BCA member Phil Wells is now volunteering with Norfolk Archaeological Trust at Burgh Castle Roman Fort. He took this photograph of Sue Tyler’s roundel in our installation at Waveney Valley Sculpture Trail.

We are seeking applications from film makers to work with us from November 2019 – May 2020. Burgh Castle Almanac is a fabulous project in a beautiful place with amazing people – so if you are interested we’d love to hear from you. Deadline for applications Monday 2nd September 2019.

THE PROJECT

BURGH CASTLE ALMANAC is an archaeology, creativity and wellbeing programme based at Burgh Castle Roman Fort and Time and Tide Museum. Once a month a group of local people walk around the Roman Fort making a photographic record of the changing seasons. Sometimes we are joined by archaeologists, artists, musicians and environmentalists to explore the landscape in different ways. A fortnight later we gather at Time and Tide Museum to make art reflecting our experiences. The project began in May 2018 and continues until May 2020.

THE PARTNERS

The Restoration Trust engages people with mental health problems with heritage, art and culture so that their mental health improves. We call it Culture Therapy. restorationtrust.org.uk

Norfolk Archaeological Trust works with local communities to save Norfolk’s irreplaceable historic sites and to share them with everyone. www.norfarchtrust.org.uk

Access Community Trust in Lowestoft promotes social inclusion for the community benefit by preventing people from becoming socially excluded, relieving the needs of those who are socially excluded and assisting them to integrate into society. www.accessct.org

Burgh Castle Almanac is part of Water, Mills & Marshes, a £4.5 million programme supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund that focusses on the people, communities and heritage of the Broads National Park.

THE BRIEF

Make a short film (around 15 mins) reflecting on and encapsulating the Burgh Castle Almanac experience, including using the project’s archive of artworks and photography

Attend up to 6 sessions to capture the activities taking place and speak with group members about their experiences

Work in consultation with project members to create the final film.

Artist requirements

Creative excellence

Experience of working collaboratively

A commitment to community engagement

To provide own filming and editing equipment

Valid public liability insurance of at least £5 million

To comply with risk assessment and monitoring procedures for the project

Project framework

The sessions timetable is available on our website, www.burghcastlealmanac.org. Sessions are generally on Tuesday mornings, from 10.30am – 1.30pm.  A picnic lunch is included. The Film Maker will work directly with the Burgh Castle Almanac project manager, Laura Drysdale, Director of the Restoration Trust.

The film will be shown at Time and Tide Museum as part of the project’s final Almanac, exhibition and celebrations in May 2020, with a view to wider distribution to community venues and online.

This commission will be dependent on a successful application to Arts Council England.

BUDGET

The budget will be based on tenders submitted in this commissioning process.

APPLICATION

Please supply a response to this brief outlining:

Proposed solution: your approach and the methods you will use (up to 500 words)

Costs: Your fee to make the film. Any additional costs attached to your proposal for materials or equipment.

Experience: details of up to five other projects relevant to the current one in terms of scope, size and context; and curriculum vitae(s) of relevant staff to be employed in performing this contract.

Referees: details of two referees

Assessment process

All tenders will be assessed by the project management team including:

Laura Drysdale, The Restoration Trust

Caroline Davison, NAT Co-Director

Andrew Farrell, Broads Authority

Ian Brownlie, BCA Creative Facilitator

Burgh Castle Almanac members

Deadline for applications: Monday 2^nd September 2019

Interviews: Tuesday 10^th September 2019 at Burgh Castle (venue to be confirmed)

Contract award: Friday 13^th September 2019

For further information and to submit your response to this brief please contact:

Laura Drysdale, The Restoration Trust laura@restorationtrust.org.uk

Come and see our installation in the beautiful rambling Waveney Valley Sculpture Trail. On Tuesday 6th August we will be running a public workshop on making art based on the historic landscape at Burgh Castle Roman Fort – email laura@restorationtrust.org.uk if you’d like to come along.

On 7th May our regular Tuesday meeting travelled to the site of this year’s Waveney Valley Sculpture Trail at Raveningham, where we will be showing an installation that is also a den, and maybe a teepee, or a bender, or a tent, or a dome. Drawings by Robert Fairclough and photos by Tod Sullivan and Louise Fowden.

These beautiful images were created by members of the project with Ian Brownlie, and then Ian designed the posters for us. Thank you Ian! The unsung hero in preparing this and many other exhibitions for us is Jon Cheswick of Eco Colour Print. Natasha Hutcheson, co-Director of Norfolk Archaeological Trust, who arranged for our coin to be identified and the inscription translated to make the show’s title. Colin Stott and his colleague Philip Miles at Time and Tide Museum helped with getting the exhibition on display, and with labelling, loan forms, equipment and framing.

