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3/1/2012

Cultural Connections

University College for the Creative Arts - James Hockey Gallery, Farnham

Every community needs a story that is its own – a story that rewards us with feelings of belonging and place.

'Cultural Connections' is a collaborative project instigated by The Blower Foundation, in partnership with the Museum of Farnham, the University for the Creative Arts and the Space, Placemaking and Urban Design Group. Culminating in an exciting exhibition at the James Hockey & Foyer Galleries, running from 5 – 14 January 2012, it tells a unique story but, like all stories, illustrates a much wider narrative common to all.

The exhibition celebrates the contribution by three local architects and contemporaries Harold Falkner, Guy Maxwell Aylwin and Arthur Stedman, to the story of one town, one place in England during times of great upheaval and urban development. 'Cultural Connections' is a fragment of Farnham's story and a metaphor for the history of all English towns over the last 125 years.

Today, we increasingly value the importance of local character in the places in which we live: how this nurtures sustainable communities and enriches places in which to work and play. The Blower Foundation believes that the contribution to our local urban and architectural character made by previous generations of owners of buildings, their architects, craftsmen and designers, should be celebrated and retained in our memory. You cannot tell the narrative of urban form and change without these individual stories. The sadly lost and lamented archive of the eminent architect Harold Falkner was mostly destroyed in the 1960's with significant remnants surviving at the Museum of Farnham. The Blower Foundation is ensuring that the same fate does not befall other precious architectural archives of contemporaries such as Guy Maxwell Aylwin and Arthur Stedman whose surviving documents number in the tens of thousands of drawings, papers and artefacts.

In tandem with the work of recording and archiving these Collections, the Blower Foundation led UCA Interior Architecture & Design students through an in-depth analysis of the architectural, urban and historic context of Castle Street in Farnham, producing a study to highlight historical factors that have influenced the street as it developed. These findings will be presented in the Foyer Gallery alongside a selection of theoretical design proposals for how Castle Street could retrieve some of its former functions as the central square, market and meeting place for Farnham.

Organised in collaboration with the UCA Widening Participation Programme, the final part of the Cultural Connections project will involve 130 school children, Years 6 and 9, from five local schools in a workshop to re-imagine Castle Street as an urban space. Immersed in architecture, building materiality and urban design the children will be encouraged to question and imagine how they would like to see Castle Street. They will design and model their ideas, to produce a series of 1:50 scale street models, which will form an impressive 30m long installation running the length of the James Hockey Gallery.

University College for the Creative Arts - James Hockey Gallery
Falkner Road 44 - Farnham
Hours: Mon - Fri 10am - 5pm, Sat 10am - 4pm.
Free admission

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