Five Questions with... Rose Haddon and Iris Ferris from the Isle of Wight
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As we continue to look back and celebrate our last 75 years as a public funding body, we hear from two of the project’s participants, who’ve lived throughout that time, about what they enjoyed while taking part as well as some fantastic memories from their creative past!
Rose Haddon and Iris Ferris, both in their seventies, took part in the Time & Tide project alongside their neighbours at Knights Courts, a retirement housing complex in Ventnor. They tried their hand at pottery and photography, and got involved in the island’s carnival culture. Here’s what they had to say.
1. The fantastic outcomes from the Time & Tide project show us the power of culture and creativity to have a profound effect on people’s lives. Please can you tell us a little bit about your experience?
Rose: It [Time & Tide] was wonderful, absolutely wonderful. I did things that I never dreamt I could do. You know, making the banner – I’m not a sewing person – making the ammonite… Well it was, you know, unbelievable. It was fantastic, wasn’t it?
2. Were there any aspects of the project you particularly enjoyed?
Rose: I enjoyed all of it. I’ve never been artistic!
Iris: The best part was when we took the banner round the carnival…
Rose: They judged us, and we won a great big cup. I never imagined there would be so many people!
Iris: You should have seen her face!
Rose: I just never imagined there would be so many people; it was absolutely fabulous… the whole experience was fantastic!
Like I say, I’m not good with my hands. It’s great to do things you didn’t know you could do… I just didn’t believe I could do such things.
It’s great to do things you didn’t know you could do… I just didn’t believe I could do such things.
3. We’re looking back at our last 75 years as a public body. As a fellow Septuagenarian can you tell us about one of your favourite creative, cultural or artistic memories from your lifetime?
Rose: Well, I must admit, when I was working, we used to do floats for the carnivals. I worked in an ex-service home for men and women. We used to build these floats and enter them into the carnivals. And that was fabulous, absolutely fabulous… I had a TR7 and I didn’t like the roof on! We used to go to this farm to do the float, and one night it absolutely sheeted down, and the farmer, bless him, threw this tarpaulin over me car and it got covered in sand and stuff. You can imagine, my husband wasn’t happy!
We did Long John Silver, we did all sorts. The classic one was, we had a minibus that used to take the men and women out, and we turned that into a castle, and then me and my friend went on a mobility scooter, and built it as a horse, and we went all around the village in that. The problem was, the man who put the feet on must have done something to the accelerator, so we were crawling up the hills! People were pushing us up the hills, it was hilarious!
Iris: l haven’t done anything like that, I was just bringing up a family… I used to be good at art at school… but because I was the eldest of eight, I had to go out to work… I was good at needlework and artwork…
Rose: She still is!
4. Since the pandemic struck, has there been any creative activity that has helped you through the lockdowns and imposed isolation?
Rose: The gardening. I’m lucky that straight outside my back door there’s a garden. I spent a great deal of time out there.
5. If you could give one bit of advice to a five-year-old, with the next seventy years ahead of them, what would it be?
Rose: I would say: enjoy life as much as you can. Learn as much as you can.
Iris: A five year old… That’s when they go to school; they meet their friends and they enjoy doing things with them… There’s times that they will fall out, but the next minute, they’re best friends again…
Rose: Yes, they should enjoy life.
I’ve done a lot of things, I’ve been to Australia, I’ve lived in France, I’ve been to Disneyland, Italy… I’ve had a wonderful life.
I would say: enjoy life as much as you can. Learn as much as you can.
In the first Tide & Time project, In The Footsteps Of Giants, Rose and Iris learnt about prehistoric life on the Isle of Wight, and created pottery pieces including the nautilus, tutored by local potter, Neil Tregear.
The second project was Poverty, Pomp and Prosperity – Victorian life in Newport. Using engravings and other images, the group made a large textile banner depicting Pomp supported by textile artist, Mandy Bangerter. Rose and Iris carried the Pomp banner at Ventnor Carnival and won two first places in the judging, for The Spirit of Carnival and the RG Morris Cup for Associations and clubs. Two other groups made the Poverty and Prosperity banners which were all displayed at Ventnor Carnival and other summer events across the Island.
Rose and Iris also took part in the final exhibition piece Art & Identity. Looking at the work of Julia Margaret Cameron and her style of early portraiture. The ladies sat for and photographed each other as part of this final piece of work which was shot in their homes using pop up photography and guidance from artist and photographer Julian Winslow.
We have recently announced that the Isle of Wight is a Priority Place in our new place-based approach as part of our Delivery Plan for 2021-24, which means that along with our other 11 priority places across the south west, we’ll deepen and accelerate the way we work on the Isle of Wight, to help bring more cultural experiences to communities that have been underserved in the past.
We know the power of culture and creativity in bringing people together, supporting local economies and helping to improve lives and see this evidenced in the Time & Tide project. Culture has been supporting communities for many decades and we, as a public funding body born out of the optimism of the post-war era, have been funding and developing artists and arts organisations for seven and a half decades. It is clear we need the benefits of creativity and culture now, as much as ever, so here’s to another 75 years!
