Berwick Parade wows audiences
Artist Matthew Rosier’s creation animates town barracks
What a night of triumph for Berwick! A truly spectacular work of public art, a major funding announcement and the planets – clearly visible in a dark night full of twinkling stars – in sympathetic alignment.
The latter astronomical phenomenon was fortuitous, beyond the scope even of Berwick’s creatives, planners and fundraisers.
But the rest was just reward for vision and hard work.
Let’s start with Berwick Parade, artist Matthew Rosier’s projection onto three inner walls of the fortified town’s austere 18th Century barracks of a significant number of Berwick residents.
To the rousing sound of a live pipe band they marched, strolled, danced, ran, hobbled and trotted (yes, there were some four-legged participants) around the walls, larger-than-life but also transparent and ghost-like.
It was surprisingly moving, a parade of humanity in its many guises.
Here were young and old, footballers and choir members, soldiers and medics, theatricals and solid citizens, riders and dog walkers, police officers, lifeboat crews, oarsmen, Scottish dancers, scampering schoolkids, pushchair mums and sprightly pensioners.
More than 800 of them were filmed in advance, directed by the artist but none presumably having much of an inkling how their contribution might eventually appear in front of the crowd.
Like the best works of public art, it was simple in conception (probably extremely hard in the making) and striking in its impact. A never-to-be-forgotten piece of artistic ephemera.
But having said that, presumably the footage will survive, perhaps as a file on a laptop and available for a repeat showing in years to come – a nostalgic reminder of when all the people who make up a community came together and did something extraordinary.
At the end, those of us gathered on the drill square clapped and cheered - and I kid you not, a shooting star tore across the night sky. The perfect conclusion to a perfect performance.
And that 30 minutes of fun was repeated twice more on Friday night (February 28) and were due be repeated again three more times on Saturday and Sunday (March 1 and 2), all the free tickets snapped up by those who should be congratulating themselves for getting in quick.
There were thankyous galore at the reception ahead of the first showing. “Isn’t this exciting?” said Scott Sherrard, chair of the trustees at The Maltings (Berwick) Trust.
“I think what this shows is that if we all get together as a town we can do quite remarkable things, extraordinary things.”
The Trust, as well as overseeing the development of a new arts centre to replace the energy inefficient Maltings, is a partner in the Living Barracks project aimed at turning one of the town’s historic landmarks into a cultural hub and visitor destination.
Berwick Parade was the first commission for Berwick Shines, its cultural engagement programme.
Other members of the Berwick Barracks Partnership are The King’s Own Scottish Borderers regiment, whose museum is on site, Northumberland County Council, the Berwick Barracks Heritage Trust and English Heritage.
It was Andrea Selley, responsible for English Heritage in the North, who made Friday’s big announcement in the Gymnasium Gallery at the barracks – to the effect that the Living Barracks project has been awarded £4.5 million by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
In addition, planning permission has been secured for the work on site which is expected to start this summer and be completed by December 2028.
“It’s about making sure we look after these Grade I listed buildings which are incredibly significant,” she said, the country’s first ever purpose built barrack block “because the people of Berwick didn’t want soldiers billeted with them any more”.
She went on: “We also wanted to bring the barracks back to life. We had leaky roofs, rising damp, lots of vacant space.
“The plan is to bring together all the discrete elements we have in the barracks at the moment into a single unified cultural offer so it becomes a cultural hub for the town.
“The different museums will come together into a fabulous new museum, which will be in the East Block, to showcase the amazing collections.
“We’ll also bring the town’s archives to the barracks so the Mob (mobilisation) Store will become its home and there will also be search rooms that people can use.
“This building (the Gymnasium Gallery) will be refurbished so it’ll be warm and fit to house more artistic displays.
“We hope to be able to put a café in the officers’ mess and find another partner to work with to put accommodation in the remaining empty spaces. This is an ambitious long-term project.”
An early, round one grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund had helped the project through its early stages and the new big grant also came on top of £4.2 million from the Government’s Cultural Development Fund.
Northumberland County Council had directed money to the scheme, enabling the conversion of the Mob Store which was currently serving as a “gorgeous” temporary cinema.
There had also been £330,000 invested via Create Berwick, the Culture & Creative Zone (equivalent to other CCZs in Newcastle and North Shields) charged with regeneration through culture and creativity.
Create Berwick is funded by the North East Combined Authority but delivered by Northumberland County Council.
Create Berwick manager Andrea Oliver also spoke at Friday’s reception, saying: “It is with absolute pleasure and delight that we were able to fund the very first CCZ art commission which Matthew has so brilliantly delivered.
“When you bring in a brilliant artist and put them in a brilliant place and ask them to work with people and respond to that place, magic happens.”
So it proved. Matthew Rosier, who is based in London but has clearly made a big impression on the people of Berwick, spoke modestly of his work in the town.
He had done other artworks involving projection and local communities but never anything on this scale, he said.
“It has been amazing to see and be part of and I just want to say thank you.”
And he did, expressing gratitude to a lot of people who had helped to make it happen but – mercifully, perhaps - not every one of the 800-plus who would soon be seen parading around the barrack walls.
All, however, are named on The Maltings website. They should all give themselves a pat on the back.
Andrea Selley said fundraising for the Living Barracks project was “almost over the line” now. Almost but not quite. Offers of further financial support are unlikely to be turned down.
Artists’ studios on the site are expected to be available from April, however. It would be hard to think of a more inspiring location.