Kent Cultural Baton Unveiled!
On Thursday 3 December 2009, artist Nicole Mollett was unveiled as the chosen artist to design the Kent Cultural Baton with her concept of a ‘Travelling Pod’.
The Kent Cultural Baton is the only one of its kind in the UK, and will travel throughout the county visiting festivals, organisations, individuals, schools and businesses in the run up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Each host of the baton will embody one of the 21 different representations of ‘culture’ and ‘creativity’, from the worlds of art, science and heritage, to street theatre, music and the environment.
The exciting project has also captured the imagination of London 2012 organisers, who have granted the prestigious Inspire Mark, which recognises innovative and exceptional projects directly inspired by the Olympic and Paralympic Games, to the outreach programme with four local schools involved in the shortlisting process to produce an eventual winner.
The winning design was unveiled at the project launch held at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells on 3 December, a date marking exactly 1000 days until the London Paralympics begin. Of the four shortlisted artists, Nicole’s idea to for an interactive ‘pod’ to travel throughout the county was chosen by a selection panel and voted on by the public. As noted above, all four finalists had undertaken outreach work with local schools as part of the project, supported by Future Creative, with each school presenting their interpretations at the launch. Paralympic champion Danny Crates also attended the event, and participated in an exciting ‘cultural word’ relay race along with other members of the audience!
Inspiring creativity and cultural awareness using 2012
The ‘pod’ consists of a large Airstream caravan that will be adapted to hold workshops to collect stories from local people and give them the opportunity to experience drawing, photography, sound and film as well as providing a temporary gallery space. As the baton, the ‘pod’ will aim to inspire people’s creativity and cultural awareness using 2012 as its inspiration. Communities who receive the baton will be able to contribute to a special blog during their visit, which will highlight the cultural activities that have taken place. When the baton ends its journey in 2012, a map of the baton’s journey through Kent will be displayed as a reminder of the 2012 Games for future generations of residents.
KCC Cabinet Member for Community Services Mike Hill said: “This project is unique and the first of its kind in the country. The Olympic and Paralympic Games are a chance to celebrate the culture of the host country and will mean we have a lasting memory for future generations of how we have used this opportunity to celebrate our own cultural heritage.”
Nicole Mollett was understandably thrilled to become part of the project. She said, “I am delighted. It is such an honour and a fantastic opportunity to be able to make my idea actually happen. Having worked on projects that involve the community in Sheppey, I’m looking forward to expanding my work across Kent, inspiring people to rediscover and reflect on what makes their local area unique in the lead up to 2012.”
As part of her submission, Nicole said, “the Kent Cultural Baton will use the idea of how Google Earth and GPS systems allows travel from world views to an image of someone’s back garden within seconds, suggesting that nowhere is uncharted or distant anymore. Yet within this technological age so much knowledge is still lost or hidden. The travelling pod project, intends to reveal the idea, that within every world there is a world, and that within every small village there is a million fascinating stories to be told.”
To find out more about the Cultural Olympiad and Kent’s role in the lead up to the 2012 Games please visit our Your Art pages.
You can view more of Nicole Mollett’s work and follow progress about the Cultural Baton at www.nicolemollett.co.uk
