We are a cooperative looking for a space to run a centre for local, land-based arts and crafts in England. We believe that arts, crafts, growing and what we call ‘Wild Service’ can bridge the gap between our communities and nature; we believe that through a cultural interaction with the natural world, we can forge a pathway to a more knowledgeable, healthy, reciprocal and sustainable way of living. Our workshops do not simply teach craft, but use craft teaching to explore ‘commons culture’ that ancient code of leaning, respect and love that once bound English communities to their land. Whilst searching out in nature for our materials, whilst forging it in the workshop with our hands, our collective teaches an alternative social history of England that is rarely shared, and an old philosophy that once thrived on this island, the reciprocal and sustainable balance of rights and responsibilities that was ‘commons culture’.
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The Commons was always more than just a patch of land that locals could use. It was a social paradigm that ensured a balance between rights and responsibilities, a balance between ecologcial resource and use, and perhaps most importantly, it was and still could be, a form of cultural identity that is far more healthy, inclusive and diverse than the current narratives pressed upon us today.
It is an identity that has nothing to do with skin colour, gender, political affiliation, or even economic wealth, but is in fact based on interaction and lived learning of the land around us. Our workshops seek to cultivate this radical approach to English identity by creating processes that help us learn about our local area, creating a shared culture that is centred around interaction with the landscape, one that is inclusive to all.
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Our circle is wide and diverse, including not just artists, beekeepers, herbalists and crafts people, but also professional growers, mycologists, coppicers, solar engineers, welders and chainsaw artists. We have the potential and knowledge to live carbon free, and our ambition is to run an alternative school, where we teach the pragmatics of a low carbon lifestyle. Boaters and van dwellers live a life that is much less resource hungry, and as we see it, rather than living in the past, we are in fact much better resourced and knowledgeable to live in the inevitable future. We would like to share this knowledge in a fun and inspiring manner. Growing vegetables, making humanure, roadkill cuisine, setting up solar panels and wind turbines.