Monday 21 November 2016

A Bit of Community Spirit

For the last year or so there has been a drive in my village to re-create more of a community spirit as in the good-old rose tinted days of yore. The local group championing this, Gunnislake Community Matters, alongside the annual village festival committee and the newly re-formed PTA at the village school have been working extremely hard, putting on events and trying to spread the word and despite an uphill struggle (I guess down to modern day isolationism, general apathy and busy everydayness if there is such a word), slowly but surely more people have been getting involved and coming (back) together.

Unfortunately I haven't had a huge amount of time to get involved due to the day job and trying to establish my freelance work but where possible I have been providing my time to document some of these events through photos and video and whereas before I suffered from the malaise mentioned above I have been enjoying meeting new people, getting out and generally joining in.

One of the latest projects has been to transform the dilapidated village car park into something a bit more warm and inviting for both locals and visitors to the village alike. As well as painting walls and railings it was decided to paint a mural, depicting some of the rich mining culture and history of the village and its ties to the painter Turner. The design was orchestrated by local artist Jo March and the mural was open for anyone to come along and join in with.

So under a grey leaden sky threatening a torrential downpour we had the grand unveiling (despite bright autumnal sunshine on the days either side as is always the case), to which there was a decent turnout and overall great atmosphere of anticipation and I was there, camera in hand to record it all.

This is the resulting video capturing some of the highlights:


As an added bonus (to myself anyway!!) the event made the front page of the local rag, with one of my pictures taking centre stage:

So if you happen to be in the Gunnislake area at any point, rather than drive through take a break and have a look, not just at the mural, which is fantastic in itself, but at a village that is trying hard to rejuvenate itself, balance old and new and move forward positively into the future.

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