Butterflies, ear trumpets and a giant white hare will put the South Dorset Ridgeway in a whole new light this weekend.
Ridgeway Responses is a free, family-friendly arts extravaganza centred around the village of Littlebredy, in west Dorset, from Friday- Sunday (19-21 September).
Part of this month’s Inside Out Dorset festival, it will feature the work of nine artists from around the UK which showcases the unique heritage and environment of the Ridgeway – part of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
Available to see from 12noon to 6pm each day, the works offer a heady mixture of styles and ideas which explore different facets of the area.
Emma Williams will use costume and puppetry to illustrate butterflies which make their home there; Adrian Newton focuses on the life of an ash tree through sound and song, and Hazel Evans also looks at woodland life through a mixture of sculpture sound and movement.
The Gobbledegook Theatre will encourage people to hear ‘sound under the ground’ through a collection of ear trumpets, while 100 amber ‘tear jars’ will set the scene for the Lachrymae music event near Abbotsbury.
A Caravan Obscura viewing device will give people a whole new perspective on the area around the Hardy Monument, and a local hillside will be taken over by a giant white hare, created by Sarah Butterworth in the style of ancient chalk figures to celebrate the Ridgeways’s Neolithic heritage.
There will also be a specially-created barrow to reflect the area’s many historic mounds, and artist Bill Aitchison will also take visitors on a guided tour of the landscape at various times each day, starting at Littlebredy village green.
Ridgeway Responses has been organised by Activate, one of 14 partners in the South Dorset Ridgeway Landscape Partnership Scheme, which is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and led by the Dorset AONB team, based at Dorset County Council.
It aims to encourage local people to find out more about this special landscape, enjoy it and become more involved in looking after it.
