Visitors to Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Hauxley reserve will now be able to admire a new signpost donated by artist Emily Cropton.
The sign was created as part of an eight-month research residency commissioned by The Maltings (Berwick) Trust and Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy, Institute for Creative Arts Practice and Population Health Sciences Institute.
Meeting with, and working alongside, the wildlife charity’s volunteers at the popular Hauxley reserve, Emily’s residency explored ideas about wellbeing in rural communities in Northumberland and relationships of care between landscapes and communities, and the intertwined material and life cycles that are on the site.
Made from charred timber, the signpost highlights the Druridge Bay site’s heritage as an open-cast coal mine. It is situated outside the Willow Hide.
Helen Walsh, Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Biodiversity Boost Officer said: “It was interesting meeting Emily during her visits to work with our volunteers at Hauxley and hearing how her project explored the links between the land and the communities that form around it.
I was so pleased when she suggested donating the signpost we now have in place at Hauxley. It fits in perfectly with the view from the Willow Hide and I hope it continues to provoke thoughts and discussion around our own journeys to wellbeing.”
Christina Dobson & Jennifer Deane at Newcastle University’s Population Health Sciences Institute said: “We are thrilled to have collaborated with artist Emily Cropton and The Maltings, in her thought-provoking and insightful exploration of wellbeing in rural Northumberland. We hope that the installation of the way marker will allow more people to engage with Emily’s work and spark further conversations around ‘what’, and ‘where’, wellbeing actually is.”
The Maltings partnership with Newcastle University supports the exchange and sharing of knowledge between artists, academics and researchers to inform critical responses to contemporary rural issues, which has an increasing profile within contemporary art debates.