The two-year Arts Council England-funded project ‘Lift the Lid on Island Culture’ commenced in April 2018. Its aim has been to reignite a sense of pride and passion in cultural heritage on the Isle of Wight. This has been achieved through new artworks in four towns across the Island: Pan/Newport, East Cowes, Totland and Ventnor.

These artworks consist of:

• Phlegm’s Ventnor Giant mural
• Dmitri Galitzine’s film ‘Back and Forth’ involving residents from East Cowes
• Julie Myers’ The Great Light and Dark Show in Totland
• BearFace Theatre CIC performance, ‘We That Breathe’, a community theatre show

Several primary schools on the Island have participated in workshops with artists Ian Whitmore and Chris Jenkins, the results of which formed a school response exhibition ‘The Great Leap Forward’ opening at Quay Arts on 8th February 2020. This exhibition is a closing point for Lift the Lid to showcase engagement with the many different groups in thinking about cultural heritage on the Isle of Wight.

You might like to check out the project’s Arts Award resources, or our Twitter or Facebook.

The gallery plinth and artist’s digital notebooks were created by Studio OnTheWight.