September – November 2019
Faces of Newquay will see a range of individuals from all walks of life in the town captured in professional photography to help tell the story of what they bring to their community. These portraits will be collected and displayed throughout October and November in pop-up galleries at locations in the town.
During the project local artists – photographer Mike Searle and writer Ellen Moule will be working with students from both of the town’s secondary schools offering creative writing and photography sessions exploring the many faces and sides of Newquay, and celebrating the town through these art forms.
The initiative, funded by Feast Cornwall and Newquay Town Council, is being led by Newquay based performance art company Blystra Arts.
Blystra Arts Director Liz Wright, Director, said: “Faces of Newquay is going to be a fantastic collaborative project for our town. It will connect people across Newquay and highlight many of the sides of the town we all know and love, but perhaps don’t celebrate as much as we should.”
The project sees a steering group of several strong, local organisations and individuals with varied expertise working alongside Blystra including; the team at Newquay Community Orchard, Newquay Town Council, Team Newquay, Cornwall Voluntary Sector Forum, Newquay BID,and Newquay Museum and Archive and duo of film makers who are already gathering stories of Newquay through podcasts.
Liz said: “We want to tell the stories of real people who live in our town through photographs and words. We also want visitors and people outside the town to see what we see, a brilliant, positive town, with a wonderful standing community full of fun characters and independent organisations achieving great things”
Throughout the project stories will be gathered with the help of Newquay Museum and the current local community and these anecdotes will be retold in words, images, podcasts and performance created by the artists involved. The whole project will culminate in a final event at the end of November where the whole community can come together to see the photos we’ve taken and the stories we’ve collected being performed and retold.
Luke Berkeley, Managing Director at Newquay Community Orchard, who are also collaborating on delivery of the project, said:
“In light of a significant cultural shift and vibe around the town, the time has never been more pertinent than now for a large scale project that allows all the key cultural players within the town to join together and produce a town-wide project that showcases this fantastic place and its fantastic people.”
The team behind Faces of Newquay need the community to get involved, they need you to tell them who you would like featured in the Pop-Up galleries, who you think represents the values of Newquay, and which individual or organisation is making Newquay a better place to live? You can give your feedback through an online survey.
They also want you to share your favourite photos of Newquay across social media using the #FacesofNewquay
Following the pop-up displays, the photographs are set to be proudly added to the Newquay Museum collection for future generations to enjoy.