Island 2000 Trust Blog

Forget afternoon tea breaks, afternoon rowing breaks are the future! After too long in front of the computer monitor, Dan’s suggestion of a quick trip out in the boat was too tempting to refuse. So Dan, Simon and I sloped off for a bit to row out from East Cowes seafront into the Solent. It was a beautiful afternoon, with silky smooth seas and the sun low in the sky over Cowes. What a fantastic way to reinvigorate yourself before heading back to the office for some more hard work. For half an hour…

The video below shows some select bits from our little voyage, including some views of Island 2000’s home, Venture Quays (formerly known more interestingly as the Columbine building or Columbine shed) - just look out for the Union Jack. You can also see just how easy to transport and put away our boat is - even in a first floor room!

East Cowes Primary students braved the cold January weather to make their contribution to the East Cowes Alphabet on Castle Street under the artistic guidance of artists Nathan Holt and Aaron Fletcher. Reception and Year 1 children got stuck in with paint, sponges and stencils to add to the Alphabet. A is for Apple, H is for Helicopter, S is for Spectacles, Sunglasses and Shades and Z, well Z is for Zombies of course.

The alphabet is part of the ‘No Barriers’ project for East Cowes supported by SEEDA. Look out for more additions to the alphabet and more art on the hoardings in the coming months.

Here you can see the progress of The Purple Kite from scraps of plywood pulled out of a skip, to the proud craft bobbing down the river below.

Like many projects, it’s the result of a random turn in a conversation. Simon was talking about beavers and streams, then someone said it would be great if we had an inflatable canoe for surveying wildlife in ponds and rivers. After that someone came up with a challenge: to make our own boat in one day using only recycled materials and anything we could find in the office and then row it across the River Medina and back.

We set to work in our small inventions workshop in East Cowes which SEEDA let us use specifically for making interesting and unlikely creations.

Well, we failed to make it in a day and cheated by buying a box of screws, but as it took shape over the next week our confidence grew that it really would stay afloat with us in it. It started to feel more and more like a proper boat.

The more organic lines can be explained by the fact that there weren’t any plans and there wasn’t a lot of measuring either.

This picture shows Simon ceremonially rubbing down the boat in whiskey prior to painting.

There are two port-holes in the bottom for observing fish, rocks, seaweed and submarines passing beneath us.

At this point the boat had no name, but by means of a democratic process, we arrived at The Purple Kite. The Island 2000 logo is of course a purple kite and it is also, by sheer coincidence, the rarest species of sea-bird to be found in the British Isles, never having been observed or recorded.

Launch day - a last minute attack of responsibility makes us leave behind our recycled life-jackets and ask Offshore Challenges next door if they can lend us something more reliable. They hand us two very swanky-looking flotation devices which, we understand, deploy automatically as soon as they get a whiff of sea-water. Simon instructs us that if it looks like we’re going down, we’re to throw them back onto the land to avoid the punitive cost of recharging the gas canisters.

Luckily, this isn’t necessary as it turns out to be the driest rowing boat we’ve been in. We launch from the slipway just next to the car ferry, waved off in a cloud of sherbet by well-wishers and curious staff from Red Funnel. The oars are on the long side for such a small boat, but The Purple Kite is easy to row and very manoeuvrable, sitting surprisingly high in the water.
If you’d like to see the cross-Medina escapade for yourself, take a look at the Youtube video below.

We’re now planning to produce some commentaries on the wildlife of the Isle of Wight’s rivers, viewed and recorded from the water. The Purple Kite is available for other water-borne tasks or challenges. Any suggestions?

What would you do if over 60 people turned up and spontaneously started drawing all over your walls? You probably wouldn’t be very happy would you! Well, on Saturday 6th October we invited people to do just that, celebrating the Big Draw on the hoardings in East Cowes.

Artists, Scribblers and Doodlers of all ages spent the day creating a Fantasy Town and before long a weird and wonderful land and its inhabitants appeared - fairy castles, tree houses, houses supported by hot air balloons, space ships, a fantasy football stadium and our very own Cloud Town!

Artist Birgitte Haar Lund was on hand to help participants realise their fantasy dwellings, providing stencils, pencils, marker pens, crayons and chalks to draw directly onto the wooden hoardings, a huge roll of paper and onto the pavement itself. The finished piece can be seen near St James’ Church in Church Lane.

The Big Draw is part of the Campaign for Drawing which has one simple aim: to get everyone drawing. The Big Draw is an annual October showpiece, proving that drawing can be a public activity as well as a private passion. 1000 venues across the UK, from great national institutions to village halls, regularly join in to offer people of all ages the chance to discover that drawing is enjoyable, liberating and at everyone’s fingertips.

The Campaign was inspired by the great Victorian writer and visionary, John Ruskin. His mission was not to teach people to draw, but how to see. Each Big Draw season brings fresh opportunities to discover how drawing can connect us to our environment and heritage.

The event was free and organised in partnership by Island 2000 Trust and Quay Arts. The Trust would like to thank everyone who took part and made this event such a great success.

While many of you may believe that the New Forest is part of Hampshire, Island 2000 can now reveal that it now resides in East Cowes on the Isle of Wight! Please DO NOT feed the ponies !

‘New Forest’ is a new painting project that you won’t be able to miss on the blue hoardings of Well Road in East Cowes. Working with Cowes based artist Tim Johnson this project is one of a series co-ordinated and commissioned by Island 2000 to soften the environmental impact of the long-term installation of blue hoardings around the town’s development areas.

Of the project Tim explains :
“ I was really excited to work on a large painting project like this – my brief to make something eye-catching, colourful and relevant to the location.

During the work I am doing on another No Barrier’s project - photographically documenting inside the barriers, I discovered a lovely selection of derelict gardens and non native garden trees such as Eucalyptus, Cordaline and Blue Spruces.

New Forest imaginatively depicts these hidden treasures whilst also referring to the new developments to come. Architects and designers frequently use graphic icons representing idealised trees in their models and plans. Similarly my trees – colourful and perhaps native to children’s books and textile lands, express a desire for a greener future”

Above: Spider helps out

Above: Tim’s feet at work

Of the project…………

Ian Boyd of Island 2000 says………….”it’s lovely”
Jo Johnson of Island 2000 says………..”it’s lovely”
Hannah Birks of Island 2000 says……..”it’s really lovely”.

Meanwhile during the initial stages of planting up the New Forest public responses have been overwhelming – drive-by shoutings, men on bicycles stopping to chat, buses diverting their scheduled routes and even children pausing to say “it’s nice”.

Over the coming days the trees will grow trunks and settle in with a bit of Island 2000 nurture - take a wander and see for yourself!

If you would like to see more pictures as this project unfolds check out Tim’s flickr page at www.flickr.com/photos/timstring/

Proof, if needed, that nature can survive in the most urban of settings as two magnificent bushes have blossomed on a roundabout in East Cowes.

What’s this? A demonstration of how life in East Cowes could be if polar ice-caps continue to melt? A budget reproduction of ‘Titanic’? No - it’s the next stage in the East Cowes
No Barriers project taking shape. Look out for these forms fixed to the blue hoardings in coming weeks (possibly not Jo and Hannah).

This remarkable photograph was taken at 14.51 on Tuesday 11th September. The complete and unpredicted solar eclipse was visible only from within the lift at Venture Quays, East Cowes.

Here it is. Another lovely artwork to cheer the spirit while you wait for the floating bridge to come in. It was made by a group of artists based in Bridge house which is just across the road from the waiting room onto which it has been fixed. The previously dull, brown wall really sets off the mosaic and the whole area suddenly feels more attractive.