Truro skateboard

A rainy afternoon in Truro but great to drop into the Royal Cornwall Museum and see that Nick Jensen's skateboard (painted as part of Bridging Arts' Whatever It Takes project) is still on display.
The lovely receptionist tells me that, when it first went on display, large numbers of boys came in to pay homage...
We're thinking of touring the other boards in the exhibition this autumn. They've been on display up to now at Penrice School, St Austell.
For more about Nick Jensen and Isle Skateboards click here.

The painting on Nick Jensen's board was inspired by an arrowhead in the Museum

Nick Jensen skating at Tower Bridge, London

Nick Jensen's skateboard at the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro

Meeting at the Royal Cornwall Museum

Touching base at the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, with Michael Harris. Our researcher George Harris (no relation) made contact earlier in the year and Michael has been great point of contact.

Now that we have funding (thank you, Heritage Lottery Fund), we are able to make plans to take things forward. There is a lot of potential for working together.

One of my favourite objects (still) in the Museum is Nick Jensen's skateboard, which he created for our project Whatever It Takes. His design  for a Cornish skateboard was inspired by an arrowhead in the museum.

George Harris, formerly of the Goldsmiths' Company, will probably say that his favourite objects are the gold loaned to Gold: Power and Allure  that he worked on in 2012. George is now no longer at Bridging Arts as he has a new job at the Bowes Museum, Co. Durham. Hats off, George! But we will miss you at Bridging Arts.
All the research and background work done by George on Heart of Conflict has really laid strong foundations for the project.

Nick Jensen's Cornish arrowhead skateboard on display at Heartlands, Pool

On the 207 bus

Spotted at the Queen Adelaide bus stop on Uxbridge Road - a white skateboard.
I am no expert at all but (almost) instantly recognised this as an Isle skateboard - the new company set up by Nick Jensen and others. Nick was the driving force behind our project, Whatever It Takes, in Cornwall last year. There are some amazing Isle designs. Had to snatch these photographs on the bus and eventually at the tube station: thought it might have been slightly odd to say 'Can I take a picture of your skateboard?'

Great to see that Isle - only set up in the last 12 months - is already so visibly on the streets.

News of the campaign to save Southbank skateboarding

Spotted this sticker when walking across Vauxhall Bridge this morning - the campaign to save skateboarding on London's Southbank continues. The undercroft used by generations of skateboarders is under threat of development: there are plans to build shops and restaurants as part of a £120 million development. Skateboarders have been campaigning to stop the project ever since it was announced earlier this year.

Later in the day, read in the Evening Standard that the campaign's bid to have the undercroft classified as a village green under the Commons Act 2006 was turned down today by Lambeth Council. The campaign continues: too many people care too much about the space for it to stop.

Skateboarding is central to many people's lives: we saw this in Whatever It Takes which was led by Nick Jensen.

What's in the pipeline

A blog to throw a spotlight what's happening at Bridging Arts.

We've got the website, of course, as an archive of what we've done. And we'll still write separate blogs linked with individual projects, as they're useful ways of reporting on how things are progressing.

But there are many random connections that are so interesting.

Daffodil pickers from eastern Europe playing football at night in Camborne, Cornwall

For anyone who has come across this blog via the labyrinths of the internet - and incredibly might not have heard of Bridging Arts.... we try and tackle difficult issues in society through art, design and photography. The aim is to bring together people, communities and organisations that might otherwise never meet to engage in a project that creates something of value and stimulates debate.

We try and make a difference through action and arts-related activities.

We've worked with 

- Claire Arymar, community worker at Park an Tansys, Camborne, apprentices at Cornwall Community Action Network, leading UK skateboarder Nick Jensen in Whatever It Takes
- socially isolated migrant workers in Cornwall in I Packed This Myself

- groups of Muslim women in London in Stitch

- British Asian communities across the country in The British Sari Story

- organisations in Bosnia and the UK working in the aftermath of the genocide at Srebrenica

 - refugee artist Pero Mandic.