Cornish stone hedgers on site

Cornish stone hedges are being built as a boundary to the site and will be a backdrop to the Diaspora Gardens.

David's Diaspora Blog

You can now get a real insight in to the ideas behind David Mackie's art work that will feature in the Diaspora Gardens. David worked with schools and community groups to develop the patterns that represent Cornwall's Diaspora. The Diaspora Gardens at Heartlands will include 5 gardens of North America, South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand each the size of half a football pitch. The planting represents the areas of the world that the Cornish emigrated, and took their mining engineering skills with them to leave the Cornish Mining legacy all over the world.

David's artwork consists of imagery inspired by the countries the Cornish travelled to, these images will be cast in bronze a mix of tin and copper, and attached to granite boulders in the Diaspora gardens. Some examples of the imagery can be seen below. Take a look at David's blog which gives a real insight in how the project start and was inspired by people in the community. http://www.seamsandveins.tumblr.com/

Things are really starting to come on.......

The park, playground and events space can now start to be seen above, with the whole area levelled ready for landscaping. The new road, shown above, which will skirt round the northern boundary of Heartlands is also progressing quickly with a finish date of this summer. There have also been big changes to the Carpenters Shed which will be home to the restaurant, cafe and bar. Above shows the interior of the restaurant which has been panelled and below is the outside of the building which is currently undergoing structural and roofing work.

Work on the first floor apartments has started with the block work walls currently being put in to place.

Local poet teams up with artist to celebrate the Cornish Diaspora

Artist David Mackie who is working on the seams and veins public art commission in the Diaspora Gardens at Heartlands has teamed up with local poet Bob Devereux.

Bob has produced a poem that will be etched in to the granite boulders that David is using as part of his art commission. Bob's poem is below and relates to how the Cornish migrated and travelled all over the world taking their mining skills with them ready to teach others.

Wise in ways of water, steam and engine beams

Seeking ore sheathed in knowledge of bronze

Families determined to flourish

Severed from heartlands uprooted

Sailed to uncertain destinies

Offered free passage they prospered

Followed lodes around the globe

Skilled workers in the seams no dreamers

Spoke of Mexico in epic letters home

Shared kinship in deep shaft in Moonta

Made fortunes mining the rand gold reef

New life blooms from hard rock history

Panoramic shots show full extent of Heartlands

The above shows the restaurant, cafe and bar (blue building) with the new road from Cornwall College edging around the site.

The new Chy an Bobel, Community Building with Robinson's Shaft in the background which is at the centre of the project.

The Diaspora gardens will be to the left of the above picture with the playground to the right.

Exciting times......

The site is really starting to take shape ready for completion at the end of this year. The Chy an Bobel, community building pictures above has been progressing rapidly. The ground floor will accommodate the children's centre and meeting spaces, the ceiling was put in to place last week which will create the first floor apartments.

The restaurant, cafe and bar above has had its floor laid as seen below.

The entrance building (steel structure below) to the exhibition/museum space is also in place and currently being worked on.

Work on the artist studios and apartments outlines the space that will accommodate the Plan an Gwarry events space, which will have a capacity of 200.

The space where the market square will occupy can be seen below with the second block of artist studios and apartments to the left of the picture and the Chy an Bobel in the background.

Landscaping to the park, gardens and playground is also in full swing, with the site being levelled as seen below.

Creative Conversations

From the beginning Heartlands has been a community focused project with an emphasis on inclusive design. Considerable public consultation has been undertaken to ensure the needs and aspirations of the local community have been heard and incorporated into the design. Local schools have contributed very generously to the project in terms of time, talent and goodwill all of which will undoubtedly benefit Heartlands.

Creative Conversations was a one day event with the aim to describe the creative context for Heartlands and share the project's widely recognised socially inclusive co-creation work achieved over the past four and a half years.

Creative Conversation heard from local, national and international arts practises who have engaged directly with the Heartlands community, creating contexts for debate and animating the dialogue in challenging ways.

The themes for the event were:

Can art & culture tackle inequalities, create stronger communities and invite different people to the table?

Could and should, art & culture continue to make an active and forceful contribution to Heartlands in the future? What are/will be Heartlands core 'creative' activities?