We were delighted to work with Eynesbury Primary School as our first Fantastical Cambridgeshire School.
This is their very own fantastical map, made collaboratively and containing over 200 layers of drawings and words gathered during our work together with a sound file to play as you enjoy it. These are thousands of yellow ants moving in their nest (more of these sounds and who made them are here).
Below are posts about the process which began in May 2016 and concluded with a sharing of the map with the whole school in November. People of all ages have been invited on creative adventures to re-imagine Eynesbury with us and grow a sense of wonder about the possibilities it offers. They shared these discoveries in the form of drawings, images and words. Every single contribution was invaluable and influenced the project in all sorts of ways. Some of these wonderful ideas can be seen on the final map but there are many more in the posts below. A key to some of how these layers were created is here.
Artists Filipa Pereira-Stubbs and Sally Todd were the artists in residence at the school. Deb Wilenski, in her role as creative connector for our work, has been sharing some of the children’s ideas with others interested in their ideas in order to inspire Wild Exchanges - extraordinary conversations about the real and imaginary. These are shared here. Artist Helen Stratford also worked with Eynesbury to produce our first ever Fantastical Blitz day on 24 September, where the whole community was invited to add to the conversations and discoveries.
A copy of this map has been given to every child in the school. It is also available from Eynesbury Parish Church, St Neots Library, St Neots Museum and the Vir2oso interactive art stall in the market square. In many ways it is just a beginning and we invite people to add their own (real or imagined) discoveries about Eynesbury to it.