Ione Maria Rojas has been appointed as artist for Honiton multicultural history partnership
British-Mexican artist, facilitator and food grower Ione Maria Rojas has been appointed as the artist to work on a multicultural history partnership based in Honiton, heading off a strong field of applicants for the opportunity.
Ione uses mark making, drawing, and writing to create a dialogue between ourselves, others and the land we live on. She has been working with Key Stage 2 primary children in Devon and Cornwall to deliver creative engaging workshops. For this project Ione will be partnering with Offwell School, the town’s library and the renowned Thelma Hulbert Gallery. Some questions central to her practice are:
- How can small acts of imagination, creativity and making disrupt and dismantle dominant thought systems?
- How can working with our hands (in the soil, with clay, through gathering and making) catalyse new conversations or new ways into existing conversations?
Jess Huffman, Honiton Project Coordinator for Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots said: “The shortlisting panel felt Ione answered the brief well. We are confident that she could work with us to ensure the materials she uses will reflect something of the stories we are telling as well as be immersive and fun for the children she’ll be working with. The workshop suggestions sound really engaging and we felt excited about how this might materialise as a tangible exhibition piece for later in the year.
We felt Ione’s personal experience will ensure her work aligns closely and sympathetically with the project themes and she could bring something new to the project that will help us engage audiences in a different way.”
On hearing of her appointment Ione said: “I’m really excited to be working on this project and getting to know some of the hidden histories of Honiton. I think there’s a lot of polarisation that happens with the urban-rural divide, with many people moving to the cities to experience a more diverse culture. Yet there are these multicultural histories that pulse through the countryside too, with pastoral England being inseparable from the realities of colonisation – a past that deserves a closer look. This opportunity offers a creative and tangible way in to doing so, getting to know the stories of individuals who’ve lived in the town, imagining into their realities”
Ione’s website is: https://www.ionemariarojas.com/
This opportunity is funded by the Creative East Devon Fund through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The project begins in September. The exhibition that will include the final project piece launches on 22 November at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton and will run from 23rd November to 22nd December.
For further information please contact Hilda Kalap Project Coordinator: hildatosfor@gmail.com or Jess Huffman Honiton Project Coordinator: jesstosfor@gmail.com