Download Funding Boost For Lincoln Creative Project

29.1.15
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Funding Boost For Lincoln Creative Project
East Midlands Orchestra Sinfonia Viva has been awarded funding towards its education project
in Lincoln to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta.
The Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Commemoration Committee has awarded £8,000 to the
Orchestra’s creative education project, which will take place this summer. The education
residency project ‘800 Years’ aims to bring the Magna Carta to life for young people, helping
them to understand its historical and current importance.
Around 70 young people from Monks Abbey Primary School, Nettleham Junior School and
Lincoln College will be involved in the project. Students from the schools and college were also
involved in Viva’s award-winning ‘Dark Clouds Are Smouldering into Red’ project last year to
commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War.
They will start the project with an inspiration day on 20th May at Lincoln Castle – where a
newly-constructed underground vault is the only place in the world to display the Magna Carta
and the Charter of the Forest together.
The young people will then join a series of workshops with Viva composer James Redwood and
professional orchestral musicians where they will interpret their findings and write words and
music to illustrate the effect of the Magna Carta on the lives of people at the time and through
the ages.
The work will culminate in a public performance at Lincoln Drill Hall on Tuesday 16th June 2015.
Viva Education Manager Marianne Barraclough said: “We are delighted to be returning to
Lincoln to mark yet another momentous occasion in our history with an exciting and unique
music making project.
“The young people from these schools and Lincoln College produced some outstanding creative
work last year and we are looking forward to working with new groups of students this year.
“The musical pieces created with evoke the historical and personal impact of the Magna Carta
and its legacy and will support the young people to take an active and creative part in
understanding and explaining its local, national and international significance.
“We are extremely grateful to The Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Commemoration Committee
for their support for this project which will reach out to a whole family experience around a key
piece of our heritage.”
Simon Hollingworth, Creative Director at Lincoln Drill Hall added: “2015 is a very exciting year
for Lincoln as it celebrates the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta and this is an exciting project
that will give young people the opportunity to work and perform with professional musicians to
create something truly unique and extraordinary.”
‘800 years’ is a partnership project between Sinfonia Viva, Lincoln Drill Hall, Lincoln Castle,
Lincolnshire Music Hub and Orchestras Live with support from The Magna Carta 800 th
Anniversary Commemoration Committee.
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Media enquiries: Sarah Jenkin-Jones, JJPR, Tel: 01332 515102/07951 945665;
[email protected]
Note to Editors
The Magna Carta Trust 800th Anniversary Commemoration Committee
The Magna Carta Trust 800th Anniversary Commemoration Committee is charged by the Magna Carta
Trust to co-ordinate activities, raise the profile of the anniversary and deliver a number of key national
and international aspirations. For more information visit www.magnacarta800th.com
Magna Carta Background
The Magna Carta was drawn up in 1215 when King John's barons forced him to agree to limitations on
his power because he had levied heavy taxes to pay for his unsuccessful wars abroad and charged
excessively for the exercise of royal justice.
After the King sealed the document, many copies were made and rushed to England's administrative
centres, of which only four now survive. Lincoln's is probably the best preserved.
Magna Carta lays down the principle that 'No free man shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or deprived of
his property, or outlawed, or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor shall we go against him or send against
him, unless by legal judgement of his peers, or by the law of the land'. This became the fundamental
principal of English justice, the basis of the United States Constitution and part of the law of all modern
democracies.
The Lincoln Magna Carta has travelled the world extensively, including several visits to America where it
spent the Second World War in Fort Knox. It is now registered as part of UNESCO's Memory of the
World programme. Magna Carta is on display in Lincoln Castle.