Ageas Salisbury International Arts Festival is coordinating Virtual Landscapes, a Heritage Lottery Funded Young Roots project, on behalf of a partnership between Wiltshire Council’s Arts Service, Wiltshire Youth Arts Partnership (WYAP) and the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre (WSHC).
Virtual Landscapes will enable young people in Wiltshire to explore the heritage of their iconic and unique landscape, including the famous chalk hill figures – consisting of eight white horses and a collection of military badges. These chalk figures are a constant presence in the landscape but the communities there are often changing, especially in areas with military families.
Young people aged 11-25 will be introduced to historical investigation, archaeology skills and the Wiltshire and Swindon archives to research the history of these chalk hill figures. They will visit the historic landscape, learn about resources available at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre and work alongside heritage professionals. They will also be able to undertake a youth Arts Award.
The project focuses on four areas of Wiltshire including Westbury, Tidworth, Ludgershall and Pewsey and will involve young people from both civilian and transitory military communities whose parents/ carers, siblings, friends are working abroad or posted in the military. Activities will include telling stories, finding explanations and reworking old media and archives to bring new life to the chalk hill figures that form part of the physical landscape around them.
With new skills and knowledge the young people will use a variety of art forms to create digital artworks as their way of interpreting the chalk hill figures for the virtual world; these may be their own folklore digital stories, short films, animations, music and music videos or digital artworks. The young people may also explore making this new digital content ‘live’ in the style of a mediascape, iPhone app and through their chosen websites as well as for cinema-style exhibitions and screenings.
The project will run until January 2014.