Etruria Canals Festival 2018 Ingenious

To help us celebrate our 2018 theme of INGENIOUS arts and engineering, we commissioned artist Rob Harrington to make over a hundred model ceramic boats powered by a steam ‘pop-pop’ engine. Over the festival weekend Rob invited people to decorate the boats ready for a grand launch onto the canal on the Sunday.  The Bone Ensemble staged ‘A Stoke Scheherazade: From Brindley to Basra and Back Again!’  They took audiences on a short, guided walk exploring the surprising parallels between these two cities.  Textile artist Natalie Brown mapped the local canal routes onto textured bunting.  Keele University brought their interactive hacking plastic display and running free artist-led workshops at this year’s canals festival inviting participants of all ages to explore different types of plastics and how they can be repurposed creatively.  Etruria Artists ran drop in hands on clay activities.