Funding Application Stage One.

To : The Tudor Trust


On behalf of: “Memory Gardens” Sculpture Club.

24.9.06


1. We are interested in networks.The same people who are isolated in a framework not of their own making, are viable with ideas and directions that matter, when the context for shared value is there. This context is everyone`s right.

We are experimenting with shape, rhythm and form in this outdoor space, making comparisons with what is muteable in nature and what is muteable in ourselves.
Making marks in the garden, seeing them change over time and indeed making changes and adaptations ourselves is at the heart of what we do.

The way we achieve networks is to let them happen. We are not rigid about who the project is intended for but we are clear about a certain emphasis to a way of working. We believe in movement, active engagement with things and elements;

Fire, water, earth, plants. We believe that the visual mapping of “Place”, through moving through it and making patterns of value as “Memory traces” that other people see and respond to creates links within people and between people and underpins a common value which is at a deeper level than language but can also support language. A value system that binds people together.

The difference we want to make is to enable people to experience and feel what is important to them and to others by being part of a network which is constantly renewed by their own involvement.

2. We are the right people to do this work because we are doing it. The project was begun out of a need five years ago. That need involved embedding creative and social activities into an outdoor continuous space where there could be a sense of belonging and a deep connection with tangible things. The first people to set the project up were artists and musicians isolated with autism, dyslexia and mental health problems.

In this sense the project has a pioneering “Survival” ethos to it which resonates to new members whose experience has rarely been of joint involvement but more of being a “Patient” or at best, “client”.

3. An interesting thing is happening in the garden and particularly as the diversity of needs and backgrounds has developed. People are learning to accomodate one another. The group sculptures and paintings that we do, create a Meter that atunes people to one another as they alternately witness and act, to balance an art-piece through combined input. This opens channels between people. These channels remain open and people become involved. Verbal people learn that nonverbal people think and express clear ideas and vision. Non-verbal people learn to communicate their needs through selected and trusted advocates who perhaps for the first time are needed.

The balance in the garden is constantly shifting and re-tuning, creating breakthroughs in unexpected ways. This can create moments which are volatile and dramatic but also caring and tender. The space does not go away and so all situations are important in the memory of the garden.

We know there is a need for such a project because it engages people.

It creates clear yet multi-layered roles for people who normally would be kept apart and not meet. We show that their meeting is beneficial. That people can help each other. That where people are invited to act they will. We believe that “Self-Help” groups have an important role to play both in creating networks and relationships and in long-term research into the nature of isolation and fragmentation and how practically and creatively this might be addressed.
We think that a familiar context with an on-going community of people based around “events” which are in essence positive can shift people from a position of dependency to that of Care of others. That this Care of others is a role which is necessary in order for people to feel they have a place in the world and indeed important if they are to have the strength to truly address their own core needs.

We know there is a need for such a project because people keep coming back.

It is a place that they invest hope in.This hope carries outwards to other activities. People begin to address other difficult areas of their lives in practical and intuitive ways. They are clearer about what they like and what is uncomfortable for them. And they feel that they have the right to express their needs and preferences and expect to be listened to.

4. We would use funding by you to assure our continuation.


To do that we need to:

a) Employ a part-time co-ordinator and an accountant.

b) Develop a dis-used store-room into an indoor space that over-looks the garden as a Meeting Place and Activites centre. ( When it rains, we are limited to a shed which is too small when there are lots of us).

c) Employ Mentors to enable high need members at certain stages of their involvement to attend the garden outside of the clubs when it is quiet and to have meaningful contact.

d) Develop a long-term committment to research and to publishing our findings on a web-site. This would include a clear to follow self-help guide of how to set up a project along our broad outlines but which would be unique to each location and the resources at hand.

Finally, we would use our link with you as a channel of on-going communication and support in areas such as organization and networking that our members sometimes find extremely difficult. We would use the link as a gage in validating and interpreting our ideas and vision and would hope to draw on your experience and the suggestions you make in order to create tangible and achievevable goals which can be communicated to others not familiar with our project but whose support is valuble to us.


Ruth Solomon
Founder/Chair

Memory Gardens Sculpture Club

22.9.06