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Flagging up Community Spirit for the Funchal Tall Ships Regatta

A series of flags which will decorate the town centre of Falmouth for the Funchal Tall Ships Regatta have been created by old and young working together as a result of a project commissioned by Arts for Health Cornwall.

Artist Tony Minnion ran a series of workshops that involved the Year 10 students from Falmouth School working directly with the elders at Falmouth Day Care Centre.

‘The atmosphere in the lounge was really lifted as people started to get busy at each of the sessions with the older people really seeming to be invigorated by the activity – lots of laughter and banter developed, fascinating stories were told with people learning new things about one another - their lives and experiences. The older people really did seem delighted with the opportunity to share in drawing and printmaking with the students and then were very pleased to be able to take their masterpieces home with them’ said Tony. The conversation centred around the Tall Ships and maritime memories, which were then transposed into the flag designs using drawing, stencils and printmaking techniques. The students later digitised the images and prepared them for printing.

These flags will be hung throughout the main Town Centre area early in August and will remain in place until the Tall Ships Regatta in September
This project was a partnership between Arts for Health Cornwall, Falmouth Town Council and the Tall Ships Association with funding from Arts Council England, and was aimed at using creativity to unite the youth with their elders in a common purpose and help to create happier, stronger communities in which the older people stay more engaged and active, enabling them to lead fulfilling, happier and healthier lives.

Falmouth Day Care Centre is a well used meeting place and support centre for the more elderly members of the community, many of whom had strong connections with and memories of the sea; hence the Tall Ships seemed an ideal backdrop for this project. Lucy Downing, Day Care Centre Manager commented ‘The centre benefited greatly from the interaction with the students, and being involved with the preparation of the flags. Often the older generation are not able to participate in events like this due to mobility or lack of transport so it was lovely to bring the event to them in a relaxed informal setting’.

Mark Williams, Town Clerk, said ‘It would have been easy to go out and buy some flags to decorate the town centre but giving the community the opportunity to work together to design the flags, meant so much more and clearly demonstrates how we value and respect the people of Falmouth; after all the Tall Ships Regatta isn’t just for tourists. We are really proud to have been involved in this project and we plan to use the flags on many occasions, our thanks go to Gwyn Richards, from Reach Maintenance for all his assistance with hanging of the flags’.

Lisa Pearn, Arts teacher at Falmouth School commented ‘The finished art work is dynamic and has given the students a chance to be a part of the community in which they live. Everyone who took part enjoyed different aspects and they have taken away some brilliant memories and have created some vibrant designs’.

The students reflected in one of the workshops that ‘It is interesting that we feel that everyone is scared of us, particularly if we are in a group, but we’re not scary people and we were really quite nervous about meeting them. I am glad I did it though as I overcame this. As the week progressed we felt that the elderly gained confidence with us, and came out of themselves….it feels good to have done something and given back to the community. We are ecstatic that us students from Falmouth School were able to take part in Tall Ships 2008! We can’t wait to see our flags we made hanging on the high street!’

September 2008