MEND is a community-focused project introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, aimed at connecting people across Cumbria through creative collaboration and shared experiences. The pandemic changed the way all of us live; from how we work, learn and spend our free time to how we feel and interact with others. In 2021, with our venues closed, the Participation and Learning team reached out to create authentic experiences to mend objects and local communities. Winner of Fantastic for Families Award 2021, for Audience Impact and Innovation. In 2022 we continue to evolve this project and reach new communities with our MEND on the move van.
Follow us on Instagram to see all the action. If you have spotted the van tag us using @mendwithus and use the hashtag #MendOnTheMove
‘The MEND project grew out of a discussion around the act of mending, about how it can be an act of repairing and making. Making mends objects, minds, communities, and hearts, everyone is creative in their own way. By taking our MEND van out to different locations we are aiming to deepen our understanding of what people in Cumbria need and want from our arts and heritage venues. This will help us to keep improving what we offer and make lasting connections county wide. Our exciting oral history project will ensure that contemporary culture and stories of this region are preserved for future generations.’ – Amy Stretch -Parker Wellbeing Producer at Lakeland Arts
Want to know more about MEND on the move? Read our latest news story.
The MEND on the move van outside Windermere Jetty Museum
The MEND team Amy Stretch-Parker, Ian Read and Roisin McLinden with the MEND on the move van, outside the museum.
Winners of the Fantastic for Families Awards 2021
for Audience Impact and Innovation.
Tour dates
Upcoming MEND ‘Zine of Me’ zine making drop in session dates for February half term 2023.
Open to all ages, and FREE as part of our partnership with Cumbria Library Services
Monday 20 February – Millom Library 2-4pm
Tuesday 21 February – The Old Courthouse Shap 2-4pm
Wednesday 22 February – Sedbergh Library 2-4pm
Thursday 23 Febrauary – Askam Community Centre 2-4pm
Past events
Thursday 6 October – Vickerstown Primary School
Friday 7 October – Cartmel Peninsular Repair Cafe, Methodist church Grange-over-sands
Saturday 15 October and Sunday 16 October – Lakes International Comic Art Festival (LICAF)
Thursday 26th October, 11am-4pm – Moorforge Viking Settlement, Gilcrux, Cumbria – Book Flood – zine making drop ins
Wednesday 31 August – Ennerdale and Kinniside Show
Thursday 1 September – Blackwell – the Arts & Crafts house
Thursday 8 September – Kendal Repair Cafe (and then every 2nd Thursday in the month)
Tuesday 13 September – Ulverston Repair Café (and then every second Tuesday in the month)
Friday 16 September – CACN Quarterly Meeting – Inclusivity & Relevance, Rosehill Theatre, Whitehaven
Saturday 24 September – Kendal Torchlight
Saturday 1 October – Apple Day, Ford Park, Ulverston
Make! Craft! Live! Is a season of events that celebrate the nation’s love of craft, marking 50 years of the Crafts Council. Lakeland Arts is pleased to be selected as one of the Crafts Council’s partners with our MEND project. Visit craftscouncil.org.uk for more information about Make! Craft! Live!
Meet the MEND makers
Meet our MEND makers Amy-Stretch Parker and Roisin McLinden who are part of the Lakeland Arts Participation and Learning team. You will find them at festivals, events and local venues around Cumbria, including our very own Blackwell – the Arts & Crafts house, running creative workshops and sharing their knowledge of our unique collection.
Get in touch with Amy if you’re interested in having the MEND on the move van, at your event, venue, or school as we would like to involve as many communities, groups, museums, libraries and schools in this exciting tour – learning@lakelandarts.org.uk
MEND on the move collaborations
Matt Kelly and PLAEY workshop
Lakeland Arts commissioned Matt Kelly of Plaey workshop to design a bespoke interior that was practical and multifunctional, converting the van into a mobile museum and making space.
Plaey is a design led workshop that makes simple, playful, modular furniture. Matt tries to hold every project or product up to these three words. This gives him a lot of confidence and acts as a brief within the brief, that ultimately means his output has some consistence. The creative process often starts with a conversation or an idea and then there is a period of trying to solve a problem or find a solution. He initially draws with a muji pen on dot-grid paper, then he works up designs in a 3D modelling programme called SketchUp. However he find designs get refined at the making stage. Proportions and materials sometimes can’t be judged on a computer screen and need to be built and held in the hand to get a true sense of the object.
Stevexoh
To transform the exterior of the van, outsider artist Steve Chapman was commissioned by Lakeland Arts to create a playful set of drawings depicting people, objects and traditions that are synonymous with Cumbria. The colourful illustrations include Alfred Wainwright, Stan Laurel, Margaret Fell, Cumberland wrestlers and sheep farming alongside Lakeland Arts’ venues.
Steve is a self-taught artist known for his distinctive black and white drawings, his colourful paintings, his 3D wooden cut-outs and his unusual conceptual art projects.
He finds the world a fascinatingly bizarre place and creates art to give his hyperactive imagination an outlet. His work has been described as “art which captures so well how weird and imperfect the world is.” He has sold his work across 5 continents, exhibited alongside the likes of Pablo Picasso and David Shrigley and hosted two successful solo art exhibitions in the UK in 2021.
See more of his work on www.somethingsidid.com
The MEND project is supported by Art Fund, through the Respond and Reimagine programme of grants to help museums innovate following the pandemic. If you would like to support more museum projects like ours, please donate to Join Together for Museums today.
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