23rd June saw the launch of SheepScape at Beechenhurst. Artists of all ages, including school children from Forest schools, have been involved in this community project celebrating the Forest’s heritage and culture…..a touring exhibition of decorated fibreglass sheep. Ewe’ll be amazed. To find the next venue and more info, check out the website www.ewetube.co.uk which has been designed by students working with a local company. You can design your own virtual sheep for the Gallery too.

Parkend Primary School presented Mary Rose Young through their own interpretation of Mary Rose’s work. Everyone had a chance to join in and create their own plate design working with the Parkend pupils, their Headteacher, Mary Rose and her team. It was a hive of activity all day with the added attraction of working on a sheep for SheepScape. Everyone enjoyed the children’s performances of the colourful ‘Mary Rose Ribbon Dance’ .

There was an unexpected bonus for the children as Mary Rose selected her ten favourites of the scores of plate designs created by children in The Hub. The young designers were invited back to Mary Rose’s workshop to see them painted and fired for real……truely one-off designs that they’ll treasure.

Woolaston Primary School presented the Forest Food Producers group and there were lots of games which thed designed as part of their Art Club to get people thinking about the Forest Food Producers and where our food comes from. Then there was the chance to buy and sample some of the local foods from the Forest Food Producers’ stalls on site.

Year 10 student, Jared Reeks, from Lakers School presented Glaxo Smithkline who celebrate their 60th year in Coleford in August 2007. By working with the Continuous Improvement Team and staff in the Research and Development area, Jared to run his own ‘Sensory Science’ area for visitors to try out. Did you correctly identify the items by just touch or smell?

Jared also showed a documentary about the company’s development of Ribena and how Dr Charley, from the Forest of Dean himself, had invented Ribena and also been influential in the siting of the factory at Coleford. To bring things up-to-date, Jared ran a Q&A session with current employee, Courtney Morse who is Operational Excellene manager at GSK, to give an insite into how GSK still values Exciting Minds today.

Clearwell Primary School Year 5 and 6 were on the Isle of Wight on the day of the festival so they decided to make a film about Clearwell Caves and the ‘Exciting Minds’ that mean it is everything from a working mine to a film set. The children are worked with local filmmaker Paul Burke who was also nominated in the Forester and appeared on the Remarkable People Pole. The children’s film was screened throughout the day on a high definition plasma screen as part of The Exciting Minds Hub. Jon and Heather Wright from Clearwell Caves were at the festival and happy to talk some of the fascinating processes involved in ochre mining.

After visiting The review Offices in Lydney and meeting current and former editors, Ted Lamb and John Powell repectively, the Young Journalists group at Whitecross School wrote and performed their own comical review of The Forest and Wye Valley Review. This captured the history of how the paper started and the ‘Exciting Minds’ involved. The students also compiled a fascinating display of articles from throughout the paper’s history.

Heywood School -Year 9 students at the school, in collaboration with Creative Partnerships and a Bristol based firm called Codsteaks, are involved in an innovative project to celebrate the achievements of past pupils. The aim is to produce a sculpture trail around the school site that will enhance the learning environment as well as being inspirational to present students. This is part of a larger project with Creative Partnerships to transform areas of the school into a more stimulating space with the intention of raising students self esteem and pride in the school.In the Hub they took the opportunity to ask some of the thousands of visitors if they were Double View or Heywood students and knew of other potential ‘Heywood Heroes’ to inform their project. The students were delighted by the response and have lots of new leads to follow up

     Photo by Charlotte Bevan

The world premiere performance of  ‘A Forest Symphony’ took place at Beechenhurst on Saturday 23rd June as part of the Voices in theForest – Excting Minds. Played by Lydbrook Silver Band - one of the Forest’s oldest and most successful bands - the new piece received rapturous applause from the large audience who enjoyed the first chance to hear this magnificent composition. 

Forest of Dean born composer Gavin Higgins was commissioned by Voices in the Forest to write a brand new piece of brass band music for the 2007 Exciting Minds festival. The new piece, ‘A Forest Symphony,’ explores the hidden and magical world of the forest; secrets that may only be seen by the animals who live there or by fortunate ramblers who stray from the beaten path. “When I was asked to write this piece for the festival,” says Gavin, ” I realised it was a great chance for my imagination to run wild. I began to think of the weird and wonderful things I would dream up as a child. What if there was more to the forest than meets the eye? What dark and magical things could be hidden beneath the ancient oak trees?”And so the piece is divided into five small fragments, each running seamlessly into the next:

Sunrise

The Magical Forest The Hunt

Sunset

A Forest Symphony was made possible through the support of Creative Partnerships Forest of Dean.