The Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership offered five artistic commissions worth up to £8,000 each to engage local communities in its work to conserve and restore the water quality and habitats of the River Rye and its tributaries.
Four further bursaries worth £500 each were available for young artists aged 16-30 years old, to develop their skills and knowledge of an area of interest to the Ryevitalise project.
The five commission themes were:
1. The cooling effect in a warming environment
Empowering the young to act on climate change
2. Made you look
Eye-catching projects to bring species under threat to light
3. Rediscovering the Rye
Bringing the human story of the River Rye to life
4. Re-connecting the connectivity
Using creativity to involve local communities in understanding the Rye landscape
5. Reconnecting people
Using music and art to support personal growth and foster community links
The projects
Comedy Vs Climate Change
Under ‘Cooling Effect in a Warming Environment’ this comedy group aimed to raise awareness of the climate crisis and to gather community support for environmental projects. The project is guided by research into humour and laughter, and how the vehicle of comedy can be used to engage a wide and diverse audience in the understanding of climate issues.
They developed a series of innovative climate-based comedy training events and workshops for young members of the public focused on the River Rye, leading to a final stand-up gig at the Helmsley Arts Centre. Their project developed a sense of responsibility, as well as calming eco-anxiety through education and agency.
Visit Comedy vs Climate Change on Instagram
Ed Carter
The interactive artist Ed Carter designed workshops and an invigorating exhibition focused on the life cycle of the cased caddisfly invertebrate found in the River Rye catchment area, titled INTERGRIPALPIA, under the ‘Made You Look’ theme.
This project helped to reconnect communities and children to this special landscape through workshops and an intriguing Helmsley Castle public exhibition. It is this community collaboration and creative practice that explored the natural and human-influenced changes, leading to a more positive engagement with environmental issues and an ecological awareness within a younger generation.
Find out more about Integripalpia
Everwitch Theatre
Under the ‘Rediscovering the Rye’ banner, Everwitch Theatre has produced a River Rye digital audio drama experience, in conjunction with local communities. Helena Fox, who runs Everwitch Theatre, is an award-winning and published playwright and theatre director, based in the North York Moors. Using a variety of writing styles, including verbatim, folklore and site-specific works, Helena integrated her work within the community.
Everwitch Theatre’s project aimed to help rediscover the magic of the River Rye, with a focus on producing testimonies from school children and young farmers in several workshops. These testimonies were developed into a script, with the help of community actors from the local 1812 Theatre group, as a river walk audio experience. This audio is available online for walkers, visitors and local communities for years to come.
Discover the River Folk Audio Trail
Sue Walsh
Under the ‘Reconnecting the Connectivity’ theme, Sue Walsh, alongside Cecilia Tyrell, created a series of workshops with a focus on eco-prints using natural materials, alongside immersive visits to the River Rye and an audio soundscape of the landscape.
Sue’s project used the natural resources available to help support marginalised individuals and groups within the North York Moors through workshops that explored eco-printing, writing, drawing, and cold-water dips in the Rye. Through using nature creatively to relax and encourage engagement, Sue improved mindfulness and awareness of the environment for participants.
North Yorkshire Music Therapy Centre
Under the ‘Reconnecting People’ theme, the North Yorkshire Music Therapy Centre introduced the local community and users of Acorn Community Care to the beauty of nature and the joy of engagement.
This project focused on drawing participants from the local community in conjunction with the Acorn Community Care in Malton, who provide care and support for people living with learning and physical disabilities, to access the natural environment and express themselves through music. This was carried out through a number of tailored sessions and workshops, both indoors and outdoors to access the River Rye and its landscape.
Visit Facebook to view the RyeVerse video
The Bursaries
Boyi Bai
Using VR and immersive audio technology, Ph.D. researcher Boyi Bai recorded the catchment landscape of the western River Rye to compare the changes in seasons and enhance the public’s perceptions of environmental changes.
Livia Wright
This project was inspired by the local flora and fauna in the production of renewable and eco-friendly fashion items. Using the animals created by the Young Rangers in her collaborative workshops, Livia created outfits worn influenced by ‘land girls’ in World War Two, which encompassed the history and ecology of Rye landscape.
Charlotte-Grace Watson
Charlotte-Grace’s paintings employ expressive techniques and a vibrant colour palette to capture the dynamic energy and depth of the natural world that surrounds us.
Visit Charlotte-Grace's website
Olivia Grace Dennison
Utilising a wide range of artistic mediums and techniques, from textiles, illustration, print and digital media, Olivia captures the variety of life supported by river systems such as the River Rye in the North York Moors National Park.
