Bridging the gap
The important role bridges play is reflected in the cultural life of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Nick Jones finds
SUMMER in Berwick has seen thousands of art-loving visitors in town to see Lowry and the Sea at the Granary Gallery. Encouraging, too, the green light for a new Maltings theatre, and cautious optimism for revamping the Barracks, including museum and studios.
Meantime, the Create Berwick initiative is committing around £ 1.5million to "help make Berwick one of the most distinctive, must-see cultural destinations in the country, by investing in the arts and creativity."
Annie Lord Berwick Bridge 400 – Credit Pictoral Photography.
Good to read, then, a recent report commissioned by Historic England confirming that valuing a town's heritage, combined with support for cultural, artistic and scientific communities, brings economic benefits.
Topping all that, there have been ongoing celebrations to mark four hundred years since Berwick Old Bridge was completed in 1624. So everything's going swimmingly then?
The devil's advocate might think otherwise, advocating caution when it comes to cultural tourism, for that goose can lay golden eggs, but sometimes addled ones too.
In her book The New Tourist travel writer Paige McClanahan addresses anti-tourism and overtourism, often exacerbated when people flock to the latest in-place, promoted by the media for being hidden, secret, or, usually, both. Some would liken such flocking, invading even, to colonialism, tarnishing or destroying the place visitors long to see and experience, and inciting infuriated locals to tell unwelcome visitors to go home. Or else to move away themselves, waving a white flag.
So much for building bridges of friendship and understanding! The irony being that, often, there is not much looking involved. That's not the point at all. The important thing is being seen, not for real, but vicariously, on social media. Click, tick, move on. As an aside I can't resist giving a plug for cartoonist and engineer Tim Hunkin's brilliant three minute Microbreak! Check it out: Novelty Automation in London or ‘The Under The Pier Show', Southwold.
Fortunately there are other, more positive, thoughtful and responsible ways of travelling to be more fully engaged with people and places visited. Less voyeur with bucket list; more participant with chuck it list. Get immersive, engage with people and place, travel slower and closer, stay longer, help out. Or move to start a new life, business or project, sharing skills, knowledge, and experience.
Cultural residencies can be another way, as exemplified by the current Connecting Threads project, commissioning four socially and environmentally engaged artists in residence along the Upper, Middle and Lower Tweed. Annie Lord, Lower Tweed, joining the Berwick Bridge 400 celebrations, has mined the archives for records of the men and women who built the bridge, creating associated artefacts, and finding the materials they used, including sandstone. Running workshops using paints made with similar sandstone, Annie's plan is to use these to honour the people who constructed the bridge, and to get insight into its past.
For James I of England, aka James VI of Scotland, the bridge was an important symbol of the union of Alba and Albion, intended to end centuries of division between England and Scotland.
Fitting, then, that August's celebrations are being followed from October 7 TO 13 by the Berwick Literary Festival, which has adopted "Bridging the Divide" as its theme.
Director Andrew Deuchar writes "In a world so challenged by human division, the search for ways to build peace and reconciliation, to cross apparently unbridgeable chasms in our relations is urgent and universal."
Ironic then, that Berwick Old Bridge has been shut much of the year, and will remain so for months. Not quite what was anticipated!
Fortunately, these days, there are three crossings – the Old Bridge, the Royal Tweed Bridge, (aka the New Bridge, completed in 1928), and the Royal Border Bridge. Actually a railway viaduct, opened in 1851. It hastened Berwick's decline as a major port, home to the sloop-rigged Berwick smack, the fastest cargo vessel in the early 19th century, capable of reaching London in two days with a fair wind.
Now that culture is centre-stage in current plans to revive Berwick's economy, the challenge is to keep the town and its arts scene humming. The omens are good for, as well as existing galleries including Dockside, in Tweedmouth, 27 Art House, Twenty Five, and Fieldhouse, all in Bridge Street, new galleries have opened this year. Welcome Curiously in Church Street, Sunmoon in Castlegate, and welcome back Foldyard, reopened in bigger premises!
No doubt Bridge 400 and Lowry have brought some to Berwick for the first time. Like Michael Palin, in town to promote "Erebus" and "Great Uncle Harry". He admitted that, despite numerous journeys to or from Edinburgh, he had never stopped off before.
Lowry and Palin came, saw, and went, but no doubt there will be others who like what they see and decide to stay. Either way it is young energy that will determine the success of Berwick, not just as a cultural destination, but as a good place for creative people to live, work and share their vision.
www.berwickliteraryfestival.com TweedRiverCulture.org www.createberwick.co.uk
