The Arts In The Area: Amble’s Bord Waalk

As part of my final studies at Northumbria for my Degree in Fine Art, I recently produced a research paper on the Arts in Amble and the Surrounding Area. The final paper came in at 25 pages and a little over 5,500 words. In order to make that more digestable I have broken the contents down into a series of what are, hopefully, easy to read essays on the various aspects of the arts in the area that the paper touched on. The first of these essays, in a series titled ‘The Arts In The Area’, details an upcoming Sculpture Trail set to be constructed that will run from Low Hauxley, through Amble, known as the ‘Bord Waalk’.

**Above:** One of the 12 physical sculptures comprising the trail, produced by art and design studio, Aether and Hemera. This sculpture will be located along the A1068 just before entering Amble from the north. (Image Credit: Aether and Hemera)

The ‘Bord Waalk’ (A deliberate play on the phrase, Bird Walk, in the Amble accent) is a ‘walking trail’ of sculptures set to begin construction this year and it is the brainchild of the Amble Development Trust Manager Andrew Gooding. The trail represents the culmination of around 3 years of work on the part of the Trust and has recieved a little under half a million pounds in funding. Firstly backed by £396,000 worth of Coastal Communites Fund capital and then by an additional £80,000 Arts Council Grant to support the delivery of the trail. This unprecedented level of investment in an arts project in the area demonstrates that the arts are becoming increasingly valued in the context of social and economic regeneration. The trail has been under development for around 3 years, being awarded the funding in March 2019, however in the interim it has faced a slew of bureaucratic and administrative hurdles. Most of those issues, many arising from the pandemic, have recently been cleared and the trail is set to begin construction soon.

Image: Frances Anderson’s Murmuration Sculpture (Source: The Ambler/The Artist)

The trail is comprised of a mix of physical and digital artworks, the latter being accessed via a specially designed app. The 12 physical sculptures have been designed by a range of nationally and internationally renowned artists. One of which is Amble-based Artist Frances Anderson, Co-Director of the Dry Water Arts Centre. Others include, Wiltshire-based Artist Celia Smith, Jon Voss, a British Artist based in the South of France and the Aether & Hemera Design Studio based in Milan, Italy. The stated aim of the Bord Waalk is as follows,

“[to] attract new visitors to the area, creating more commercial skills and opportunities for artists, engaging local communities with creativity and to encourage a closer connection between art lovers, outdoor enthusiasts and bird watchers” [Amble Development Trust Website].

The trail has begun to be publicised and the aformentioned workshops and opportunties have begun to filter out. I myself benefitted from one of these workshops in November 2021, the workshop titled ‘Making the Most of the Coast’, was run by freelance consultant Jane Shaw and centered around how to make the most out of the commericial arts opportunities arising from the trail. It taught me more in 2 days than 3 years of Professional Practice Modules at University ever did. Her creative enterprise organisation, Create North, has been a key player in the development of the Bord Waalk. The commissioning process was outsourced to her by the Trust and she was charged with composing a shortlist of artists that fitted the project brief. Many of the sculptures have already been fabricated and the sites marked out ready for groundworks. Yet, and this is drawn purely from my own conversations, very few people in the town seem to have heard of it.

In my research paper I laid out two examples of famous public art projects, one close to home and one further afield, one which became a beloved icon, and the other dismantled and put into storage. The prior example is that of the Angel of the North, the Angel was the source of grumbles on the part of local residents when it was first placed atop a hill in Low Eighton in 1998. Yet, almost 25 years later the Antony Gormley work is one of the best known symbols of the area and is the source of much pride amongst those native to the North East. The latter example is that of ‘Tilted Arc’ by the American Sculptor Richard Serra. Tilted Arc was a 12-foot high, 120-foot long metal arc placed in the Foley Federal Plaza in New York in 1981. The sculpture was the source of a long legal battle which ended with its removal from the plaza in 1989. Office workers in the surrounding US Government Buildings decried it as an unwelcome imposition, one that rendered the plaza unusable and unpleasant to spend time in. Whilst these art-historical examples are on a much larger scale they signify two possible fortunes in store for the Bord Waalk.

Image: The Angel of the North (Source: Wikipedia/Flickr saw2th)

The common thread across all of the sculptures is their shared depiction of the bird life native to the area. Some of the sculptures seem to have been designed with limited accounting for the landscape they will be placed in, and for the impact that they make as a single trail. Making a sculpture to sit on a plinth in a gallery is one thing, however site-specific sculpture is another. This leaves them open to broader criticism from the viewing public than they otherwise might have if they had been designed more site-specifically. A public sculpture is an intervention in a public space, one that fails to take into account the specifics of its surroundings sets itself up to fail. There is the risk that the public turns against these sculptures. Having not been involved in the process and then finding them appear with little fanfare, there is the danger that people decide that these sculptures are simply the result of a vanity project aimed at drawing in yet more tourists. Rather, this project stands to be something very beneficial to the town, a project that has the potential to involve locals in art in new and exciting ways and that can continue to revive the local economy-especially so for local artists. Yet, the public cannot be blamed for reacting against the trail if the powers that be have not acted to bring the public along with the trail over the course of its development.

Debate is healthy, and I would argue necessary, however there has been little surrounding the Bord Waalk. I am not writing this essay out of a positon to criticise the trail for moaning-sake. Had I come of age 30 years ago the notion of working as a professional artist in Amble would have seemed deeply outlandish, yet the conditions at present make it much more of a possibility for me than there ever was 30 years ago. I am very enthusastic about any project that aims to draw art-lovers into the area. However it is my opinion at present that this trail is an example of an art-as-public-infrastructure project rather than an art-as-art project. A project that aims to deliver economic benefits first and realise it’s artistic merits second, yet the former cannot exist without the latter. However, I also recognise my own limited knowledge of public arts projects and that my loftiness may be misplaced and out of touch with the reality of the admistration of public art. I emphasise that I am simply writing from the position of a resident, a painter and someone with a good knowledge of art history.

All of this being said, the trail has not been fully launched yet, nor have any of the sculptures been planted in the ground, so all of this conjecture should be taken with a pinch of salt. However, I would draw this essay to a close by making it clear that it is my opinion that the trail runs the risk of disenfranchising the public by having the sculptures suddenly appear with no public involvement or discussion. People complaining is one thing, something to be expected, however ignoring these complaints simply as townsfolk being stuck in the past is another. The public ought to be involved in a public art project. Any debate around the sculptures ought to be encouraged, even from those with a negative view of it. An old teacher of mine, the late David Coils, said that ‘art is what gets people talking’. I believe in this notion and feel that art is at its best and most enlivening when it lives through debate and discussion. However the trail has had, and seems to stand, to have none of this. I am not making the case for any public forums or town meetings but simply referring to everyday conversations. Between people in the street or around the dinner table, yet people lack the requisite information to have such debates and I hope that this essay can in some way make up for this.

Of course, people will have a chance to have these discussions themselves once the trail is installed, however such discussions will have little to no impact on the development of the trail for the concrete will already have dried. My anxieties may be misplaced and it is my hope that the Bord Waalk pans out with all successes. There is still time to account for these issues, indeed perhaps they have already been accounted for and they will be tended to in the coming months-only time will tell if this is the case.

Luke McTaggart

The Arts In The Area: Amble’s Bord Waalk

Further Reading

The Arts In The Area: Amble’s Bord Waalk

Further Reading

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