Commissions

Dylan Shipton, Esther Collins, Lydia Brockless

Joinery

Esther Collins, Joinery, 2019. Photo: Marta Martinez

Esther Collins, Joinery, 2019. Photo: Marta Martinez

Esther Collins, Joinery, 2019. Photo: Marta Martinez

Esther Collins, Joinery, 2019. Photo: Marta Martinez

Esther Collins, Joinery, 2019. Photo: Marta Martinez

Esther Collins, Joinery, 2019. Photo: Marta Martinez

Esther Collins, Joinery, 2019. Photo: Marta Martinez

Esther Collins, Joinery, 2019. Photo: Marta Martinez

In summer 2019, artist Esther Collins led a series of hands-on, creative workshops under the title of Joinery. The workshops explored designing and making, with guest artists Lydia Brockless and Dylan Shipton, and tested out ideas for a new community building in Milton Creek Country Park, Sittingbourne.

Joinery workshops were held in Sittingbourne’s Eco Shed, a woodwork group that works alongside people with learning difficulties/disabilities and/or autism, and at No. 34, in partnership with Ideas Test

The final event was held at Holy Trinity Community Open Day, Milton Creek, where local people explored co-design processes and contributed ideas towards the new building; what it might look like and how it might be used. Over the afternoon, a playful, temporary barn structure was co-created with artist Dylan Shipton.

Background

Joinery is part of a longer-term project, exploring grassroots methods of designing and making new buildings, with the aim of creating a permanent ‘barn’ in Milton Creek Country Park to be owned and run by local residents. 

The project has been devised through conversation and collaborative design activities with Sittingbourne residents and is drawn from longer-term research led by artist Kieren Reed into barn-raisings. A barn-raising is a traditional way for people to come together to make a wooden structure that wouldn’t be possible for one family to build. Neighbours work together to cut and join timbers, before lifting the frame into position using ropes and poles.

This joint effort allows a building to be constructed quickly, on a scale that is only possible with teamwork. This communal activity creates good connections between members of the community who may not normally meet in day-to-day life.

The project is managed by Cement Fields and Ideas Test, working in partnership with Milton Creek Country Park and Swale Borough Council.  It is kindly supported by Kent County Council.

If you live or work in Sittingbourne and would like to get involved with co-designing and building your community barn, please email us at info@cementfields.org.