Artists Sian Hughes and Sarah Jane Richards have been awarded the Sefton Coastal Path Sculpture Trail commission 2015.
The Sefton Coast Landscape Partnership’s commission brief is to create a series of six sculptures at key points along the Sefton Coastal Path, designed jointly by the artists and the local community. Each individual sculpture will offer a unique creative response to a different aspect of the coastal heritage, history or landscape, offering an creative and informative view of the coast.
The sculptures will all contain individual artworks developed through a programme of art workshops with the local community offering the opportunity for a wide cross section of ages and abilities to take part in this enterprise.
The six sculptures will be installed in the autumn and will provide visual links and information points along the trail from Marshside to Hightown. The project is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Sarah says: ‘We will be designing work that will reflect the flora & fauna, the landscape and the coast’s heritage. Each individual sculpture will offer a unique creative response to a different aspect of coastal heritage, history and landscape. The aim is for it to be visually exciting, as well as informative.’
Community workshops will be running during the summer to create the artworks.
Sian says, ‘We are particularly excited that the sculptures will all contain individual artworks created by the local community – it’s a great opportunity for a cross section of all ages and abilities along the coast to contribute to this exciting project.’
Ideas being developed are based around clay work, glass work, mosaics, wire sculpting, cyanotypes and embossing to be set in the wooden sculptures.
Sarah and Sian have a wide range of experience in public and community arts within the North West and beyond. They are also part of the Creative Alternatives arts team based in the Atkinson where Sarah is Artist in Residence. Both work with the Atkinson School Museums Programme. Last year Sarah and Sian made over 200 sand lizards with the help from members of the public as part of the Southport Festival.
For more information and regular updates please see the blog Coastlinetraces2015.wordpress.com and the Coastline Traces 2015 facebook page.
This project is part of the Sefton Coast Landscape Partnership (SCLP), which is funded by the Heritage Lottery.
 