Portland Sculpture & Quarry Trust
Charity Overview:
Regeneration of a former industrial landscape that gives in-depth access to culture, nature, education and art through the sharing and exchange of knowledge and skills between people from different background. Using principles of environmental sustainability in all operations and innovative educational practice that is inclusive and accessible to all in an area of deprivation and high needs.
The Trust's mission is:
To deliver inspirational vocational, technical, professional and higher education and training that empowers people - especially the young who seek or need to understand - to achieve their goals, contribute to the economic prosperity and social cohesion of the communities we serve.
To advance the encouragement of study, research, practice and knowledge of the arts and sculpture, thereby stimulating
artistic and cultural fields, and of the environment, geology, geomorphology, archaeology, culture and heritage of the Isle of Portland, Dorset and other regions in the UK and elsewhere.To create an environmental legacy through the interdisciplinary model underpinning our work, that brings together the fields of arts, science, cultural heritage to engage in all aspects of Portland's decommissioned quarry environments, as a microcosm for the regeneration of local and global landscapes today.
Our Vision:
To establish a dynamic engagement and exhibition of the Living Land Archive at the Drill Hall as a legacy for the island on the quarrying, geology, ecology and working histories that have shaped the unique coastline and landscape of Portland; recorded by the Trust over 38 years with the involvement of the Portland community, as the living embodiment of its history, skills and culture.
To deliver programs, courses, talks and events that offer the widest possible opportunities for visitors to the Jurassic Coast - and for from all people ages, diversity and backgrounds to acquire new skills, through arts, science and cultural experiences that transform our understanding in a variety of ways.
To create a threshold to the quarry landscape via the memory stones with key messages from the Living Land Archive; creating a digital interactive platform that engages people with new sculptural gateways, climate emergency, micro projects for environmental stewardship of land.
A flexible, dynamic environment to inspire, create, test out and present new work
facilitates the development of ideas through research, education, and innovation and an ethos of lively explorative debate to push ideas beyond boundries.
The Facility
Equipment
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Will cut up to 240mm depth at one pass (with 300mm depth capacity) and up to 1.4 metres length - also has tilt adjustment for cutting angles
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– mobile – max 800Kg load capacity and adjustable height up to 950mm.
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– a large range of hand carving, letter cutting tools (both tungsten tipped and traditionally made fire sharp tools – some handed down from Portland stone masons) and bouchard hammers.
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– a large range of made traditionally made quarrying tools that can still be used today for splitting stone (‘plugs & feathers’ / ‘scales & wedges’), kibels, twybels and stone axes for dressing stone or used as part of the carving process.
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– for splitting large stones with ‘plugs & feathers’.
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– Vibration reduced WEHA air hammers and tungsten carbide tooling. Also Cuturi air hammers.
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– Electric for use in CSW and petrol driven for use of air tools out on site (e.g. aritists making site specific work).
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– core drills from 30mm up to 150mm for drilling larger diameter holes or producing cylindrical core sections.
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– with a capacity up to 3.5tons including – 3.5ton Counterbalanced Forklift Truck, 2ton ‘A’ Frame with chain hoist, 2ton Hydraulic Strongarm and 2ton palette truck.
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– 2.5ton load capacity for collecting stone or moving work to site / location.
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– disc cutters at 115mm / 150mm / 230mm – for use in the outdoor carving area of CSW or making site specific work).
A Unique space to Create In
A project space, workshop, equipment, gallery, studio, exhibition, and accommodation facilities.
