Changing Corby - Project Archive

Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund, Northamptonshire Community Foundation, and Corby Borough Council are supporting another ground-breaking Deep Roots Tall Trees (“DRTT”) project – "Changing Corby". Following on from "Our Woods", this new 2-year programme will build on the achievements of DRTT's work to date and move our collective creativity in new directions.

Corby is changing, it is growing, and many different cultures have made the town their home. ‘Changing Corby’ celebrates this diversity through song, dance and the arts. Corby is an exciting place and the theatre, Olympic swimming pool, cinema and excellent transport links have made it an appealing place to live.

Explore and Discover - Share and Celebrate!

As we move into 2018, we start this new 2-year project in earnest during which DRTT will explore and document the cultural heritage of four different communities - Scottish, Latvian, Polish and Serbian - who have chosen to settle in the town. "Changing Corby" will create new ways to learn about Corby’s diverse cultural heritage as represented by each of these groups, with key representatives from each community passing on their musical and dance knowledge. We hope people will enjoy coming together to share in these fun experiences and help us leave a well-documented legacy and archive for future generations.

Phase 1 – Our Scottish Heritage: January 2018 through to June 2018

The DRTT invites people in Corby to join DRTT choir in taking part in workshops led by professional singers to learn Gaelic songs.  DRTT especially welcomes people with Scottish heritage or knowledge of Gaelic song so that we can develop our knowledge even further.

Some singing experience advisable.

Also, DRTT dancetheatre will be developing their response to the Scottish cultural traditions and they welcome newcomers.

This first cultural exploration is with the most established and first community to adopt Corby as its own – the Scottish community. Corby used to be known as ‘Little Scotland’ and the Scottish are still a sizeable minority in the town – 19% in 2011.

For this phase our main collaborators will be two Scottish artists, Mary Ann Kennedy and Janet Russell.

Dates and times of these sessions are on our What's On! page!

You can find out more about Mary Ann on her website HERE.

And information about Janet Russell and her work can be found HERE.

Phases 2, 3, 4 - Latvian/Serbian/Polish

Over the following 18 months we will work with the Latvian, Serbian and Polish communities. Through regular press releases, leaflets and social media information will be available over time.

First Steps

The first project under the "Changing Corby" banner was "Corby and Migration" which took place during Autumn 2017. Supported by the Woodland Trust through their Charter project (www.treecharter.uk), we commissioned and brought together visual artist, Amanda Drage, and Ornithologist, Matt Merritt, to collaborate, research and create paintings of the birds in Corby’s woodlands, an important ornithological habitat, to further engage the public in an approachable and wonderful aspect of the urban woodlands in the heart of our town.

"Corby and Migration" looked at the birds species that migrate to Corby’s woodlands (and native birds) and how they are affected by the increased size of the town as it continues to change. Matt will research the bird migration to Corby’s woodlands and gather information about them and Amanda will create paintings of the most significant birds. The first painting will be in an exhibition in the Rooftop Gallery in Corby for the month of June and further paintings will be in her exhibition September 2017 at The Alfred East Gallery, Kettering.

At all events we will collect as many as possible signatures to support and spread the word about the Charter – to connect people and trees.