Megan Clark-Bagnall’s YOU SHRINE wraps up the 21st Century Shrines project
YOU SHRINE is the final artwork to emerge from 21st Century super Shrines, part of the four-year long High Streets Heritage Action Zones’ Cultural Programme, funded by Historic England, in partnership with Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Throughout this pioneering heritage project, a series of innovative contemporary ‘shrines’ have animated the high street from permanent art installations to live arts experiences, involving renowned artists such as Morag Myerscough, Tom Marshman and Chila Kumari Singh Burman, working in partnership with local people to capture the vitality, values and spirit of the community.
Megan Clark-Bagnall has been artist mentor across the whole programme, and it is fitting that her own creation – YOU SHRINE – draws the live programme to a close. YOU SHRINE culminating at Whirligig Festival on Saturday 9 September at 5pm is a Celebration of Life – part Ceremony, part performance – created by Megan Clark-Bagnall through a series of conversations with those who call Weston-super-Mare their home. It is a shrine that celebrates YOU & people power in Weston-super-Mare right now!
Expect a musical and story-based nod to The Beatles who played in Weston sixty years ago, plus some seriously silly reflections on that treasured species ‘the Whirligig beetle’, celebrated for its ability to notice things that lie beneath the surface.
Come along to the Italian Gardens on 9 September for a Whirligig finale event that celebrates all the amazing life that bubbles beneath the surface here in Weston. And earlier that day pop along to the bespoke YOU SHRINE photo booth in unit 27 of The Sovereign between 12pm and 4pm and rejoice in being you!
With thanks to the people of Weston, the Beatles and Megan Clark-Bagnall.
“There are places I remember all my life. Though some have changed. Some forever, not for better. Some have gone. And some remain. All these places have their moments. With lovers & friends I still can recall. Some are dead and some are living. In My Life, I have loved them all. But of all these friends and lovers, there is no one compares with you (Weston-super-Mare). And these memories lose their meaning when I think of love as something new.”