The Water Tower Years 1998-2009
Fermynwoods Contemporary Art was founded by artist Rosalind Stoddart in 1998, as an art gallery exhibiting paintings, sculptures and prints for sale, in her home the Water Tower in Brigstock. Fermynwoods specialised in printmaking and abstract art as well as focusing on the contemporary group of St. Ives artists. However, it soon became apparent that this vision was not going to work as a commercial venture and funding was secured to deliver exhibitions and events for the public.
In 2003 Fermynwoods was selected to be part of Arts Council East Midlands’ EMPACT project; a cultural tourism scheme for the rural areas. This marked a turning point for the gallery. From 2004 Fermynwoods refocused its activities to include new media and community based projects, and appointed an Education Officer in 2007. Fermynwoods also engaged with local regeneration and urban expansion, organising highly acclaimed debates with key decision makers, community representatives and local residents.
Over the years the number of exhibitions and events taking place at the Water Tower increased, and the gallery remained open for eight months of the year from 2006. Notable artists included: James Smith, Toby Paterson, Pak Keung Wan (2007), Richard Woods, Nigel Hall, Stephen Turner (2008), Boyd & Evans, HeHe, Jaques Nimki (2009).
Projects also took place at other locations, including heritage sites such as New Hall, Cambridge University (Birgit Skiold, 2003), Rockingham Castle (Iris Bertz, 2005) and Lyveden New Bield (Peter Randall Page, 2006). These exhibitions, along with Fermynwoods’ audio, performance and walking projects (Hidden Tracks and Hansel & Gretel in Fermyn Woods, 2006/07) gained the organisation a strong reputation for context led programming.
In 2006 Fermynwoods was registered as an educational charity and formed a new partnership with the Forestry Commission, through a five-year business plan to deliver artist-led projects in Fermyn Woods and restore a pair of cottages owned by the Forestry Commission (Sudborough Green Lodge), as an artist residency, research and education center. The first Artists in Residence took place in 2007, with Jo Cope, Nick Horrigan, Chrystel Lebas and Samuel McGeever, followed by Oliver Bancroft and Richard Woods in 2008, and Claudia Fahrenkemper, Alex Metcalf, Jaques Nimki and Martin Prothero in 2009.
Rosalind Stoddart (FRSA), May 2010 (abbreviated 2016)
Infiltrating the Everyday since 2009
In October 2009 Fermynwoods Contemporary Art took the strategic decision to move out of the Water Tower gallery and become a peripatetic organisation operating from an office in Brigstock, with the long-term aim of developing a project space in the future. Yasmin Canvin was appointed as Interim Director, to oversee the organisation whilst Rosalind Stoddart, the organisation’s Founder, took Sabbatical leave.
That autumn Art Reach consultants worked with the staff, Board and key stakeholders to develop a Business Plan, which outlined the move from a peripatetic organisation towards a new Arts and Education Centre in Fermyn Woods Country Park. However, due to the recession, the plans for this innovative project space were put on hold and the organisation focused on delivering artistic activity in public spaces across Northamptonshire.
David Lowbridge, a young design company based in London was appointed to create a website that reflected this new approach, the aesthetics of the organisation, and enabled on going dialogue with audiences. The new website was launched in 2010, with an archive, an online exhibition and it enabled visitors to participate remotely, such as by contributing lyrics for the Corby Complaints Choir. The website design informed Fermynwoods’ print material, which is an important marketing tool for the organisation, functioning both as a platform for current activity and a project archive.
The staffing structure was also changed to reflect the new direction, including a Coordinator for Sudborough Green Lodge and the Interim Director was appointed as the Director in June 2010, following Rosalind Stoddart’s decision not to return following her sabbatical. A new Programming Team was established with artist Trustees to ensure that Fermynwoods continued to respond to new directions in artistic practice and that artists continued to have a significant impact on the thinking and future direction of the organisation.
Fermynwoods also began to develop long-term relationships with artists; providing training and development, commissioning new work, and facilitating the sharing of skills, knowledge and experience. Partnerships with non-arts organisations were developed to enable Fermynwoods to curate projects in response to often-unexpected places that are visited by people who do not attend art galleries or museums.
