Northern Heart Films & Steve Fairclough

‘Letters Across Time’ will be a new audio / visual work created in collaboration with Wigan Borough residents and community groups. Primarily using Film and Print, our project will celebrate the rich history and deep personal connections local people have of King Street.

Across a number of in person and online meet-ups with local people our project will explore the history of King Street and tap into personal testimony as well as hidden stories. Once these connections have been made local people will be assisted to write letters back across time in response to these findings.

Steve Fairclough

Steve Fairclough is a multi-skilled creative with 25 years’ experience working in community arts and regional theatre and is skilled in creative writing and workshop facilitation. Steve is an adaptable arts practitioner, and a strong “people person”, with patient and inspirational communication skills which will effectively inspire people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds to celebrate their local history through stories.

​Scott Bradley

Northern Heart Films

Scott Bradley is currently Head of Production at the award-winning Northern Heart Films, who work regularly with the BBC, The Guardian, Mirror and BFI, and is passionate about crafting work that resonates strongly with Northern communities. His interests range from nonfiction to fiction but mostly centre on human interest, environmental and animal welfare stories. Scott is the creative lead on our project ‘Letters Across Time’.

Watch the teaser.

Louise Fazackerley

Louise Fazackerley is a poet born and bred in Wigan. With work rooted in word-witchery and the working class, Louise is exploring the synergy between poetry and movement in a way that makes the ugly beautiful and the mundane fantastical.  She is winner of BBC Radio 3 ‘New Voices’, European Slam Finalist and she’s been on tour with renowned punk poet John Cooper Clark.  She has published four books of poetry: ‘The Lolitas’, ‘The Uniform Factory’ (Verve Poetry Press) ‘Bird St.’ (The Secret Writers Club) and ‘The Pleasure Dome’ (Burning Eye).  You can listen to her audio book ‘Council House Poetry’ on Spotify.  You may have seen or heard her on BBC 1, BBC Radio 3,4,5 and The Guardian Northerner.

About the project: King Street Sonnet Cycle

Louise will work with hundreds of young people in ten different secondary schools and youth groups to explore the past, present, and future of the historic King Street

Together they will write poetry inspired by true stories of King St’s past and imagine future worlds.  This writing will result in a live-streamed performance on King St. and the installation of huge poetry artwork on the street itself.

Andee Collard

Andee Collard a visual artist based in Bolton. He is interested in making art every day and has several ongoing projects; he made daily drawings for 4 years and has been taking a self-portrait every day for the last 11 years. Andee’s current practice uses CNC machines to make analogue paintings and drawings. His practice is a hybrid approach that combines aspects of painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, design, coding, engineering, writing and education. The mash up and the cross pollination of ideas and techniques is important to him. Collard works across media, processes, and genres. Andee co-runs Bolton Contemporary, a socially engaged riso print and design studio.

Project Info
The aim of this project is to activate King Street and engage with the public as much as possible. Collard will regularly paint en plein air on the street in an Impressionist style using a custom French Box Easel that has been converted into a CNC painting machine.

Andee will be running regular workshops with the people of Wigan to explore archive images, make first hand drawings and use custom machines.

Collard believes in finding opportunities to be inspired by the street and is in particular interested in the history of the theatre/cinema.

King Street image by Bryan Fowler