Pride of Place festival report

Ukraine Flower Festival

We just concluded our highly successful Pride of Place Malmesbury event, taking place from 30 June to 22 July 2023.  We love our hometown and the festival celebrated all that makes Malmesbury and the surrounding area such a special place to live, work in and visit. As well as a feast of exhibitions and events around the town, we offered guided walks and sketching opportunities, family-friendly workshops, a photography mini-marathon and open mic poetry night. And the opportunity to enjoy locally sourced food and drink at our Makers and Producers Weekend.

Visitors to the In Living Memory exhibition at Malmesbury Library

The festival opened with four In Living Memory exhibitions, featuring work by fifty artists who have lived and made work in Malmesbury and its surrounding area, from the 1940s to the present day. A partnership between Caerbladon and Athelstan Museum, we set out to capture the stories of the many artists and makers who contributed to town’s cultural life and offered inspiration to successive generations. After an event last November when local people brought in artworks from their homes and shared stories of the artists, we were contacted by others who were keen to loan their works to us to enable them to be exhibited to the public.

The exhibition at the Rausing Building drew on post-War works in the Athelstan Museum collection

Following in the footsteps of JMW Turner were 20th century luminaries such as artist John Piper and the engraver and printmaker Robin Tanner. In recent years, many artists have made Malmesbury their home, including the celebrated landscape painter Julian Barrow, ceramicist Mary White and acclaimed Scottish sculptor James Castle. The local area continues to inspire the many artists living here, working in painting, textiles, photography, ceramics, glass, metal and mixed media.

Sylvia and Colin Forward moved to Malmesbury in 1950, and their family has contributed to the richness and vibrancy of the local arts scene for over 70 years. As well as work by Sylvia (who died in 1996) and Colin (who died in 2001), the exhibition A Family of Artists featured contributions from two of their six children Viève and Tristan. Viève and Tristan absorbed their parent’s creativity and dedication to art, drawing on their life experiences as source material for their artwork. They continue to work in the arts today, writing, teaching and honouring their parent’s legacy. We thank them for the loan of work for this exhibition, and their support of the In Living Memory project.

First entries to the Photo Mini-Marathon

Our second Pride of Place weekend was inspired by this quote by John Betjeman, Poet Laureate 1972 -1984:

'You wouldn't know it, driving through Malmesbury, what a sacred and peculiar place it is”

For our Photo Mini-Marathon, we set a challenge for local people, young and old, to use their cameraphone to make five pictures for five themes in five hours, capturing Malmesbury scenes in an unusual and original way. There were some brilliant entries, several hundred, and we selected the overall winners based on consistency and quality across the five themes.

A packed house at the Town Hall cinema that evening celebrated John Betjeman's love of architecture and preservation with a talk by Rachel Morley and a special screening of the ‘lost’ Malmesbury film from 1963. Marking the 60th anniversary of Malmesbury Civic Trust and Sir John Betjeman becoming the Trust’s first President.

On Sunday, Janinka from Make it Wild ran a lovely gentle workshop suitable for children of all ages. Together the children assembled cottages and buildings, created using cardboard, and made their very own Malmesbury High street. With cardboard, chalk, straw, lollypop sticks and pipe cleaners they built a miniature world with each house individually created by the children.  

Chris Exton - Malmesbury Honey

Our third weekend focused on locally produced food and drink to taste and buy, including the Friday farmer’s market and a Makers and Producers event featuring presentations by Fruitful Malmesbury and ALIVU olive oil manufacturers, pop-up shop by Echo Food and Sam the Herbalist, special treats at the Wild Food Company, Abygail’s Artisan Gelato, the Cake Tin, the Old Bakehouse and Hobbs House, and tips on everyday eco living from Renew Malmebury.

 Despite the unpredictable weather, The Source: Food and Drink Weekend was a great success with around 1000 people attending events and a delicious array of locally produced cheeses, wine, cider, chocolate, organic vegetables, pies, cakes, pickles and preserves, along with bread, artisan ice cream, meat and charcuterie, and sustainably produced olive oil. Whatley Manor allowed visitors to sample their unique Sapling vodka and Abbey Row offered a complimentary tasting of the macarons they make and serve with Afternoon Tea. 

Due to the high winds on Saturday, the Makers and Producers Market was transferred to the Town Hall and the high footfall achieved demonstrated that this was the right decision. As well as the wonderful local produce on sale, Fruitful Malmesbury set out their plans for a new community garden in Malmesbury, and the public were invited to cast their votes for the best photographs from the Photo Mini-Marathon event in the previous week.

Adam Horovitz performing at The Poetry Salon

The following evening saw The Poetry Salon Open Mic, with special guest Adam Horovitz. It was a funny, moving and thought-provoking event, with 13 local poets performing their original work and an inspired appearance by musician Theo May who sung his version of a Yeats’ poem set to a traditional tune played on 12 strong guitar.

Gien visitors view the exhibition in the Abbey

We were delighted to welcome 40 guests from Gien in France for the final weekend, as part of the town twinning arrangement. On a wet Saturday they enjoyed a curator’s tour of the In Living Memory exhibitions along with a special visit to Abbey Manor House and Gardens on Sunday, when the sunshine returned. Meanwhile, Look UP!, our second children’s workshop invited participants to look up in Malmesbury Abbey and see the wonderful shapes and stone contours of this beautiful building within our town centre. Janinka from Make it Wild helped children to use binoculars to look up high, drawing favourite shapes then emulating them in clay. 

Pride of Place Malmesbury was about unlocking the creative potential of our communities and enabling people from diverse backgrounds to participate in and shape cultural provision within their locality. The area may lack arts infrastructure, but it is rich in creativity and history. Local people are keen participants and collaborators who have a stake in its future success and cultural vitality. This was a festival made by the community for the community, and also one which projected a confident view of the town’s future potential as a cultural destination.