Moving into Music

Working with musician Richard Pollott, pupils from Sandwich Technology School have been busy exploring their local surroundings through dance and music.

After visiting a tea dance at the Empire Cinema, and collaborating with a contemporary dance tutor, students have choreographed their very own tea dances in response to certain people and places across the town. The dancers are currently working alongside musicians from the school to create a new composition and performance, with the sounds, rhythms and words inspired by the traditions of the tea dance. The eagerly anticipated outcome of this project will be premiered at the Cultureal Tea Dance, which will be hosted by students from Sir Roger Manwood's School in collaboration with artist Emily Hill.

As well as performing at the festival, the same students will take responsibility for curating a programme of live music in unusual places around Sandwich. These impromptu sights and sounds will crop up in the hidden corners of the town, to surprise and delight the wandering visitor. Pick up a special map at the festival information point to be guided around these secret delights.

'Think of Sandwich’

Working with artist Emily Hill, students from Sir Roger Manwood’s School have challenged themselves to respond to Martin Parr’s colourful BBC documentary, ‘Think of England’, by creating their own representation of life in Sandwich.
Since November 2007 they have been busy collecting visual documentation of local characters and events, to be used in the lead up to Cultureal.

The student's photographic exploration of the town's hidden culture led them to the discovery of a local Tea Dance at the Empire Cinema on Wednesday afternoons. In celebration of this newly popular pastime the group have resolved to host their own event to bring the community of Sandwich, young and old, veteran and novice, together.

In preparation for this exciting event pupils have already been introduced to the joys of the Waltz, Foxtrot, and Cha Cha Cha, by local dancer Juliet McFarlane.
They invite you to follow in their footsteps by attending the Cultureal Tea Dance at St Mary's Church as well as the Dance Step tour created in collaboration with students from Sandwich Technology School, students from both schools will be offering some dance guidance across the boards.

For your well earned refreshments you will be invited to join us for a cup of tea and select a homemade cakes.

Telling Tales

The Telling Tales project was designed to encourage students to reengage with their surroundings through an alternative excavation of the towns past.

Students from Sandwich Technology School and Sir Roger Manwood's School set about extending the ongoing Cultureal correspondence, a debate about the meaning of culture initiated back in 2006. Working with artist Serena Korda, pupils once again invited the general public to contribute by adding their personal histories to the collection of tales and thoughts collected over the preceding months. This anthology of stories will result in an alternative historic document for a town already steeped in history.

Thinking about various traditional attractions and sideshows associated with festivals or carnivals in the past the group has developed it's own spectacle for Cultureal. Weaving together the past and present students have attempted to fold time in knots in order to share past events via a ritual usually associated with the future, namely that of Fortune Telling.

For Cultureal 2008 a squad of Fortune Tellers will be plying their wears across the town. Armed with mobile Fortune Telling kits, the students will engage the passer-by in a series of questions and revelations. But instead of looking to the future they will unfurl the past, encouraging the local community to take a moment to consider their town and its shared history. Some stories might be familiar, jogging memories and causing reminiscence, others might reveal the unknown or explain the unexplainable. An intriguing array of customised curiosities will house snippets of these tales, from lucky charms to fortune cookies.

Sandwich Memory Archive

Working alongside artist Abigail Hunt, a core group of students from Sandwich Technology School and Sir Roger Manwood's School took inspiration from one of the responses to the What is Culture? question, Its little quirky things that make the place where you live special.

In an attempt to capture what exactly those quirky things that make ‘Sandwich’ special might be, the group developed a series of interview questions, and in exchange for traditional sandwiches and tea they collected stories and memories of Sandwich town and its local residents. From war time recollections and smugglers legends to the night of the fire on the hill, the people of Sandwich told of happy beach walking memories and the best fish and chips in the country. The fantastic collection of stories has now been recorded, archived and developed into a storybook, which will be launched as part of the Cultureal 2008 festival.

Using extracts from the story archive, the core group are planning to create a limited edition of text posters, which will be free to visitors to Cultureal. Operating from a specially created Kiosk structure, Abigail Hunt in collaboration with her partner Kieren Reed, and the Cultureal core group, will be responsible for running a 'poster making' activity with the general public throughout the festival. The Kiosk has previously turned up at various public spaces throughout the country, inviting people to express their opinions about things they feel strongly through a creative activity. For Cultureal pupils will be helping the community share their thoughts about their town.

Rolling the Boulder

A mixed group of students from Sir Roger Manwood’s and Sandwich Technology School have been working together with artist Alex Schady to explore notions of ritual and ceremony. Inspired by their location, the town of Sandwich, itself steeped in history and tradition, the group have created an unusual event, incorporating sculpture and performance, for Cultureal 2008.

Claiming to have discovered evidence of a long forgotten local festival known as Rolling the Boulder, the group have recreated a number of peculiar forms with which to perform a series of bizarre experiments. These objects will be exhibited at St Peters Church during Cultureal. Video footage of a rare Rolling the Boulder event will accompany this display, appearing to roll its way around Market Street as it materializes on a series of monitors displayed within the windows of the local shops.

The project will culminate with a live public performance of Rolling the Boulder during the Cultureal festival on the 29th March 2008. Don't miss the sinister sight of 12 students pushing a giant multicoloured boulder through the narrow streets of Sandwich, whilst performing a number of ritualised experiments as they go.