These included:
• Active Ingredients’ Conversation Between Trees at Fineshade Wood (2011), in partnership with the Forestry Commission. The artists used data to visualise the environments in Northamptonshire and Brazil and to explore issues around climate change
• We commissioned Owl Project to work with students and Brigstock Sawmill (2012), to transform saw blades into sonic producers creating a treadle powered “sound machine”
• In partnership with the Corby Walking Festival we curated artist-led walks with local rambling groups, with Nikki Pugh in 2012 (creating drawings using GPS) and Kathy Hinde in 2013 (taking field recordings to create a musical score)
• For Habitat (2013), German artist Klaus Osterwald installed hydrophonic speakers in Barnwell Reservoir (in the County Council’s Country Park), which picked up the sounds of fish and insects moving in the water
• For Beyond Seven Mountains (2016), Robin Rimbaud created a sound work that drew on Corby’s links with outer space, in partnership with Corby Borough Council and the Woodlands Friends Groups
• In 2016, excluded students worked with artist Clare Abbatt and near space photographer Chris Hillcox to launch thermochromatic sculptures 90,000ft into space; a Northamptonshire first.
Yasmin Canvin
Updated December 2016
Supporting Life Through Art 2017 – Present
In October 2017, following eight years as Director, Yasmin Canvin left Fermynwoods Contemporary Art to take up a variety of creative roles elsewhere. After more than a decade of shaping and delivering the organisation’s education programme, and as Fermynwoods’ longest-serving member of staff, James Steventon was appointed Director. His appointment marked a period of consolidation and renewal, steering the organisation through and beyond its twentieth year.
This transition was celebrated in 2018 with the opening of The Arches at Fineshade Wood, a newly renovated space that expanded Fermynwoods’ programme into a dedicated project space located within a natural habitat and ancient mixed broadleaf and conifer woodland, heritage site, and leisure facility in Northamptonshire, 13 miles outside Corby. The opening coincided with Fermynwoods Contemporary Art’s twentieth anniversary and the Forestry Commission’s centenary, reaffirming a long-standing partnership rooted in working with artists, audiences, and environment.
The Arches became the base for The Forest Is the Museum, a new programme of artists’ residencies originally conceived by Yasmin Canvin, alongside associated public activity at Fineshade Wood between 2018 and 2020. The first artists in residence in 2018 were Edwina fitzPatrick and Justin Carter, followed in 2019 by Owl Project, and concluding with Abigail Lane and Lala Meredith Vula.
In 2019, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency and received a special commendation from the Nick Reeves Award for Arts and the Environment. In 2020, the organisation was named Art Charity of the Year in the Central England Prestige Awards, and its temporary exhibition space at The Arches, Fineshade Wood, was named Best Contemporary Art Gallery in Northamptonshire in the Midlands Enterprise Awards. Fermynwoods was also awarded an Achates Philanthropy Prize Bursary, recognising organisations that undertook “interesting and exciting examples of proactive engagement with communities during the pandemic, demonstrating how the arts have reacted to it and the results achieved through these efforts.”
In 2022, the organisation updated its charitable objects to promote and improve the arts for public benefit, while also advancing public education through opportunities related to art, the environment, and climate change.
While staying true to its founding principles, Fermynwoods updated its mission to Supporting Life Through Art, reflecting both its explicit commitment to environmental action and its ongoing and expanding Alternative Provision programme. This work successfully supports young people excluded from mainstream education, those who are dual-registered, or those unable to attend school due to physical or mental health challenges, through a programme of artist-led workshops and experiences.
After vacating its long-standing residency base at Sudborough Green Lodge in 2023, when the condition of the building necessitated closure, the organisation has continued to commission innovative and meaningful artistic activity in unusual public spaces across the county. This includes expanding into West Northamptonshire through activity at Brixworth Country Park and in Northampton town.
Beginning with Rosalind Stoddart’s original bold vision to be “more than a gallery,” Fermynwoods Contemporary Art has evolved into a dynamic, peripatetic organisation working in partnership with diverse venues and locations across Northamptonshire and online. The organisation commissions groundbreaking artistic interventions in extraordinary locations, spanning ancient woods, country parks, historic churches, castles, canal tunnels, lively pubs, and even soaring 90,000 feet above the Earth’s atmosphere. As it approaches its thirtieth anniversary, the organisation is currently seeking a new permanent home, from which it can continue to support life through art and provide “the Fermynwoods welcome” that has remained true since visitors first entered through the founder’s home.
James Steventon
Explore our past projects here.