Hinterlands
2018
Hinterlands was a national programme of socially engaged arts projects along waterways across England and Wales. Initiated by the Canal & River Trust as part of their Arts on the Waterways programme, Hinterlands sought to engage communities living in close proximity to canals through art.
I worked along the Birmingham Mainline Canal between Brindleyplace and the site of the old Chance Glassworks in Oldbury, West Midlands. This stretch of canal was particularly important in its historical significance during the Industrial Revolution, connecting the newly important city of Birmingham with the coal mines of the Black Country, feeding the factories that sprang up along the route including Matthew Boulton’s Soho Foundry and Chance Glassworks.
The Old Mainline takes a meandering route, bordered by the Smethwick Pump House and connecting with the New Mainline Canal at Smethwick Locks. In contrast, the deeper, straighter New Mainline Canal was built for efficiency and speed. This route is home to Galton Bridge, which at the time of construction was the highest single span bridge in the world. Under the bridge is the atmospheric Galton Valley with its impressive ecological and biodiverse habitat.
Today the landscape bears witness to transport’s evolution, the typology of the terrain ever changed by intersecting canals, railways, roads and motorways with the pace of life ever altered by each advancement.
This canal is an important place in the story of migration to the UK, with diverse communities developing around areas where work was to be easily found during the diaspora of the 1950s and 60s. The area surrounding the canal is home to richly diverse communities with the local groups such as Community Connect Foundation (CCF) based in Smethwick already fostering links with the Canal and River Trust through their canal adoption scheme.
I commissioned artists Sarah Taylor Silverwood and Mark Essen to undertake research and develop a number of community focused events and workshops. Our focus was to engage those living in close proximity to the canal and to address concerns around safety. Sarah Taylor Silverwood undertook a number of creative sessions with a Women’s Group at CCF while Mark Essen led walking and drawing sessions as part of an open day at Smethwick Pump House and with the Black Country Urban Sketchers. I also developed a relationship with Creative Arts Project, a local organisation working with those with disabilities to provide a series of canal side activities including a family clay workshop at an Eid on the Canal celebration.
We joined a weekly Community Lunch at the Brasshouse Lane Community Centre, designing placemats to explore and gather information on people’s relationship with the canal. The community centre also hosted a small exhibition and a series of meetings with local community leaders on how to meaningfully integrate creativity along the canal in future discussions with housing developers, local authority and community groups.
Images: Jenine McGaughran