Celebrating the Old, inspiring the new (The coin project)

In June 2021, The Power House Poole presented its first ever arts event: an arts programme called Celebrating the Old, Inspiring the New, which became affectionately and more simply known as The COIN Project. The arts event included an Open Exhibition, which celebrated the historical, cultural and natural heritage of Poole. Many local creatives showcased their talents, with artwork from 44 local artists.

Included in this exhibition was a collaborative piece Celebrating Hamworthy, created by 10 community artists led by CoCreate. Community research gained through online workshops led to a series of online art sessions - with the option engage by postal instruction - to learn new art skills to create artwork. The final pieces were displayed as part of the main COIN Exhibition in Lighthouse’s curated Gallery. As Covid restrictions loosened, we were eventually able to host a series of Covid-secure private viewing evenings to celebrate all of the artists’ work. To say our COIN Project was perfectly timed is an understatement.

In addition, a number of other events were hosted as part of the Celebrating the Old, Inspiring the New programme. These included:

Inspiring Shores: Poetry Evenings (Part 1 and Part 2), which were held in Lighthouse’s beautiful outdoor amphitheatre.

Inspiring Shores: Music Night which was held in the Lighthouse Poole’s Sheiling Studio. The sound was incredible thanks to their high quality sound system. This was a rather special moment as 11 musicians had the opportunity to perform after 15 months of lockdown.

Our Stories of Poole Open Mic night, gave community members an opportunity to share their stories of Poole, which were recorded thanks to Bournemouth University’s, Alex Wegman who gave up his time to share his expertise. This recording will be transformed into an audio loop for a second COIN Exhibition in 2023.

Our thanks also goes to Arts Council England and BCP Council for funding The COIN Project. The whole programme culminated into a beautiful celebration of four years of foundational work, and has acted as a very powerful springboard to continue our ongoing arts activity.

We are also incredibly thankful to The Lighthouse, Poole who gave us the opportunity to hold and incubate these events at their amazing venue.