#CollectingViews #SpringsCalling

As part of the RURALities programme, Meadow Arts has commissioned rural artist Emily Wilkinson to create a piece of audio art documenting this year’s transition into Spring. We want to hear from those living and working in rural areas to collect your views about lifting out of the pandemic, and the coming of Spring as we approach the Vernal Equinox (sometimes known as Spring Equinox, The Arousing or Thunder in the Earth).

If you’d like to contribute to the project, you can record audio clips (using a smartphone or another device) and email them to leanne@meadowarts.org along with your name and location. All contributions will be anonymous unless you’d specifically like to be credited – please indicate in your email. The deadline for contributions is midnight on Sunday 21st March, the day of the Vernal Equinox. We will be launching the final piece over Easter. Follow @meadowarts and @weavingpoetry on instagram for project updates.

You can send up to three audio clips no longer than three minutes each in length, using some or all of the below questions as prompts

Please speak freely, you don’t have to plan what you have to say – we would like it to be natural and spontaneous, although if you’d like to be creative with your submission please do so! Recordings in the form of poetry, spoken word, singing or music are welcome. You might like to record your audio alone, or in conversation with another person.

Use the following questions and prompts as guidelines, and record yourself responding to them.

• How are you presently feeling at this point in the pandemic?
• What does Spring mean to you?
• What are your hopes and predictions for the lighter months?
• Have there been positives for you and the wider society over this last year?
• Moving forward, what support do you now need, if any to re-connect to the local and wider world?
• We would like to make sure a diversity of voices are heard and are interested to connect with under-represented groups within rural areas. If this describes you, what are your thoughts about this?

Permissions: By contributing to this project, you give permission for your audio to be edited and used anonymously. If you would like to be credited in the project, please indicate this in the accompanying email.

Please note: It is likely that not all submissions will be included in the final piece of audio art, but all clips will be uploaded to an online archive of the material, creating an open source audio library documenting the very specific circumstances we are living through.

www.emilywilkinson.net