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900 Voices come alive in digital art installation

Over 900 stories about the River Nene have been captured in one year since the launch of the Nenescape Landscape Partnership Scheme and its digital storytelling project, ‘900 Voices of the River Nene’.

Thanks to National Lottery players through the Heritage Lottery Fund, Nenescape were able to commission arts organisation One to One Development Trust to create a mixed media archive including photographs, film, audio clips, artwork and written contributions that individually and collectively tell of the beauty, history and personal importance of the Nene, alongside producing series of short films and an interactive digital art installation.

The online archive was officially launched on 7 December in the Knights Chamber at Peterborough Cathedral to contributors, volunteers, Nenescape trustees and the team of people who helped make the project happen. Over the following weekend the installation was open to the public at Nene Park and at Peterborough Museum, where visitors saw the installation. For anyone who didn’t make it to those events, the archive is online at www.900voicesofthenene.co.uk, where a preview of the installation can also be seen.

From Upper Heyford in Northamptonshire close to the source of the river to March on the old course of the Nene in Cambridgeshire, the contributions describe the special connections people have with their local landscape. From the dedicated volunteers who come together to run river clean-ups to historical events, the archive is an Aladdin’s cave of stories which can be searched through an interactive map.

Andrew Langley, Acting Chair of Nenescape said, “It’s been a delight to watch this project grow and see more and more contributions from the public flow into the archive. To see the installation tonight is breathtaking and I know that it’s going to be a real asset to the Nene Valley.”

Nenescape welcomes involvement from anyone with interest in the wildlife, heritage and landscape of the Nene Valley, and is particularly keen to collect contributions from people with stories or memories about the river to include in the online archive.

Please visit www.900voicesofthenene.co.uk to contribute a story or contact Alison Cross at for more information.

To find out more, please visit the Nenescape website at www.nenescape.org and stay up to date with social media @nenescape.

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