeted to draw attention to the community

engagement opportunities within the locality, whilst touching lightly on the projects attempts to re-imagine

the Easter story. These press releases were taken up across many platforms; The Pioneer Newspaper, ITV

Wales, Culture Cymru, Methodist recorder, Arts and Christianity Enquiry, Church Mission Society, Fresh

expressions, Inspire Magazine, Snowdon Nights Out Gazette, North Wales attractions, Christian Today, to

name a few that responded to the releases.


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Opening night

After a two week hanging of the work, and a three month promotional campaign the opening night invited

all of its contributing artists and interested local partys to a private viewing of the works at the venue.

The night was a huge success and kick started the exhibition with over 500 people turning out to support.

The evening was a chance to set the theme for the space with plentiful food and drink on offer and one of

the best local bands pumping seamless jazz funk improvisations into the ears of the cheery crowd.

Tape Community Music and Film - Song writing workshops and film night

The first programmed event, after an initial open day, was run by Tape. Engedi had invited Tape, a

community music and film social enterprise in Old Colwyn, to host a session in the venue in an attempt to

build collaboration and support existing like minded organisations in the area. The event was well

attended and proved to create an initial interest group which remained around throughout the rest of the

month.


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Arc Communities Family Supper

Arc Communities exist to support people who are ...living chaos or crisis, without prejudice or

discrimination, supporting them back into stability and independent living... This concept resonated wellwith the health and wellbeing ideals Engedi seeks to support.

The idea of hosting their regular family supper within the Engedi venue sought to offer the space back to

pre-existing community ventures and invite their participants to engage with the art and Easter Story

concept whilst being in a safe and familiar environment.

Again this proved successful as many of the participants in the supper retained an interest in the Engedi

exhibition throughout the week. The mutual benefits of Engedi partnering with Arc Communities was

clearly acknowledged between the organisers and both felt extremely positive about the outcomes andopportunities to collaborate together in the future.


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Arts Workshop Day

Several of the artists involved in the show were kind enough to give a morning or afternoon of their time

to run hands on, introductory workshops to passers through the exhibition.

Whilst it was a chance for the artists to make further contribution to the show Karen Jones who ran oneof the sessions writes:

Having spent a day at the exhibition today and having the time to be able to digest only a small

part of the message I was truly impressed at the quality. It made me think profoundly on the way

home in the car. I dont think that I can ever see myself in the mirror of my vine but that I can see

you and many others showing the way ahead.

It was a pleasure to impart some of my experience to others today... Thank you I think theexhibition is far reaching and thought provoking thank you for allowing me to be a part of it I

am proud.

Karens words embellish the need within the community for artists to express themselves, not just on an

abstract and exclusive level but actually through one to one engagement with people interested in art and

the techniques involved. Engedi seeks to provide that space for artists and interested parties to engage

with one another.


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Jaz z Night at En gedi

The Jazz night was part of the idea to host high calibre music and performing arts within the venue to

introduce a new and interested audience to the Easter Story theme and to explore the many cross-overpoints between art and music.

Neil Yates is an established Jazz musician and tutor at Manchester and Leeds Colleges of music, who is

local to the area. His energy and support for the Engedi concept was clearly evident throughout the

preparation for the Jazz night and through the month.

Neil brings a diverse crowd to support his hugely talented eclectic line up and through that interaction

with the crowd, music and venue; Engedi was able to gain a deeper and wider support and following from

the Jazz scene. Interestingly folk from this particular audience bought pieces of the art work on display,and returned throughout the week to take in the exhibition in the daylight which says a lot about the

cultural values of this particular audience.

Artist Talks

There had been planned a night featuring three of the well known and widely regarded contributing artists.

However although the night had been rumoured to be very well attended, due to illness, shipwrecks and

storms the practicalities of putting this night on were deemed too much and it had to be cancelled.


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Thursday of Mysteries

The idea of hosting a Maundy Thursday or Eucharistic event over the festival was just too tempting to

ignore. Rob Beamish the pastor from Princes Drive Baptist Church, kindly stepped up to the brief, to

curate a deeply sensitive and imaginative, installation based and alternative introduction to the Bread and

the Wine.

Clearly Robs gifting is to marry theology with the practical and real mood of the space in which he finds

himself. The exhibition held its own weight as a collective body of work; interpreting a sacred and ancient

text into a post modern community driven context.

Robs ability to sensitively interpret the musings of the artists submissions with the established

comprehension of the Passion Week, gave credence to both approaches incredibly respectfully and

delicately, as he walked the gathered crowd through the venue highlighting particular pieces and themes of

interest.

Participants were invited to take a seat at the table of the last supper of their own accord, and interact

with the ideas of bitter and sweet presented on crockery with beautifully handwritten passages

surrounding each of the disciples personal journey of faith. Glasses and chairs were upturned for Judas

and wine was spilt across the table. Bread and honey was on offer, as was chocolate and bitter herbs.

Before long the table was abuzz with conversation and people shared the bread and wine into the night,

whilst themselves interpreting the text and mulling through ideas of the passion story on their own terms.


