Back in 2001 we began working with the Town Mill following the completion of its refurbishment project and a grand opening by John Fowles in May. The landscape for the arts was a very different one at the time when the government, council and fantastic groups like Departure Arts, funded community arts projects. Later in the year the Town Mill hosted the artist Nick Evans who, much like an artist in residence, worked on a large-scale project that involved the boat building academy and students and staff from the school. The project won an award as I recall, and it was my first such project at Woodroffe and set the tone for our next ten years as we escalated Arts provision in the school and community through Arts college funding.
It is shocking that two decades have flown by since then and much has changed but the lasting legacy is our annual Town Mill exhibition which, even last year, we managed to deliver just before lockdown. I hope that ten years from now we still have the opportunity to take our students’ work out of the school into the Town and make use of a venue that is very much at the heart of Lyme’s community. It has been a real treasure over the years and the Mill has provided some wonderful memories. from the 7th May, you may be able to pop in in a safe, socially distanced way and get close to some of the work that Woodroffe students have been completing in Lockdown.
Mr Vine
Head of Art & Computing
