Wild oaks within - Devon Guild's Yarner exhibition

'YARNER WOOD' is showing at Riverside Gallery, Devon Guild from 20 July – 19 August, 2012

This year is the sixtieth birthday of Yarner Wood near Bovey Tracey becoming a Nature Reserve. The old oak woodlands are preserved for their special biodiversity, landscape and wildlife such as rare birds, mosses and butterflies. Natural England and the Devon Guild of Craftsmen are marking the anniversary with a new exhibition at the Guild which hopes to reveal the treasures of this local site, rich in ecological and archaeological heritage (e.g. Templar Way, copper mine and pottery leat).

Helping to bring the unruly wilds into the gallery, 100 students from Teign Academy, Newton Abbot College, Coombeshead Academy and Ivybridge Community College took part in a series of woodcarving, photography and text workshops in June this year. Sessions were all held outdoors in the woods and were led by local craftspeople and artists, Reece Ingram, David Brampton-Greene (carving), Simon Williams and Andy Cunningham (photography and writing).

Opening Friday 20 July, visitors can see experimental photographs and large scale woodcarvings made by the young people, along with work by Simon Williams and Andy Cunningham. It will then move to Yarner Wood Field Museum and the wood benches and posts will be installed in the woods for a nature trail.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) supported this project with a grant of £7,300 to enable young people to look at the heritage of Yarner Wood, learn creative skills through making site-specific work and exhibit their work at the Devon Guild and Yarner.

Albert Knott, Natural England Reserve Manager said: “With the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and our volunteers we will be able to link Yarner Wood’s special heritage with a wide spectrum of our local community and Devon Guild of Craftsmen visitors, through different types of art.”

FREE. Open daily. 10am-5.30pm. 01626 832223
Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Riverside Mill, Bovey Tracey, Devon TQ13 9AF
devonguild@crafts.org.uk www.crafts.org.uk

For more information visit http://www.crafts.org.uk/home.aspx