Situated at the center of Portland and within half a mile of 11 contrasting quarry environments, connected to Tout Quarry Sculpture Park and Nature Reserve through a newly refurbished quarry railroad tunnel, the Drill Hall 5,000 sq. ft provides a research & project space for artists, architects, earth scientists, ecologists the community and others to create, test out and show new work. The building has flexible facilities for showing large work. Lifting facilities up to three and a half tons - and for sound and light projection, with video and sound editing, A tower studio with glass lantern with access to PSQT’s ‘Living Land Archive’ and inter-disciplinary partnerships provides support with connections across the Earth Sciences, Community, Industry and Environment A newly refurbished and well equipped all year round carving studio, workshop facility and exhibition space at the Drill Hall supports the development ideas and show new work all within one facility. Expert technical guidance and professional support is given in the skills of direct carving, letter cutting, architectural design. There are also facilities for work in fired clay, modeling and casting processes -.where waste materials can be traced back to the environment — giving an understanding of place. transformation and evolutionary process.Lighting.CSW has excellent natural daylight with overhead and gable light panels also with bright white metal halide lighting for evenings.Heating.Heating is provided through a woodburner and solar gain through the insulated roof and end gables – also with Heat Harvester air circulation fans to maintain even temperature at floor and roof level (can also be used during the summer to keep CSW cool). AccessCSW has level access through a roller shutter door – for vehicles (flat bed trucks) for offloading stone and loading finished work. Disability access is provided into CSW, the outdoor carving area and into the main Drill Hall Research & Project Space via ramps with handrails.Our Tutors & Team
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Hannah Sofaer
Hannah Sofaer studied at Goldsmiths College, Chelsea College of Art & Design before her Masters in Fine Art and Sculpture at the Royal College of Art. One of the first of 50 artists to make work during the first sculpture symposium in Tout Quarries and helped to save the quarry from further mineral extraction. She set up the stone carving courses in Tout Quarry. She is a visiting Tutor in Art Colleges / Universities and has shown work in galleries, other sculpture parks as well as one off projects such as Art By Pass. She has been commissioned to create work / public art in UK, Singapore, Northern Spain. Hannah is skilled in the selection of stone for individual ideas and has extensive knowledge of direct carving and stone carving techniques (drawing directly with tools), helping students to achieve a high standard of work. Hannah was admitted to the Freedom of the Worshipful Company of Masons in 2016.
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Paul Crabtree
Paul Crabtree studied at Bradford Regional College of Art and Fine Art Sculpture at the Central School of Art & Design. Paul trained as a stone conservator at the British Museum where he worked with limestone and low relief carvings from the Egyptian Department and including block figures from the Duke of Northumberland’s collection. Paul has a MA in Art and Design and Education from University of London Institute of Education and also holds a Higher National Certificate (HNC) in Applied Architectural Stone Work from Weymouth College. Paul was admitted to the Freedom of the Worshipful Company of Masons in 2016.
Our Trustees
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Toby Russell
Trustee & Mentor
Our Trustees
Our Trustees support the mission & vision of our organisation for the regeneration of Portland and contribute skills in areas of environmental education, visual and performing arts, stone carving skills, health and well being, disability arts, theatre and legal skills.
Five main areas of activity include artists residencies, bespoke education programmes for community, schools, universities, stone carving workshops and the recording of Portland’s changing quarry environments, through the physical and digital living archive;
This includes unpublished materials alongside artists site specific recordings for the preservation and interpretation-of Portland’s fossil record, ecological mapping with research, projects and interviews over 37 years that bring new insights into the landscape; collaborations between artists, architects, naturalists, ecologists, earth scientists, community and the last generation of quarrymen and stone masons who worked Portlands landscape by hand.
Trustee led community partnerships
Kensington and Chelsea MIND ‘Meanwhile Wildlife Gardens’; a project that transformed an area derelict / neglected land into a thriving wildlife garden.
Local and national schools re Art & Design, Geography, English Dance and Drama leading to Art/Heritage and Environment projects and the recent formation by young people of a new dance group/company focusing on landscape choreography and processional works in the quarry environment.
New course in landscape & environmental sculpture with Royal College of Art , UK and international universities including Art and Architecture schools.
Establishing the first higher education course in South Dorset.
Writing and delivering new validated 2nd year electives across 21 Depts and 5 Faculties of the University of Brighton with MA in Site specific performance and MA by Independent Project funded by AHRC.
The most significant research that PSQT has led was supported by DEFRA /MIRO (Mineral Industry Research Organisation) and MIST (/Mineral Industry Sustainable Technology Programme) and Arts Council England that brought together an extensive range of Partners that led to a sustainable legacy for future projects and new designs for the innovative uses of stone waste for maximum habitat creation for the educational sustainable after-use of quarry
landscapes nearing the end of their working life