NDA Awarded Community Sparks Barnstaple Funding

Photo: Doomsday Machine by Patrick Spiers

Two small funding pots will enable NDA to put on two projects in Barnstaple town centre, ‘Projecting Barnstaple’ and ‘Joy (Street) of Art’, part of a safer streets scheme to encourage families and visitors into town and help create Barnstaple as an arts destination town.

Our ‘Projecting Barnstaple’ project offers NDA Members an opportunity to have their artwork projected to the public on buildings and in empty shops in the town centre. NDA are particularly keen to encourage young people to be involved in curating, displaying and viewing the artworks, working alongside established and experienced member artists.

Suitable images for projection will be used from our members pages on the NDA website, so remember to ensure you have uploaded your latest artworks onto your page – a few members haven’t any images on their pages! The project will promote individual artists and the group as a whole. We are looking at early March for this project.

The ‘Joy (Street) of Art’ project involves curating and exhibiting members artworks in empty shops, we will be bringing you more details about this shortly.

If you want to offer hands-on help with setting up the projection project, or want more info, please email us on: hello@northdevonarts.co.uk And, should you not want your images projected, please let us know.

Arts festivals and exhibitions, light installations and outdoor classes and performances are among the many pop-up projects set to add a creative spark to Barnstaple town centre over the coming months.

The winning submissions to our Community Sparks fund have been selected following the first round of applications. The fund provides grants of up to £500 for community groups to organise temporary projects and activities with the aim of creating a fun and vibrant town centre experience.

The projects were chosen for their potential to have a positive impact on Barnstaple town centre and the local community. Those selected include outdoor yoga sessions and performances, art installations, science days for children and flower and plant displays.

The projects selected are:

• Barnstaple Arts Festival
• Celebrating Women – Sam G Creates
• Devon Antenatal Family Centre Project
• Eco-friendly baskets – Barnstaple in Bloom
• Inside Out (light installation) – Studio KIND CIC
• Joy (Street) of Art – North Devon Arts
• Nurture Nature Science Day – Sciencedipity CIC
• Projecting Barnstaple – North Devon Arts
• Yoga in Nature – Elska Yoga

Barnstaple Town Centre Manager, Hannah Harrington, says: “We have had a lot of really strong and varied applications for the first round of our Community Sparks fund and we feel the projects that have been selected are going to help contribute to making our town centre a fun, vibrant and exciting place to be – congratulations to all of them. We look forward to seeing these events and activities take shape and come to life over the coming weeks and months and encourage residents and town centre visitors to get involved and share their experiences of them.”

The activities and events are all set to take place before the end of March. Social media users can stay updated with the progress of the Community Sparks projects and share their photos of them with the hashtag #CommunitySparksBarnstaple.