Meetings in Truro and another lunch in a car park

A meeting in Truro late morning with a migrant worker who has been working in a medical supplies factory near Newquay.
Packed lunch in the long stay car park with a view of a large cactus. (Sub tropical plants a theme of the week.)
Then to Penair School, for a meeting with Citizenship teacher Carmel Henry and the art department on plans for rolling out I Packed This Myself at the school. An exciting space for an exhibition and exciting ideas from the Art Department on visualising the experience of migration.

Another old school, suitcases from Falmouth and English lessons in a chapel

Strangely enough, visit another educational establishment I once attended - this time my secondary school in Helston. Pure 60s. A palm tree on view from the Geography department window.

With teacher Joe Stuteley we plan assemblies for groups of 100 Year 11 students in March. The challenge being to change negative attitudes towards migrant workers. Joe identifies some of the prejudices he is aware of - which I will not repeat as they are not worth giving space to. However, forewarned is forearmed.
Then to University College Falmouth where the tireless Jack Seal, third year 3D design student, has put the finishing touches to a new set of suitcases, lined with maps of metaphorical journeys by illustrator Glyn Goodwin and designed by David Cross.
Jack will probably be the next Terence Conran. He ordered the material from a signage printer in Suffolk and asked for the designs to be printed double sided on plastic. The printer said the material wouldn't bend - and just couldn't be made into boxes. However, Jack persisted.They look fantastic.

Then to another evening English class for Lithuanian workers, this time given by Jacqie Levin, who seems to work tirelessly (and for some of the time, unpaid) delivering English lessons. This lesson is in a chapel near Breage. It is run by local churches and chapels - who wonderfully, after Let's Talk evenings a couple of years ago, decided to stage these classes to help local workers. The whiteboard behind Jacqie has been paid for by them.

Very cheerful Lithuanians in their late teens and 20s (all shy of being photographed). Two girls have come to join their parents who have lived near Goldsithney (not far off) for the past seven years. They are glad to be living with their parents after years of being looked after by grandparents, though, they say, they saw their parents during the holidays. Others are working in local meat processing factories. All are determined to learn English.
The class, reached after driving down dark lanes to an unexpected oasis of light and warmth, strangely seems to have something of the feeling of a religious movement or push towards enlightenment of a kind. People working together, determinedly, to improve their lives.

A day on the road - exhibition, Bodmin and an English class for Lithuanian farmworkers

A long day. Starting at Chenderit School, Banbury, where I Packed This Myself is being visited by a local primary school.

Discuss the next shoot with photographer Tom Pilston (seen striding through the class, below). His photographs are on the far wall.

Then on the road to Cornwall, where have a meeting this evening.

Stop on the way at a roadside stall just off the M5 exit to Weston Super Mare. The owner says that he drives there every day from Bath (about an hour's journey.) His 'locals' keep him going, he says. I'm surprised. I thought all his trade would be travellers and people on the road (like me).

Stop off in Bodmin at the Portuguese shop to see if I come across any old friends from earlier stages of the project. It is closed on Mondays, apparently. But there is an interesting poster in the window, advertising English classes.

Then on, down to Leedstown, in west Cornwall. Leedstown is where I went to Primary School. It is now home to a community of more than 100 Lithuanian workers, mostly housed in caravans and working for SEF (Southern England Farms).

The packing house is opposite the cricket field. The cauliflower rigs look ghostly in the dark.

An interesting sign on the noticeboard on the way into the canteen, where the classes are being held.

A new - to me - website

See in the always useful newsletter from John Vincent (Network Ebulletin - created initially, I think, as an information resource for libraries but it is an invaluable source of information about the kind of issues Bridging Arts tackles)that the website for employers and migrant workers UKinfo has added Slovak to the site. This is in addition to Polish and Portuguese. Had not know of the existence of UKinfo - will add to the Education Pack. And ask some of the workers who are acting as consultants to I Packed This Myself to take a look at it and review ...

"myUKinfo.com is a cross-government initiative for the UK, led by the East of England Development Agency," the website says...

John also mentions another new publication.

Making a contribution – new migrants and belonging in multi-ethnic Britain

(Source: Runnymede January update)

"Last in the Runnymede Trust’s “Community Study” series, this report pulls together the evidence from the eleven Studies (summarised at the back of this document) and looks at the relationship between immigration policies and race equality. "

And a potentially useful news update.

Migration issues – Government, Government Agencies and Local Government

(Source: ICAR Weekly asylum update 14 January)

"The Newsflash is a weekly round up of publications, information, events, funding and jobs relating to asylum seekers, refugees and migrant workers for anyone who wants to keep up to date with the latest developments."

Torrential rain and re-stocking the Portuguese suitcase

Torrential rain on Golborne Road, Notting Hill. Re-stock the Portuguese suitcase in I Packed This Myself (filled with items that Portuguese workers in Cornwall, now working mostly in meat processing factories, said they carried with them to the UK).  The woman working in the shop kindly gives me a selection of scarves free...Golborne Road (like Vauxhall) is a hub of the Portuguese community in London. Portuguese cafes, bakers and grocery shops.

Ways of mapping

Interesting to look at medieval maps. Places are drawn, made figurative and pictorial. Am reading (skimming) David Harvey's book on postmodernism.

"The tradition of medieval mapping traditionally emphasises the sensuous..."

Above: A map of Champeaux, France, from the 15th century.
All this changes with the advent of perspective when geometry started to  measure and reflect space more accurately.
(Though not of course the spirit of a place).
The Condition of Postmodernity by David Harvey. (Kindly posted to me from Manchester by my daughter; it's on one of her reading lists.)
It will be interesting to see the new maps created by audiences as we roll out I Packed This Myself over the next few months.

The French debate on national identity

An article today in the Guardian about the great French debate on national identity, launched by President Sarkozy last autumn. Across France people are being asked to come up with their ideas of what is 'French' in response to an increasing unease  - and clear difficulties - in integrating communities from the country's former colonies in north Africa.
The author, Pascal Blanchard - like many French people -  has grave doubts about the wisdom of artificially constructing notions of national identity in this way.  He is a member of Towards a Real Debate, a collective founded in response to the the official debate.
Not exactly connected - but this makes me think of the great debate over the supermodel Ines de la Fressange, who was chosen to model for a new, official, statue of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic in the late 1980s.
Fressange, with her perfect bone structure, aristocratic upbringing (daughter of a marquis), was considered perfect for the part.
However -  Karl Lagerfield at Chanel, the haut couturier who employed her, thought otherwise. They parted company, with Lagerfield saying he thought Marianne was a symbol of French provincialism and he refused to dress something so bourgeois and vulgar.
(Talk of Ines de la Fressange always cheers me up - she is living proof that is is possible to look impossibly chic at the age of 52).