Shed Donation | Wise Words Festival 2016
Have you ever been inside a small space and been completely enchanted with it’s modest beauty? An intimate dwelling, with only room for a special few can make an atmosphere even more wondrous. A small escape, filled with nostalgia and authenticity.
At Wise Words Festival, we aim to surprise festival-goers by encouraging them to stumble upon places of unexpected beauty. We invite audiences into unusual spaces where they can listen to a story tale, engage in a thought provoking talks about the world, or purely enjoy a quiet space to read.
This spring we’re looking for up to 3 sheds that will be transformed into magical mini worlds for family activities, supporting our aim to inspire curiosity and wonder through literature and poetry related events.
About the Festival
The heart of our festival lies in Canterbury’s historic secret gardens belonging to the Franciscan Friars - a haven, just a stones throw from the hustle and bustle of the city centre. These sheds will compliment the beautiful yurt, tipis, canvas tent and the ancient Franciscan Chapel - all stages that we use yearly for performance, music and poetry.
Wise Words Festival is run by Workers of Art, which is a not-for-profit organisation, and although we get some funding from Arts Council England on a year by year basis, we rely on the generosity of local businesses to help us achieve our ambitions. Often, rather than cash, businesses are able to support through offering products or services, and this year we’re asking for a shed (or three).
Why sheds?
This year marks important anniversaries for many literary heroes two of which are, Roald Dahl who would have been celebrating his 100th birthday and Beatrix Potter. In celebration we will be adopting these authors as inspiration for our Family Area. Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake who illustrated many of Dahl’s books, like many authors and poets, had writing sheds. And of course we all know about Mr McGregors shed!
A contribution of a shed will allow us to provide an innovative space, which will impact directly on audience members. Once the festival is finished, the sheds would be transported to Highland Court Farm in Bridge which is where we are based and have our studios. The sheds would be placed outdoors, to become permanent spaces for writers retreats and writers in residence.
As a sponsor you would get a plaque thanking you for your support on the shed and we would ensure that your name / logo was prominently displayed on our sponsors page on our site and on our posters and programmes. We have a strong social media presence and social story-telling is a large part of our marketing. The shed appearing, being decorated and inhabited by strange and mysterious creatures would be an important focus. You would be thanked for ‘gifting the sheds’ throughout the campaign and on any films of media created. We would also create a plaque on each hut which would remain there permanently, to thank you for the donation.
If you can help, or know of anyone that can, we would be ever so grateful if you could message Jen - [email protected] with Shed Donation in the subject heading.