Renowend Director Joins Pennine Lancashire Arts Programme
Super Slow Way, a major arts commissioning programme established to create a lasting legacy of arts and culture in Pennine Lancashire, has appointed Laurie Peake as its director.
Laurie will lead the commissioning of artists for the three-year project, running until 2017, which has received a £2million grant from Arts Council England’s Creative People & Places programme, designed to empower communities to take the lead in shaping local arts provision. Super Slow Way will be developed by leading arts producers, working with local communities along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal from Blackburn to Pendle.
Time is a major theme of Super Slow Way. Taking its cue from the Slow Movement, Super Slow Way asks how can we use our time more creatively; bringing art and artists to a space where time slows down, to look afresh at how people live their fast-paced lives and how they relate to their environment, neighbourhoods and to each other.
Laurie Peake, project director for Super Slow Way, said: “I’m very proud to be from Pennine Lancashire and thrilled to be given the opportunity to get involved in the already vibrant cultural life of the region. I’m excited by the potential of Super Slow Way and looking forward to working with artists from near and far as well as residents across the area, using its great industrial heritage, dramatic landscapes and cultural diversity as inspiration and material. I hope Super Slow Way can spark a creative revolution on the banks of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal; one that inspires new types of productivity and offers opportunities to spend our time more imaginatively, supporting existing cultural activity and encouraging new forms. My aim is to harness the arts to look back at what shaped this area, to ask new questions about where we are now and imagine and propose new directions for where we are heading.”
Tony Hales, chair of the Super Slow Way project board, added: “Super Slow Way is a hugely ambitious project that aims to celebrate, unite and excite the communities along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. Laurie has a superb track record of running major cultural programmes, so we are delighted to have her on board. We’re now looking forward to turning our ambitions into reality, and creating a truly unique cultural project together with the local people over the coming years.”
About Laurie
As Director of Projects and Programmes at Liverpool Biennial, Laurie Peake created strategic public/private partnerships to deliver temporary and permanent commissions with UK and international artists in public spaces across Merseyside, hallmarked by the breadth and depth of their social engagement and transformative effects. High profile art commissions during this time include Antony Gormley’s Another Place on Crosby beach, Jaume Plensa’s sculpture Dream on the former Sutton Manor colliery in St Helens, Jeanne Van Heeswijk’s 2Up2Down in Anfield Liverpool, and Richard Wilson’s ambitious Turning the Place Over for Liverpool’s Capital of Culture. She most recently worked with Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio on land and water use investigations in Los Angeles and the Intermountain West, delivering an ambitious project on the LA River as well as supporting the studio’s long-term community engagement in the Owens Valley in the Eastern Sierras.
About Super Slow Way
Funded by the Arts Council England’s Creative People & Places programme, Super Slow Way is a partnership made up of the Canal & River Trust, Newground, local authorities of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Pendle and Hyndburn and Arts Partnership Pennine Lancashire (APPL). Super Slow Way's mission is to establish Pennine Lancashire – along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal corridor – as a model of socially engaged arts, shaped by local communities in collaboration with world-class producers and artists.
For more information visit www.superslowway.org.uk
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Notes to editors
For more media information please contact Catharine Braithwaite on +44 (0)7947 644 110 or [email protected]
The Canal & River Trust is the guardian of 2,000 miles of historic waterways across England and Wales. The Trust is building on a historic and fruitful association between the arts and waterways through its Arts on the Waterways programme. The programme is enabling talented artists and producers to slow down, reflect and present great art across the waterways cared for by the Trust. www.canalrivertrust.org.uk /@CanalRiverTrust /@CRTComms
Arts Council England: Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2010 and 2015, we will invest £1.9 billion of public money from government and an estimated £1.1 billion from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk
Arts Partners in Pennine Lancashire brings together independent, professional arts organisations based within the area and working with local communities. Current members are Action Factory Community Arts, Burnley Youth Theatre, Culturapedia, Horse + Bamboo, Huckleberry Films, In-Situ and Mid Pennine Arts.