The Mermaid Princess by Hans Christian Anderson is a classic children’s tale, and Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts and Bournemouth and Poole Cultural Hub have created a brand new arts education project which focuses on the story and themes of story. This exciting performance and participatory project links seven local cultural organisations and six Bournemouth and Poole primary schools.

As a starting point for the project, Year 4 pupils and teachers from the six schools attended a performance of The Mermaid Princess presented by Italian theatre company Teatro Kismet at Lighthouse at the end of March. The show was  based on the traditional story of the Mermaid Princess, but was presented in a very visual and contemporary way which provided the children with a lot of inspiration and ideas to contribute to the rest of the project.

During the summer term, each school had the opportunity to experience a series of creative sessions with local cultural organisations and local artists, such as storytelling sessions delivered by Bournemouth and Poole libraries and workshops looking at maps and ships logs with Dorset History Centre. Well-known children’s book illustrator Jane Ray also delivered some illustration workshops in the schools which enabled the children to draw and write about mythical creatures and mermaids.

The Mermaid Princess exhibition at Lighthouse is made up of a combination of the outcomes of these sessions and more specific artworks that have been created by the schools and 5 local artists. For this, each school decided on an artform that they wanted to explore and selected a local artist to spend 2 days with creating work.  Visual artists Sarah Butterworth, Heidi Stellar and Nina Squire, as well as writer Richard Conlon and digital media artists Interim were selected and a variety of spectacular 2D and 3D work has been created for the exhibition.

The exhibition has been installed in various locations around the Lighthouse and will be open  through to the middle of September. Exhibition maps are available from the box office and  the Mermaid Princess Information board in the foyer to help you navigate your way around the exhibition.