Contributors & Credits

Thank you to everyone contributing to Beach of Dreams, together we are creating something amazing!

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Dream Team

Ali Pretty – Artistic Director

Ali Pretty is the founding member and artistic director of Kinetika. Since 2012 Ali’s practice has been to develop transformational walking arts projects with diverse communities these bring people together by walking, talking and painting large-scale silk creations. Ali has led walking projects in Wiltshire, Isle of Wight, Lincolnshire, Essex and Thurrock, where she has developed an annual walking, talking and making festival Thurrock 100.

This pioneering place-making model has been replicated internationally in various forms in Ethiopia, Chile and India. Her most ambitious project was Silk River, commissioned by the British Council as part of the UK/India year of Culture in 2017.

 

Ali will work with a team of artists to curate and produce 500 individually designed silk pennants, the first edition of an evolving national artwork. Kinetika works on hand-woven Murshidabad silk. https://kinetika.co.uk/about-murshidabad-silk

“Beach of Dreams offers the opportunity to extend my practice by learning how to use natural dyes challenging the aesthetic of my own silk work. Producing 500 individual silk pennants, to carry the dreams of 500 participants for 500 miles will push the boundaries of the walking, talking and making model that I’ve been developing for the last 8 years, which has at its’ heart the voice of the local community.”

Ali Pretty

Kevin Rushby – Writer

Kevin Rushby is Guardian Travel’s ‘Explorer’ and a contributor to the Saturday Review. He is the author of four acclaimed travel books, including Hunting Pirate Heaven, an investigation of 17th century pirate utopias in the Indian Ocean. His most recent book is Paradise, an historical account of human searching for perfection over the centuries. Kevin collaborated with Ali on Silk River, writing a daily blog of the entire journey.

This summer he will walk with Ali for 35 days and record the journey on a daily basis capturing the narrative as it unfolds.

 

“This is a time of emergencies and crises and humans always think more clearly when walking. It is when walking that lost treasures are spotted, and their value and meaning understood. Walking brings contact with people and time to talk. The range and scope of people that will be drawn into Beach of Dreams is immense: scientists and artists, old and young, expert and amateur, all manner of people will make contact, fostering new ideas, opinions and partnerships.In this context, and in these times, Beach of Dreams feels like the right thing to do. It is a walk that will bring vitality and colour to thousands of people, forging new connections and relationships that will develop hope and inspiration when most needed.”

Kevin Rushby

 

Nabil Ali – Visual Artist

Nabil Ali has developed a working methodology using plant matter as the primary process material, allowing him to explore the environment to produce Art. He grows and collects his materials forming an intimate relationship with the creative process to understand the boundaries of the materials used.

For Beach of Dreams Nabil will create an evolving installation – The Sea People.

This installation has been supported by Essex Cultural Diversity Project, read more on their website: https://essexcdp.com/commission/nabil-ali/

“From the weeds of the sea that covers the eastern coast of Essex, wrapped around spiral shells, fish bones and old weathered wood which tell the hidden stories of the depths of the North Sea, natural materials are scattered across the stony beaches waiting to be found and made into abstract forms of Sea People, with their distant voices heard in the blowing tidal winds that travel along the crashing waves.”

Nabil Ali

 

Production

Produced by Kinetika

Artistic Director: Ali Pretty

Production Manager: Alex Lingford

Business Manager: Donna Plakhtienko

Design Studio Manager: Matt Lloyd

Marketing: Edwina Rigby

T100 Walking Festival Project Manager: Katie Beadle

Media/ Documentation

Media support: Rosa Production

Audio interviews: John Offord

Film: Fotis Begklis

Photography: Mike Johnston

 

 

Creative Content

Artistic Director: Ali Pretty

Writer: Kevin Rushby

Installation artist: Nabil Ali

Natural Dye Specialists: Rob Jones, Romor Designs

Design: Mark Massey

Scientific Advisor: Cefas

 

Walks

Route planner: Peter Aylmer

Walk reccies: Members of the LDWA

Silk Pennant Artists:

Ali Pretty

Lisa Meehan

Jacci Todd

Margaret Hall

Lesley Robinson

Sarah Doyle

Kara Tompson

Shannon Topliss

Genevieve Rudd

Sally Chinea

Hazel Huber

 

Funders

Thurrock Council

Essex Council

Essex Cultural Diversity Project

Essex Path to Prosperity

Reaching Communities

English Heritage (Shout Out Loud)

Partners

First Light Summer Solstice, Lowestoft

Harwich Festival

T100: Walking, Talking and Making Festival, Thurrock

Essex Book Festival – Radical Walks Programme

LDWA – Long Distance Walkers Association

InspiralLondon

Cefas


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