Sark

Sark

Project year: 2011

The Artists for Nature Foundation 20th Anniversary Project of the island of Sark in the Channel Islands

An inspiring combination of writers, artists, musicians and filmmakers set out to record the beauty and diversity of the island at a time when its way of life and its flora and fauna are under intense pressure of rapid change.

Introduction by Ysbrand Brouwers

Introduction by Ysbrand Brouwers

Sark, Artists for Nature Foundation 20th anniversary project

Introduction by Ysbrand Brouwers

Founder/Director of the Artists for Nature Foundation

When Sark artist Rosanne Guille contacted me and proposed bringing artists to Sark to help protect Sark's environment and way of life, both Sark and Rosie were unknown to me. To understand what the Island's problems were and what she wanted from us, I visited the Island in 2010. At first sight it just looked like a beautiful and peaceful place with an abundance of colourful wildflowers, stunning coastline, hedges and fields! So why should Sark need our help?

For twenty years the Artists for Nature Foundation has sent famous and talented artists to places where the natural habitat or key species are threatened in one way or another. Their art serves as a medium to draw attention to the need for nature conservation as an essential element of sustainable development. ANF always believes in a positive approach when using the language and power of art to show the beauty and vulnerability of nature.
With their shared love of nature and the open air, the artists can be a great inspiration to help local communities rediscover their love for their homelands.

With the help of different partners since 1990, ANF has organised fifteen projects around the world. We have been to the dry forests of Peru and Ecuador where most of the forest has been logged, to help to protect fragments full of endemic life, we went to the Copper River Delta in Alaska that was suffering from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, we portrayed the Loire estuary and valley in France, a most important stopover and feeding ground for migrating waders where the mudflats are under threat from development.

Sark has a strong similarity to the very first ANF project on the Dutch barrier island of Schiermonnikoog in 1990. Both islands are car free, have approximately the same number of inhabitants and a unique island feeling; relaxed and with a simple living standard but high quality of life. When I started to explore the Island by bike and on foot, I had the opportunity to talk to many residents, I started to understand that both islands are facing a similar challenge. The beautiful idyll attracts people and creates the pressure of over development.

A well-trimmed and 'comfortable' recreation park can never be a substitute for what Mother Nature herself has to offer. Educated as a garden and landscape designer, I never lost my great respect for wild places. In fact man's creations are all inferior to what nature has to offer. This was reaffirmed for me once again when I discovered the beautiful Dixcart valley with its perfect combination of trees and shrubs, its lush undergrowth of freshly unfurling ferns and countless flowering spring bulbs. Like a sublime slice through the Island's more or less level plateau, it is protected from the fierce marine winds and therefore has a very special microclimate. Extraordinary places like this should be left alone or only managed by people with a great love and understanding of such a precious ecosystem!

I am convinced that this ANF project will help open the eyes, the arts and minds of Sark people and beyond and that it will stimulate Chief Pleas to create up-to-date local laws for a sustainable future for this remarkable Island. The local government however, must be open to positive new ideas and criticism. I'm very optimistic! Sark is a global treasure, and I felt a lot of encouraging support from the majority of locals. The community was more engaged than I think I have experienced on any other ANF project. Everybody was extremely helpful, interested and more than friendly, and from the very beginning I felt I was at home.

A word by Rosanne Guille

Sark, Artists for Nature Foundation 20th anniversary project

A Word by Rosanne Guille MA (ReA)

Sark Artist and ANF Sark Organiser

It is Sark that has made me who I am today. I grew up here with astrong sense of family and community, a love of nature, living a simple yet very rewarding way of life in safety, and with peace and quiet. These are qualities that I believe are priceless, especially now that I am raising two young children of my own on Sark. So when this wonderful way of life looked increasingly threatened it became my mission to try and do something to ensure its future. 

In the 1990s I trained in natural history illustration and ecological studies as a postgraduate of the Royal College of Art in London, working alongside other artists whose passion is to capture the essence of species in their natural surroundings. It was then I became aware of the work of the Artists for Nature Foundation. Their positive approach to conservation has made such a difference in raising awareness of threatened areas all over the world, so why not on Sark? I contacted the founder, Ysbrand Brouwers in 2009 and we started planning for the Foundation's Jubilee project 'Art for the Love of Sark.' 

My aim was to create an opportunity to share Sark with artists from all over the world, for a positive response which would be seen by as many people as possible and which would ultimately lead to a greater appreciation of our thriving natural treasures . While so many of the world's wild places are being sacrificed in the name of 'progress' we here on Sark still have a choice for its future direction. This book will serve as a record for future generations of the health of our beautiful but fragile Island. I hope That in the years to come Sark win still be an Island bursting with life as it is now.

Project Art Book: 'Art for the Love of Sark'

Art For the Love of Sark

A Contemporary Portrait of a Changing Island

The book 'Art for the Love of Sark', published to highlight the beauty and fragility of Sark's unique ecosystem and way of life. Finest quality reproductions of original artwork produced by Award winning Artists who visited Sark in 2011.

The book is a visual delight and is accompanied by a complimentary film on DVD about The Island, the Artists and the Project by filmmaker Hans Rademakers and also a voucher for a beautiful set of notecards: six images selected from the over 200 separate pieces of individual Art.

It is the 20th Anniversary Jubilee Project for the international organisation Artists for Nature Foundation.

Participating Artists

The Artists

  • Anna Kirk Smith
  • Andrew Haslen
  • Bruce Pearson
  • Darren Woodhead
  • Carry Akroyd
  • David Lynn Grimes
  • Harriet Mead
  • Denis Clavreul
  • Jaap Deelder
  • Jonathan Yule
  • John Threfall
  • Kim Atkinson
  • Michael Warren
  • Matthew Underwood
  • Peter Gabriel Byrne
  • Rosanne Guille
  • Piet Eggen
  • Tim Wootton
  • Wolfgang Weber
  • Vadim Gorbatov

Book

‘Art for the Love of Sark’
A Contemporary Portrait of a Changing Island

Availability

Directly from ANF (www.artistsfornature.com)

Gateway Publishing (www.gatewaysark.co.uk)
Tel +44 (0)1865 723404)

Rosanne Guille, La Maison Rouge Gallery, Sark. (tel 07781 122385) and from all good bookshops

Price £45.00 / 49,50 Euro
INCLUDING Free DVD and note card Set

Artwork

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