Our thanks to Sharon George from Shademakers, for sharing with readers her reflection of the past year and hopes for 2025. Ed
2024 was a year I definitely won’t forget, even though it has hurtled past me quicker than me trying to run down the gangplank at Portsmouth harbour to catch the ferry!
It has certainly been a year of surprises, fortunately, most were happy ones! Who’d have thought we could fit huge six-metre-high costumes through six foot doors… more on that challenge later!
AD ASTRA (to the stars)
Our main theme for 2024 was AD ASTRA (to the stars) which began with an explosion of colour in our exhibition at the Quay Arts. It was an honour to see our Artistic Director Paul Mclaren’s beautiful designs up close in a stunning display.
Paul delivered a talk as part of the exhibition and showed the audience how he selects the themes, designs the costumes and conjures up his colourful ideas. He might not have answered every question, but he did give an insight into his incredibly creative mind!
Stage show
Phase two of AD ASTRA was a new challenge for us, staging a theatre show at Shanklin using over 250 costumes and 60 of our incredible community performers. I grew up ‘up north’ and so I am used to drizzly summers like this one where we would rarely see an ice cream van, but in late July we were incredibly lucky to have a few days of sunshine.
Perfect conditions for our take over at Shanklin Theatre where were, literally, bursting out of the building! To create the magical moments on stage, we were running costume pieces round the back of the theatre to our 40ft trailer in the car park, flying pieces above the stage and filling every available space.
Directed by Lily George and Joe Plumb, the show culminated in them building our six metre high Rainbow Peacock on the Shanklin Stage and filling the space. It really was breathtaking. I was proud to be a part of the team, creating something special and we aim to carry this project on in 2025.
Isle of Wight carnivals
The final phase of AD ASTRA in 2024 was our performances at local carnivals. We always love taking to our local streets and showing our work to our friends, family and local community. This year we attended Newport, Sandown and Ryde Illuminated carnivals.
Each of the events are very different but they are all organised by a fantastic team of volunteers including Ben, Paddy, Jo and Simon who work tirelessly to make sure these historic events continue to be a huge part of Island life.
Education and outreach programme
Throughout the year, we have been expanding our education and outreach programme with trips to careers fairs, talks at WIs and performances at local care homes. We also ran another successful term of our Saturday Club which provides free art and design sessions for 13 to16-year-olds.
After each event we do, we have a team debrief and score each event out of 10. Kidzone at Isle of Wight Festival was definitely a 10/10 for us this year.
Lily and Joe joined forces to produce Kidzone takeover this year along along with the awesome help of Shademakers Volunteers, Horse Box Theatre’s red dungaree team and all the amazing performers and creatives who helped to make sure it this was a great success. Who knew piling up 40 cardboard boxes and smashing them back down again would be so entertaining!
Travelling around the country
Our work takes us to all sorts of places across the country and this year saw us working, once again, with our friends Urban Wilderness up in Stoke-on-Trent. We delivered workshops with schools and community groups for their event Longton Pigwalk. We took a number of our costumes to take part in the parade and we were very lucky to have perfect weather conditions in April.
A highlight for us was having the after-show party at Gladstone Pottery Museum -home to the Great Pottery Throwdown. We are big fans of the show and even bigger fans of the judge Keith Brymer Jones.
Sadly, we didn’t get to meet Keith at Gladstone… but we did see him, along with a whole host of other celebrities, when Paul and I were invited by the King to the Buckingham Palace Garden Party. It was a celebration of the Creative Industries and, as you’d expect, everyone’s outfits were incredible… and so was the cake!
Victoria Day parade
A new event for us this year was the Victoria Day parade in Aldershot. We worked with their lovely diverse community groups and visited schools and delivered workshops at the military base.
We worked with young people from all over the world, and showed the appeal that carnival has to anyone, breaking down barriers and that anybody can put a hat on and move like a chicken, a pig or a squirrel! We look forward to returning for the 2025 parade.
The Sheds at Building 41
We now have a new space, The Sheds at Building 41, as our creation space where we can build large scale costumes and scenic design, as well as working with different carnival groups and storing our huge collection of costumes.
We’ve all had to add ‘Removals’ to our job descriptions as we transported all of our stuff from our temporary storage in East Cowes. We stopped counting at 27 Luton van loads and numerous trailer trips! A big thanks to Ian, Pamela and Lady Jane for all their help too! To say we were relieved to finish was an understatement and I hope to retire long before it needs moving again.
Department
In addition to all our usual activities, we’ve been undergoing the enormous challenge of transforming the former Elizabeth Pack Department store into Department, a state-of-the-art cultural space for the Island.
At the beginning of the year, we began by packing everything up in the old Packs building getting ready for the contractors to move in. We held a ‘yard sale’ to rehouse all of building’s stuff that we couldn’t use in the Heritage project. It’s been great to see what people have done with their finds including seeing the Packs Santa back working in the window display in the Victoria Arcade!
Great collaborators
I have learnt a little of how government capital grants work and it feels like being on a treadmill and if you jump off you will land ungraciously banging your head but it has been hard, at times, to keep running!
Fortunately, we are collaborating with a great team of people to help make this happen. Martin Sheaff, from our team, keeps a close eye on the building’s progress and Simon from our architects, Turnerworks, has supported our vision from day one. Colman, Pete, Jed and Stuart have brought their immense expertise and experience to make Department happen.
A crumbling building saved
I’ll be honest, I had no idea how much work was involved in a project of this scale but, thanks to all the efforts of everyone involved, we have saved this building, which was crumbling away this time last year, and with the help of lots of extra steel beams and layers of history, 29-30 Cross Street is nearly ready for its new chapter.
We’ve discovered cigarette and crisp packets from the 70s and I am sure our builders have left some surprises (like French Franks or Graces Bakery wrappers) for the next people who renovate the building.
We cannot wait to finally open the building in early 2025.
A team effort
I am part of a wonderful team, Paul, Martin, Lily and Joe, who are fuelled by cake, biscuits and an enormous passion for everything we do. As we enter 2025, our team is expanding and we are excited to welcome Fizz, Charlie and Zoe to the mix. We ended the year with the team going on some first aid and risk assessment courses so I know I am in safe hands as we head into 2025.
Here’s to a fantastic year filled with great events, new creative work and continuing collaborations with creatives and dreamers. If you need me, I’ll be looking at the sea from my comfy chair on the top floor of Department with a latte and a delicious cheese scone.
