Background
The Community Art Project was established in 2011 as a way of further involving young people in Wimbledon.
Every year since 2011 the Learning department has worked alongside artists and young people from within the local area on a piece of art work to be displayed during The Championships.
With the Community Art Project the Learning department aims to open up the wider world of Wimbledon to those people who may never have experienced The Championships, or tennis, and use their ideas and input to create something slightly different to the expected for the public to enjoy each year during the Fortnight.
2015 - Sounds Like Wimbledon
We know it is Wimbledon if we watch, but what if we only listen; what sounds like Wimbledon?
The Museum’s Learning department with the help of young people from Wandsworth Vision Support Service, Foley artist Louise Brown and sound recordist Rick Blything, have been listening closely.
Sounds like Wimbledon is a listening project that listened to what makes tennis on grass at the Championships sound unique and then interpreted what makes it aurally special using non-tennis related objects.
Foley artist Louise Brown used, amongst other things, bicycle inner tubes, coriander, a microwave oven, a pair of leather gloves, peaches, kiwi fruits, elastic bands and a two metre length of metal pipe to recreate the unique sound of tennis on grass. So if you think you know what a racket hitting a ball sounds like at Wimbledon, then think again.
A Foley artist is a specialist in reproducing and enhancing sound. If you have ever watched a movie, heard radio comedy or seen a television drama, then you will have heard a Foley artist at work.
Nothing sounds like Wimbledon, or does it?
2014 - Hippopotennis
What could you do with 54,250 tennis balls if you weren’t playing tennis?
That is how the idea for the Learning department’s 2014 Community Art Project began. This, after a short period of time thinking about the enormity of that number, became, how can you visualise such a number of tennis balls?
The answer is obvious really; put a full size adult hippopotamus inside a pyramid that is 2.5m high and 13m squared at the base and make it appear to float in a lake of water hyacinths.
The ‘hippopotennis’ was essentially a mathematical sculpture or hippo-pot-o-math if you will. The hippo represents the mass of 54,250 balls (3.1 tons) and the pyramid represents the volume that 54,250 tennis balls take up. The water hyacinths are there because they are both loved by hippos and can be created using a tennis ball as the heart.
The sculpture was created by designer/maker, Maggie Ruddy with the help of a class of young artists from Wimbledon High School and was on display beside the Queue on the golf course throughout The Championships and then outside the Museum until December 2014.
2013 - Quite Revealing
In 2013 the Learning department expanded on the behind the scenes theme and created a series of stories and films about various unseen or forgotten corners of the Grounds with the voices of those that remembered them. These stories were both accessible to those online and therefore not within the Grounds and to those onsite via QR codes placed at the locations where the stories began.
2012 - Behind the Scenes
The 2012 Community Art Project was run with the help of a resident artist, Sally Booth, and was designed to invite small groups onsite to work with sally and look behind the scenes at the AELTC as it prepared for The Championships.
The residency took place between April and June 2012. Sally worked with the Learning department facilitating workshops with Wimbledon Guild, St Cecilia’s Secondary School and Merton Abbey Primary School. The aims of these sessions were to introduce the groups to working directly outdoors on location using unconventional materials, and trying out new formats such as panoramas and concertina sketch books.
In addition to the workshops, Sally was given open access to the Grounds and made her own drawings and paintings of life ‘Behind the Scenes’ at AELTC as preparations were under way for the 2012 Championships. This included access to Centre Court after hours, watching the ground staff at work and meeting Rufus the Hawk (the resident bird scarer). A small selection of the work produced was shown in the Conservatory Café during The Championships followed by a larger private view for all the students involved after the Fortnight.
2011 - 125 Rackets
To celebrate the 125th Championships the Learning department invited four schools, one visually impaired tennis club, two art groups and a selection of local artists to create 125 individual pieces of art to go on display during The Championships. To keep within a tennis theme, all artists had to start with the same blank canvas, an unstrung, unpainted, wooden tennis racket frame.
The resulting artworks were put on display in and around the Grounds and in the shop fronts of Wimbledon Village.
Participants came from:
Granard Primary School ,King’s College School, The London Metro Blind Tennis Club, Ricards Lodge High School, The Study Preparatory School, Wimbledon College of Art and local independent art groups.