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Ymuno Acoustic Night

Ymuno festival is a local music event that has been running two years. This year they wanted a year off,

but saw the value in partnering with Engedi to produce an acoustic night at the venue to rival all music

nights.

Ymuno sponsored all of the promo material for Engedi as a result of their generous involvement, including

the fliers and posters and Asher from Ymuno also built and hosted the Engedi website. There was also a

bit of change left over from their donation to go towards booking the acts and the night was set.

The actual event was a full house and candlelit tables adorned the venue as three hauntingly beautiful

acoustic bands filled the exhibition space with acoustic delight resonating around the entire gallery of work.

Again, the concept of using an evening event to manufacture an audience to partake in the artwork seemed

to work well with folk wandering around and mingling in amongst the exhibition during the shows breaks.

Its hard to imagine Engedi producing an event which doesnt multi layer the arts to create a buzz.

Is it really still possible to just do a music night, or just do an exhibition, or just do workshops? Is society

not so exposed to multisensory marketing that events need to be conceived on the same level?

Ymuno acoustic night was a real highlight of Engedi Easter Story and as an established gathering it was a

privilege to see the two communities colliding and seeking to achieve collaborative advantage.


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The Big Feast

The idea was to have a day of free food in the venue to celebrate the end of Lent. Ruth Cole from Arc

Communities picked up this idea and ran with it and had soon amazingly organised the day scheduling 6

slots throughout the day which were filled by six churches and community groups who supplied the food

for that section.

This meant that throughout the day from 10am there was a wide selection of free food on offer, each

prepared by the different group and overseen by Ruth and Sian Jenkinson of Betsi Cadwaladr University

Health Board.

Unsurprisingly the people came in their droves and the event saw over 500 people come through the

venue. People stopped and sat and talked and ate and shared the art. Many people stayed for most of the

day and others came for an hour or so and left. Many more folk just wandered in from the street having

planned just to visit the local street market. This highlights the fantastic location of the venue and on

market days; Tuesday and Saturday a strong footfall is always predictable.

The big feast was a treasure trove of community engagement. The event for very cost effective as each

representative organisation covered their own costs, and it was the community that won the day. The

celebration of the event was clearly apparent throughout the day and people were genuinely moved by theexpression of both the exhibition and the generosity of the organisations which took part.


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Poetica

The Easter weeks events culminated in the Poetica evening. Martin Daws ran the event, as he has done in

other venues, but expressed how enhanced the night had been by the surrounding space and exhibition.

Martin drew a strong line up of spoken word artists and poets from around the UK. Harry Baker (UKpoetry slam champ 2012) mixed with established Welsh prophets and poets Rhys Trimble, Sophie

Mckeand and others to captivate another well attended audience.

The poets used their surroundings well, Rhys Trimble mounting tables and Martin Daws addressing the

crowd from the luxury of artist Alan Whitfields armchair installation, helped to weave the space together.

Another magical candlelit affair introduced a yet another fresh audience to the cultural hotspot.

Venue

The event had been planned for the first two weeks of April as per the agreement with the landlord, but

based partly on Engedis successful renovation of the venue and positive community presence the landlord

agreed to allow the show to run until the end of April.

Now in May Engedi still occupies the space under the new agreement with the landlord to do so on the

basis that Engedi takes on the overheads and business rate agreement with the local council. The localcouncil have agreed that Engedi as a charitable, non profit making social enterprise can apply for

discretionary reduction on business rates on the premises. The result of such application is now pending

until the end of May.


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Funding

Although Engedi made several in depth applications to various local funding pots, they were not successful.

The most disappointing of these applications was a bid to the Welsh Assembly held North Wales Coast

Regeneration Community fund. The bid was for around 70,000 and was to apply for both capital andrevenue funding in support of a community kitchen and arts cafe to be held at the venue. Although

interest in the project had been initially shown by the funders who invited an application, the lack of

success was deemed to be down to lack of the project holding a 20 year lease on the building.

Other unsuccessful bids were made to Comic Relief, and Costal Communities for 10k and 120k

respectively.

Successful applications were made to a small pot from Greenbelt Trust, who have supported our similar

ventures in the past, Princes Drive Baptist Church, The Methodist District Synod and the Conwy and

Prestatyn Methodist Circuit.

Potential funding ideas have now swung towards the idea of sustainable business partnerships, and some

promising conversations are taking place with Arts and Business Cymru and Betsi Cadwaladr University

Health Board.

Vision

Looking ahead, Engedi aims to provide two more cultural festivals based on the Easter Story model. The

first will be for Advent over Christmas 2012 ad the second will be The Saints pended for Easter 2013.

The festivals will look to build on the success of the Easter Story. The main idea being that Engedi seeks to

promote community cohesion through the arts and to generate a hub for community interested in

exploring expressions of faith. This idea has been born out of the evolving process founded through

restoring a venue, exploring a faith festival and engaging surrounding and existing community organisations

in seeking collaborative advantage.

Engedi is not venue dependent and although the Imperial provides a relishing prospective home, it is not

unforeseeable that Engedi will be able to exist as a concept outside of a particular building.

engedi easter story review

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