Time and Tide Bell June 2018 Newsletter

Happy summer solstice to all the Friends of the Lincolnshire Time and Tide Bell.

Some while ago we had, rather optimistically, hoped we might get the Bell installed on the beach at North End, Mablethorpe, on the Summer Solstice. We’re nearly there but not quite. We still have one or two bureaucratic hurdles to jump but we’ve now pencilled in early September for the grand launch. We’ve had some very positive help and support from Natural England, the Marine Licencing Organisation, the Environment Agency and others to complete the job and we’d like to thank all those involved.

We have taken delivery of the Bell itself and we are building its oak and stainless steel frame. When struck it sounds beautiful, Sheffield Brass Founders having done a brilliant job of casting and tuning almost 700 kilograms of bronze.

Many of you will have visited our first big art exhibition, ‘Across the Seas’ at the Sam Scorer Gallery in Lincoln in May. Thanks to all who made it such a success. For those who didn’t make it, we do still have a handful of the exhibition booklets left over. Send a stamped addressed envelope to fit an A5 document and it’s yours.

We were very pleased to be shortlisted for the Lincolnshire Environment Award. We didn’t win, but that wasn’t the point. (A very worthy project in the Deepings deservedly won our section.) But we did get some good publicity and put on a nice display with eight of our #200Fish works of art on show.

Our next exhibition is #200Fish, a project that has involved a great many artists each picking one of the 216 species of fish found in the North Sea and creating an artwork. You can see images of all the fishy pictures completed so far at http://bit.ly/200Fish The exhibition opens at the new North Sea Observatory on Thursday 23^rd August and runs till Monday 3^rd September. We hope to be publishing a rather lavish full colour book showing all the amazing artworks that this project has generated along with pieces of writing authored by the artists. It’s all part of our aim to draw attention to the biodiversity in our seas and the threats that human activity poses to the marine environment.

Our third major art exhibition of 2018 will also be at the North Sea Observatory. ‘By the Sea’ is our show of contemporary artworks reflecting the wild and natural landscape of Lincolnshire’s coast. It takes place in the last fortnight of November. If you are an artist who might be able to offer something for this exhibition, please do get in touch.  See more at http://bit.ly/BellBytheSea

And we have various ideas developing for 2019, but more of that anon.

Meanwhile. If you feel you would like to help in organising our projects please do get in touch. We are particularly looking for someone to do the press officer job, someone who is good at making contacts in the media and getting publicity for our activities both locally and nationally.

Finally, we have organised a music gig for Friday 29^th June at the Town and Country Club, Louth. Partly a fund-raiser, thanks to the generous support of the band, Itchy Fingers, and mostly to have a fun night out. Get your tickets from Off the Beaten Tracks.

Biff Vernon