Poems on the Mainline

Mid Pennine Arts goes on the buses!


Innovative partnership with Transdev brings poetry on the move to Burnley & Pendle

MID Pennine Arts children’s literature festival – Kicking Leaves – will be more visible than ever this year, as all the buses operating on the Burnley and Pendle Mainline services will display a small selection of children’s poetry on coving posters.

This will see poetry on the move across Pennine Lancashire as Transdev the company managing buses across Pennine Lancashire is one of the key partners in the highly acclaimed Festival. Last year Kicking Leaves was launched at Burnley Youth Theatre in an event that included an appearance by Julia Donaldson author of The Gruffalo.

Organiser David Smith, Education & Projects Director for Mid Pennine Arts, said: “Buses will be travelling to Barnoldswick, Trawden and Colne, to Nelson, Burnley and Accrington, Whalley and Clitheroe - all displaying the children’s work!”

“At Mid Pennine Arts we’re seeing this as a mobile anthology, a gallery of poetry – and we’re calling it ‘Poems on the Mainline’! Posters will be displayed on buses from June. Each month over 300,000 passengers will be able to read our children’s work! This is a really excellent showcase for the wealth of young talented writers we have in the area!”

Poems on the Mainline begins on Thursday April 7 with a small group of younger pupils from St John Southworth RC Primary School in Nelson making a special bus journey, courtesy of Transdev, to Barnoldswick. The journey will involve a mobile poetry workshop where organisers hope that pupils are inspired by town and country, fellow passengers, pedestrians and of course, the Nelson Interchange.

Transdev’s Marketing Director, Nigel Eggleton explained, “The young poets will be travelling on one of our buses from Nelson to Barnoldswick and back. There’ll be plenty for them to see and inspire their writing. We are delighted to be able to work with the school and Mid Pennine Arts, after all as a local bus company, we’ve been at the heart of our community for the best part of a hundred years.”

The pupils will be accompanied by the Transdev mascot: the MainLion and by poet Terry Caffrey. Terry, whose latest children’s book is ‘It wasn’t me Miss!’, has been commissioned by Mid Pennine Arts to write a poem especially for Poems on the Mainline.

Poems on the Mainline is part of the Kicking Leaves children’s literature festival which aims to exercise the muscles of a child’s imagination by providing opportunities for the children of Pennine Lancashire to work alongside professional writers, poets, storytellers, illustrators and other artists

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Notes to Editors

If you require further information, images or would like to interview David Smith from Mid Pennine Arts - please call Julian Jordan from BrandSpankin’ on 01282 878 301 or email julian@brandspankin.co.uk.

About Mid Pennine Arts

We are a driving force for the arts, recognised nationally and internationally for devising and delivering integrated programmes that inspire, surprise and delight. We work in some of the most deprived communities in the UK yet have a longstanding track record of powerful, high quality work, demonstrating profound social and economic impacts. Our portfolio includes prize-winning public art for breathtaking landscape settings. Commissions of bold, contemporary work combine dynamically with exemplary programmes of creative learning and creative community engagement. Strong relationships with extensive networks of local partners have been consolidated over decades.

Our mission: we bring art, people and places together to transform perceptions and change lives.

Mid Pennine Arts Charity registration number 250642

http://www.midpenninearts.org.uk/