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Made by the Moon

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Arnside Knott + Birkrigg Common

Emily Hennessey

August 2018

As part of the Headlands to Headspace Landscape Art Commissions, Emily Hennessey created new stories that express the grandeur and scale of Morecambe Bay through tales of the Bay’s Heritage. Interactive storytelling discovery walks invited children and their families to explore landscapes as a place of history and mystery, as riddles to be pondered and as places to imaginatively connect with. The walks on Arnside Knott and Birkrigg Common enabled participants to delve deep beyond the surface of a place, to be present in it with both body and mind and to ask questions, small and big.

Emily Hennessey is a performance storyteller who tells myths, epics, folktales and place specific stories. Emily has written and performed stories at festivals and venues including Delhi International Storytelling Festival, Royal Opera House, Wellcome Trust, Turner Contemporary, Margate and for the National Trust.

Before the days when fishermen caught shrimps using horse and cart,

Before the days when monks guided travellers safely across the treacherous sands,

Before the days when voyagers from the North paddled up the bay in their longships, 

Before the days when stone circles were built,

And before the days when the woolly mammoth roamed this land,

There was no Morecambe Bay.  

As part of the commission, illustrator Nina Blychart Wisnia created a series of illustrative drawings in response to new stories written by Emily Hennessey. Born in Sweden, Nina studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and The Royal College of Art and has written and illustrated Children’s books published by Editions du Rouergue in France and Sweden, for which she was awarded the Opal Book Prize and Bologna Book Fair Award.

“When we know the stories of a place, we see it through new eyes and we are let in, becoming part of the place ourselves, belonging to it as we wander in it. And in being told and listened to, stories are unlocked and set free. As everyone carries the stories they hear with them and passes them on to others, these stories are able to live on forever. And when stories ask questions that might not have an answer, they live on within us.” Emily Hennessey

Made by the Moon Gallery

Photography - Robin Zahler

CLICK TO VIEW PROGRAMME COMMISSIONS

Jenny Reeves and Ellen Jeffrey, Longways / Crosswise

Rob Mullholland, Settlement

Chris Drury, Horizon Line Chamber

Anna Gillespie, SHIP

The Headlands to Headspace Landscape Art Commissioning Programme was a series of five artworks commissioned by Morecambe Bay Partnership, co-produced and co-curated by Deco Publique and funded by the Heritage Fund. The temporary and permanent artworks were located around Morecambe Bay’s stunning 90 mile coastline to engage residents and visitors with the natural and cultural heritage of the Bay and the spectacular landscape, coast and wildlife. 

Morecambe Bay Partnership is a charity that celebrates and conserves; connects and collaborates. From birds to beach cleans, from cycle ways to the history that shaped the Bay, they work in collaboration with the community and other partners to deliver projects with real impact.

Deco Publique has collaborated with Morecambe Bay Partnership for a number of years with a shared vision of expanding the profile and legacy of the Bay’s heritage, landscape and culture. During the Headlands to Headspace programme, we worked together closely to navigate the complex challenges of citing artistic work in the land. Our particular thanks to Susannah Bleakley and Jan Shorrock for the collaborative and positive approach to working together to realise such ambitious, dynamic outcomes.

Our two organisations are now collaborating on a new piece of research made possible with Arts Council funding secured by Deco Publique to look at future arts and landscape commissioning around Morecambe Bay.