Art as a driver in the restoration of a remaindered waterway.
Through 2002-3, I was engaged by a syndicate of local and regional councils, British Waterways and East Midlands Arts to make a feasibility study for the arts being a driver in the renovation of the Grantham Canal, running between Grantham and Nottingham.
A major component of this was to identify distinctiveness and to explore strategies whereby the arts might be a catalyst, not only in raising public awareness of the canal, but also to act as a major part of a “branding exercise” towards bidding for funds.
Towards this end I walked the canal and made myself familiar with both its hinterland and history through a pretty intensive information gathering exercise.
The outcome to this was a report, a collection of photographs and an analytical drawing breaking down the stages at which a strategy might be developed.
The report “The Twenty Mile Pound” was published as a pdf file accessible through www.rushcliffe.gov.uk. or you can download it here.
