Stithians dam and an old friend

A post Christmas Bank Holiday expedition. A very grey day. Decide to drive to Stithians dam as despite having been brought up near by I have never seen it - and also have a painting now by a local artist Gareth Bale of the dam.
A great surprise and so nice to see Gareth drawing there.
Gareth was a fellow curator on the I Packed This Myself exhibition in Camborne in March 2009. Tell him about the plans for February/March 2010.

Getting to proof stage and calling the UN

Deadlines creeping up very fast. Our printer in Preston is closing over Christmas. We are in a rush to finish off the materials that go with the new suitcases. Am looking for up to date statistics on migration to include. After googling fruitlessly decide to pick up the phone. An extremely helpful press officer at the Home Office finds many positive stats. Migrants contributed an estimated £6 billion to the economy in 2006. Call the UN in New York for up to date figures on global migration. Again, someone has facts at his fingertips. We get the red hot off the press estimate for 2010. Talk to Nigel Costley, regional secretary southwest TUC. He sends me a link to their excellent publication Who Makes Up the South West? - facts and figures about migrant workers and in particular debunking tabloid scare stories... "They're taking our jobs' etc. Arrange to have some copies to take into schools with the exhibition and workshops.
Talk to the head at Pool School, book dates to go down for assemblies. We'll also produce materials for discussions in classrooms in the days after the assemblies during registration periods. Will be consulting Michal Kirstein, a psychology graduate currently studying for a Masters in Denmark, on the content. Michal worked in Cornwall for several seasons, labouring on farms.
Am very glad that we will be working in at Pool. Pool is an area where migrant workers were recently in the news.
Hopefully we can link up with community police work in the area while we're there... A new policeofficer dealing with migrant workers is actually to be based there, funded by the Migration Impacts Fund (as are our materials.)

Map for sale

We are still hard at work creating maps of metaphorical journeys for our new suitcases ... And see that up for auction this week at Sothebys is E H Shepard's famous map for the frontspiece of Winnie the Pooh. Expected to go for between £30,000 and £50,000 (258mm x 368mm)
It's not a map of a journey. More an illustrated place map. And I am no Christopher Robin fan (take Dorothy Parker's view...) but it is interesting to see...

Another trip to Truro

A planning meeting at Penair School with Carmel Henry, the Citizenship teacher who is throwing herself into the project.
Excitement ahead of Christmas and once again outside it is blowing a gale...

Reflecting on the day

and... very late, reading Roy Porter's English Society in the Eighteenth Century, see that he talks about the migrant nature of labour in the Regency. He stresses the way people travelled in rural England.

Nostalgia's picture of stable village England where the rude forefathers of the hamlet slept, where time stood still and generations of Hodges ploughed the patriarchal furrows is - below the proprietorial classes - a myth.... Most migration was local and caterpillar-like, towards the larger towns. But the brave went over the hills and far away, to London , to sea, into the army, or to the colonies....Unmarried farm servants and many journeymen expected to change jobs each year, offering themselves at district hiring fairs.... Seasonal migratory labour (for harvesting, for instance) was vital to the economy....

Migration Impacts Fund launch in Cornwall

Andrea Gilbert of Inclusion Cornwall launching the Migration Impacts Fund in Truro. The aim - to improve services for migrant workers in Cornwall and to help communities integrate (raising understanding on both sides). We have funding for an Action Lab to take I Packed This Myself to schools and groups of people of all ages across Cornwall.

Rue du Faubourg St Honore and a cardboard suitcase

In Paris - on another journey! - spotted a suitcase in the window of Prada. Rather like the ones we have been buying from eBay for the project.

A trip to Oxfordshire

A beautiful drive very early on a frosty morning to a meeting at Chenderit School, Banbury, with John Childs and Martin Barber. To discuss the launch of the new I Packed This Myself exhibition at the school in January.

Suitcases piling up in the office

Piles of suitcases in the office, ready for the exhibition and use in workshops. Sourced on eBay. They are really heavy - no doubt why people don't use them for travelling any more.

Torrential rain and meetings at schools

A stormy week - torrential rain and meetings this week at Penair School, Truro and Pool School with teachers rolling out a Citizenship and RE agenda. All inspiringly keen to be involved. We plan exhibitions for February and March and assembly sessions. Also meet Maureen Twose of Cornwall Libraries at Redruth (where it seemed to be raining the most!) and plan a migrant worker reading list. And Andrew Yates, Social Responsibility Officer at the Diocese of Truro, which funded the first suitcase in I Packed This Myself. Andrew is a fountain of knowledge with a very full contact book. Not to mention Bridging Arts volunteer Mike Matthews.