A community arts project has been commissioned to deliver a winter arts festival and sculptures in Newquay to help the town become a year-round destination.

ALMA Artspace CIC has been selected by Experience Newquay to organise the arts festival, which aims to brighten the winter months, celebrate Newquay’s heritage and explore its cultural potential.

The group, which is run by Lucy Ward and Ingrid Pop, will be working with artist Robin Sullivan to deliver an ambitious large- scale sculptural commission for the town in the form of three ceramic monoliths.

Project team: Lucy Ward, Robin Sullivan, Ingrid Pop ( )

Each monolith will be made in collaboration with the community during a series of workshops held throughout the summer with artist Eleanor Turnbull.

Robin delivered a workshop for the foundation year students at Trenance Learning Academy, and 120 students made clay tiles, which will be included in the final design of the monoliths.

Tile making workshop with Robin Sullivan and foundation year students at Trenance Learning Academy ( )

ALMA hosted a consultation evening at Newquay Orchard with community groups, business owners and creatives to announce the projects.

Experience is a two-year project, which is due to run until March 2025, that aims to encourage a resilient year- round visitor economy. Putting a spotlight on the low season and embracing Newquay’s unique identity, the project supports Newquay’s visitor economy in four key areas including training and support, curation of a cultural offer, marketing and evaluation of impacts.

The project is being funded with a £365,426 investment from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Good Growth Programme, which is managed by Cornwall Council and funded by the UK Government though the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Community consultation evening at Newquay Orchard ( )

Lucy said: “We hope that the winter arts festival will become an annual event for Newquay, and a great addition to the winter offering for out of season visitors and the local community.

“Additionally, we are very excited to be working with artist Robin Sullivan to deliver an ambitious large- scale sculptural commission for the town.

“The purpose of the initial consultation was to get a sense of who we need to be working with, which previous projects have been successful in Newquay and what people really love and value about our town as well as things that could be improved.

“The main aim of both projects is to create something for the community, and with the community.

“We are really excited to be bringing high quality, exciting and engaging contemporary art and culture to our incredible town, and we want to make the most of this opportunity by engaging with as many people as possible.”

Robin Sullivan creates works spanning artforms, from public programmes covering entire landscapes; to large scale ceramic firings, intimate sculptures to expansive bodies of research. The varied works bear strong historical references inspired by their decade-long inquiry into prehistoric England.