Borderland Voices

BORDERLAND VOICES Creative group is back together again B

orderland Voices, a group which promotes health and well-being through the arts, has restarted its face-to-face activities in its new home at Leek Health

Centre.

September saw their writing and art groups restart, in person, after 17 months of remote working. Sarah Males, who led writing prior to March 2020, has taken up the reins again, initially using the theme of the Women’s Land Army (WLA).

This links with the group’s National Lottery Heritage Funded project to explore creatively the life of Land Girls and Lumber Jills. September’s art sessions used Becca’s ‘Art Nouveau’ pack while the October art focus, again with Sarah, is trees and woodlands – another nod to Lumber Jills, the WLA girls who worked in forestry.

Both groups meet on Wednesdays: writing 10.30am-12.30pm and art 1.30pm-3.30pm in a spacious room at Leek Health Centre on Fountain Street.

A spokesman for Borderland Voices said: “We always welcome new participants to these warm, inclusive groups which are social as well as creative. “People can access the room via a backdoor without a bell, so if you’d like to come along, please contact co-ordinator Andy Collins at andy@borderlandvoices.org.uk, or by calling 01538 528708 or 07760 138395 for guidance.”

Since the start of September, the group has also had two day visits (the first for two years) and displayed work in two venues. On a September coach trip to the National Memorial Arboretum, rain didn’t dampen participants’ enjoyment of the wonderful site and the chance to see the WLA memorial, designed by Leek sculptor Denise Dutton.

The group spokesman said: “In October, we visited Poole’s Cavern and Country Park in Buxton as part of their ‘Stronger Roots’ project, to learn about their management of trees suffering from ash die-back (again our connection with the WLA Lumber Jills) and to make artwork with Gordon MacLellan. “We’ve displayed artwork and writing at two festivals. At the Leek Blues and Americana event, writing which imagined life as a Land Girl sat alongside photos of the Arboretum visit and bunting made for the VE75 celebrations which were cancelled last year. “If you have any connections, memories or stories about Land Girls in this area, we’d love to hear from you. “The Town Council’s Art Exhibition, supported by the Government’s ‘Welcome Back’ fund, was an opportunity to display the Land Army work again, but also to show off the wealth of artwork created in the past 17 months, often by people at home using Art Packs created especially for Borderland Voices by Buxton artist Becca Baddeley. “Participants are currently assembling images and writing for the 2022 calendar which will be available to buy in mid-December.”