swan 200
We were invited to help celebrate 200 years of the Leeds Liverpool Canal at both the Blackburn and Burnley Canal Festivals in 2016.
The project continued our ambition of creating strong frameworks that invite others to contribute to an overall project. Oh, and sometimes it's good to think big.
We bought the biggest roll of paper we could find and used this to make a huge origami swans that were then decorated by community groups and floated on the canal during both festivals. Huge thanks are due to Blackburn Youth Zone, Blackburn Creative Support Group, Witton Park High School and The Bureau Centre For The Arts, and we're so grateful for the support of artists Cath Ford, Alice Jones, Lisa Milward, Kerris St Pierre and Rianon Francis who worked with the groups on the decoration.
In addition to the big swans, we invited everyone in Blackburn to fold their own swan out of the festival programme and help us float a mini armada. Instructions were provided on the flyer and a special microsite was created to help people do this at home, or at a workshop during the festival.
The project was commissioned by Super Slow Way in Blackburn and Mid Pennine Arts in Burnley.