For Frome Festival 2010 Rook Lane Arts worked with a whole range of people from near and far to celebrate the power of fairytales as a way of exploring and interpreting our lives. The project was inspired by Frome-based illustrator Corinna Sargood and her extraordinary lino-cut illustrations for Angela Carter’s Virago Book of Fairytales.

Corinna’s lino cuts were exhibited at Rook Lane alongside a schools’ exhibition of fairytale-inspired creative work by children from St Vigor and St John, Chilcompton, and St Louis Primary and Selwood Middle School, Frome.

More than 1,500 people visited the exhibitions and attended special events, and 100 people of all ages contributed fairytale lines which were hung on the beautiful hazel arch created by artist Colin Bell with Rode School.

Highlights included: Marina Warner on Angela Carter and her female protagonists, a special screening of Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves, co-written with Carter, and spell-binding tales from Frome Story Circle and Open Story Tellers’ alongside locally-sourced, fairytale foods from Food Frome.

Tales from the Arch

Click here to read our visitor-generated fairy tales, taken from fragments posted on the arch!

Programme of Events

Sat 3rd July	Public Launch	"Through the Woods, Darkly" Public Launch
Sat 3rd July	Words and Music	Sweetbriar present The Wonderful Birch
Sat 3rd July	Talk	Director Jo Ann Kaplan discusses Angela Carter
3 - 24 July	Public Launch	Corinna Sargood
Sat 10th July	Words	Frome Story Circle in the Food Frome café
Sun 11th July	Words	Open Story Tellers
Tues 13th July	Workshop	Creative writing with Rose Flint
Tues 13th July	Film	Company of Wolves
Sat 17 July	Talk	Marina Warner on Angela Carter