Reflections On Making Sutton Manor's Dream Come True
As a neutral observer with just one agenda item, i.e. supporting the beautification of Sutton via this website, the last three years have been quite an eye opener. The vitriol and scorn that's been poured on this project has been horrific, most of it misinformed and it continues online in the St.Helens Star this week. Don't some folk just love to denigrate other people's efforts? Slagging Dream off may provide some cathartic pleasure for some armchair critics but it's hardly constructive and won't do anything to improve Sutton's environment.
Dream sculpture at Sutton Manor is proving to be a popular visitor attraction (pictured 1/6/09)
What has not been helpful is the manner in which this story has been portrayed. If you've read St.Helens Council's media releases for the past couple of years, like I have, you'd have thought that they were the prime movers, with just the occasional mention of ex-Sutton Manor miners' input.
However, if you've watched the generally excellent Big Art TV series which finished its run on C4 last Sunday, you would have heard a different story. Its focus was on the local community i.e. former miners led by Gary Conley, who battled alongside project curator Laurie Peake of Liverpool Biennial, to make the Dream a reality. I don't recall a mention of council input as it didn't suit the programme makers' purpose.
Reading between the lines, I would venture to suggest that this was a former miners' focus group initiative which received enormous council support, as the logistics of converting the Dream concept into a physical structure must have been enormous. Some of the other towns in Channel 4's Big Art Project didn't receive their local authority's support and consequently their ideas failed to materialise. But I think it was unhelpful for St.Helens Council to have taken so much of the credit, as councils are rarely popular institutions and arts initiatives are inevitably controversial. This combination has probably contributed to much of the anger in Sutton and St.Helens.
A Spanish TV crew making a documentary on Jaume Plensa prepare to interview Gary Conley
Personally, I accept only two forms of criticism of the project as having any possible merit: a) That you don't like the sculpture b) That the government shouldn't be allocating taxpayers funds to arts bodies and other organisations for spending on such projects.
Art is subjective and this is a free country and so it's quite OK to say that you hate it! I doubt that Spanish artist Jaume Plensa will mind all that much. Secondly, it's a fair comment that the government's priorities in allocating funds might be skewed. If you think so, complain. Write to our MPs Shaun Woodward or Dave Watts and complain. Write to Gordon Brown or Alistair Darling, I doubt you'll get very far, but do it! But please don't take it out on the ex-miners' focus group or St.Helens Council. The external funding forDream has come from quite a number of bodies and these have effectively been 'grants' that have been 'won' by the team and which would otherwise have gone elsewhere, probably down south.
Some have said that a literal mining monument would have been better. As was shown in Big Art, a miners lamp was Plensa's first offering but was rejected by the ex-miners. They are the representatives of all the Sutton Manor mineworkers who toiled in the dark for 85 years and they've worked hard on this project. They had the courage to reject the lamp and go forDream and I really do think their judgement should be respected. Plus as Chris Coffey has pointed out in his great new St.Helens Star column Coffey Time, the plinth of the statue that measures 17 metres in diameter is in the shape of a miner's tally which was issued to each miner for safety and pay purposes.
Yes it can only be seen in its full glory for a few seconds from the M62, but the trees - which have grown ferociously since they were planted in 2001 - will be pruned once the bird nesting season is over.
Watch the birdie! - it's common to see people posing for family photographs with Dream
Visiting the site on Monday lunchtime this week, I thought it would be nice and quiet with the official opening out of the way but there was loads of activity. As I left I counted 40 people still gathered around the statue. Quite a number of people were having their picture taken against it, like it was the Eiffel Tower! Although some local kids were still on half-term holiday, many seemed to be tourists and I thought I heard an American accent and a TV crew were filming. I'm told that on Monday night it was just as busy. I don't imagine that this interest will be maintained at this rate, but even a fraction of it will still be wonderful.
Out of three police dispersal zones currently in place in the whole of St.Helens that give the police more powers to combat anti-social behaviour, two are in the Sutton Manor district. The area has its problems but the funding for Dream isn't transferable for other uses in Sutton Manor and any attempt to beautify it really should, in my view, be heartily applauded.
The entrance to Sutton Manor Woodland with Dream in the background towering over the trees
Do I have any criticisms? Well, I'm slightly disappointed that the lines on the Dream face, where the 90 separate panels meet, haven't been painted or blurred over in some way. I was under the impression that this was going to be done over the last few weeks. I love the signage on the actual Dream site which inform visitors of the histories of both the site and the project. I do hope the council will get round to installing other signs around the Manor directing visitors. Some facilities would be great too - an ice cream seller on the site would have done a bomb this week! Plans are apparently in the works for a minibus to run up to the Dream site at weekends, so that those with mobility impairments can also enjoy the experience of seeing Dream.
So there's more to do and only time will tell whether local businesses such as the Smithy Manor pub or Village News will benefit. But if in a worst case scenario they don't increase their takings and no more visitors go to see it (highly unlikely!), nothing at all will have been lost. So please do stop complaining and start to appreciate other people's efforts to improve your environment! SRW
UPDATE 24/6/09 A Dream Photo-Album has been added - click here to view. A Flash Slideshow version is here. Slideshows are now available on all pages where there is a standard photo album. I have configured them to automatically play with a 5 second gap in between each slide. If you hover your mouse on the top half of each image, a caption is revealed. Remove your mouse and the caption will disappear. Hover over the bottom of any image and transport controls will appear enabling you to pause the slideshow.
UPDATE 29/6/09 I should point out that St.Helens Council have now installed some smart signage directing visitors to the Dream site. Some more would be nice, although I expect these signs cost more than people think. Below are the signs at the end of Jubits Lane at its junction with Warrington Road.
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PS Coffey Time by Sutton and St.Helens historian and local arts champion Chris Coffey, is the replacement column in the St.Helens Star for Whalley's World, after the retirement of long-serving journalist Alan Whalley. Click Here to view.
