Heritage Centre Art Installation on behalf NSPCC Bellingham

What do you love about Northumberland? 100 children and visitors to Bellingham and the surrounding area responded to this question to create a blueprint of Northumberland.

A permanent artwork at Heritage Centre Bellingham, made in collaboration with artist Lucy May Schofield with designs from children and visitors to Bellingham and the surrounding area. Initiated by NSPCC Bellingham with project partners Visual Arts in Rural Communities (VARC), North Tyne and Redesdale Community Partnership and Heritage Centre Bellingham.

Funds raised will be spilt 50/50 between covering the cost of installing the art and making a donation to NSPCC Bellingham.

VARC was approached by NSPCC Bellingham with the idea to create a public artwork to celebrate Bellingham NSPCC’s 40th anniversary to involve children and families in the creation of such an artwork. VARC is close to 25 years operating as an arts charity in rural Northumberland and wanted to create an artwork that will remain as part of its legacy. The Heritage Centre Bellingham turns 30 years old in 2024 and is an ideal place to situate the artwork given its theme of ‘people and place’, it is in a central location, and can also provide educational resources for children/visitors, inspired by the artwork.

Lucy May Schofield is a very experienced and talented artist and arts facilitator. Her practice is deeply rooted and inspired by nature, the seasons, place and time. Through ‘sun prints’ or cyanotype workshops in 2022 and 2023, children and adults, including pupils from local schools, were asked to think about what they love about Northumberland. They made small drawings to cut-out of paper, creating a stencil to make a unique sun print/blueprint. The designs (100 in total) were revealed when the prints were rinsed under water turning the paper a beautiful shade of blue where the UV sun light has touched the paper.

Lucy has arranged these 100 prints into a 3m diameter circular shape design. Raskl are an experienced, Newcastle based art production company who will translate Lucy’s design onto a steel disc with printed blue enamel. This will be installed on the gable end of the Heritage Centre’s building, so it is visible by those who drive along the Pennine Way and visit the village.

NSPCC

The NSPCC has been looking out for children for over 130 years - for the last 40 years Bellingham have been part of that team.

We have evolved over the years and have always managed to raise funds from their local community. Over the last 10 years or so, we have managed to raise around £5000 each year – which has been spent on funding safety awareness workshops into our local schools.

Although Child Safety is the NSPCC mantra there is also the emphasis on children, learning, playing and engaging with others while simply having fun!

Since the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, as a committee we have felt uneasy asking local people to dig deep into their pockets – we live in a small rural community and like so many others life is getting to be quite tough. We have therefore adapted our approach and focused more on creating an environment of fun and togetherness – therefore chiming with the NSPCC values of allowing children to be loved, valued and given the opportunity to fulfil their potential.