This blog appears on the excellent Living With Mental Health website here

Published with permission of the author

Hey Everyone, hope this finds you all well. Well this blog is to share with you, not only my mental health, but also my physical health. I have had a condition called M.E. since the age of 15. A brief description of this condition is that causes extreme fatigue in all your muscles, and makes you want to sleep a lot! It can affect your joints quite a lot too.

So i am a member of the Burgh Castle Almanac group, and we all went on the Angles Way walk, which is 4.5 miles long. well for most this is a mission, but for someone with M.E., it can be very daunting and exhausting experience. But i am very happy to say, I did it !!! ok i’ve been resting every since, but the achievement of doing it was well worth it.

When i found out we were doing the walk, i dreaded it. The thought of walking that far made me feel anxious, and i wanted to pull out quite a few times, due to the fear of failing to complete it. But with encouragement, and a stern talking to myself, I did it, and best of all, as i have said earlier, I completed it. I think our biggest obstacle in life is ourselves. We talk ourselves out of so many good things, that we miss, what is, and can be a very uplifting experience, whatever level of fitness or mental capability we are. I think pushing ourselves to what we think is our limit, will surprise us all, when we realize, that that limit, is actually limitless!!!

So i have mentioned in a couple of blogs, what i get up to in the Burgh Castle Almanac group, well the update of what we have been up to is thus. We have had a small exhibition at the Great Yarmouth Time and Tide museum, which is well worth a visit if you have never been, where we displayed our artwork and items that we have found on our walks around Burgh Castle. Items such as pottery and an old coin. The coin was an old Roman coin with an inscription on which had been translated to say, ‘The return of Happy times’ The art work was made by using a pin hole camera, which gave great results and was very interesting to do. Other artwork included, a drawing and photos which we had taken and adapted through a app on the computer.

Once the exhibition was taken down, we were told that while it was up, the museum had had 2395 people through the door, looking at all the exhibits, including ours. This has made me feel very proud of our group, and all that we have achieved throughout the year.

I am having ups and downs with my mental and physical well being, but achieving something like all this, above, makes it easier to like myself just that little bit more. I can actually say now, i did that, and im dam well proud of what i’ve achieved.

I encourage you all to try something that you thought was un-achievable before, because i can guarantee, you will succeed and feel great about it. It doesn’t matter how many times you try to do something, its the not giving up and finally succeeding that counts.

I wish you all happy mental and physical health, and keep up the good work!!!

7^th March 2019

Exhibition about archaeology and mental health project opens today at Time and Tide Museum, Great Yarmouth

The Return of Happy Times is a new exhibition in the Community Gallery at Time and Tide Museum.  Curated by the Burgh Castle Almanac group with artist Ian Brownlie, the exhibition runs until 1^st April 2019.

A Celebration Event for press and guests will be held at Time and Tide Museum from 10.30 – 12 on Tuesday 19^th March. This will be an opportunity to meet group members and see the exhibition.

The title of the exhibition is taken from the inscription on a beautiful Roman coin found at Burgh Castle Roman Fort by group member Adrian Charlton during one of our monthly walks. The coin is shown in the exhibition.

The Return of Happy Times is funded by a grant from the Arts Project Fund at Norfolk County Council.

Burgh Castle Almanac is an archaeology, creativity and wellbeing programme based at Burgh Castle Roman Fort and Time and Tide Museum. Once a month a group of local people who live with mental health problems walk around the Roman Fort making a photographic record of the changing seasons. Sometimes the group is accompanied by archaeologists, artists, musicians and naturalists to explore the landscape in different ways. A fortnight later the group gathers at Time and Tide Museum to make art reflecting on their experiences. The project began in May 2018 and continues until May 2020.

The exhibition features archaeology, art, photography and a short film created with BBC Voices.

Burgh Castle Almanac is run by the Restoration Trust. It is part of Water, Mills and Marshes, a £4.5 million programme supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund that focuses on the people, communities and heritage of the Broads National Park.

Norfolk Archaeological Trust owns Burgh Castle Roman Fort and leads the project. The Trust works with local communities to save Norfolk’s irreplaceable historic sites and to share them with everyone. 

Access Community Trust in Lowestoft works with participants on the project. AccessCT promotes social inclusion, preventing people from becoming excluded, relieving the needs of those who are excluded and assisting them to integrate into society.

The Restoration Trust’s culture therapy projects at Burgh Castle, Norfolk Record Office, Norwich Arts Centre and Stonehenge help people with serious mental health problems enjoy heritage, art and culture in a safe, effective way.

Time and Tide in Great Yarmouth is set in one of the UK’s best preserved Victorian herring curing works and tells the story of Great Yarmouth from its ice age origins to the present day. It is part of Norfolk Museums Service.

For more information about The Return of Happy Times and Burgh Castle Almanac contact Laura Drysdale: laura@restorationtrust.org.uk | 07740844883