DAMSET

Friends of Damset

admin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:32:56 +0000

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Winton Arts and Media College

admin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:05:06 +0000

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Manorside Combined School (Poole)

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:20:52 +0000

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Linwood School

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:18:45 +0000

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Talbot Heath

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:37:21 +0000

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Bishop of Winchester

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:52:42 +0000

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Testimonials

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:41:14 +0000

A group of 18 volunteers from my school were given the chance to work with Ben last year. Although the aim of the event had been briefly touched upon prior to his arrival, the students were immediately inspired by the sincerity and clarity of Ben’s introduction. Most of the girls involved had not really had any direct experience of the tragedy of AIDS, but through the poignant exercise of preparing a design to commemorate the life of one particular sufferer made the girls feel as though they were creating their design for a friend. The actual identity of victims was never revealed. Ben made it clear that how each student created their design was entirely their own choice. As the project evolved, students collected more and more material to help their design, arriving at a very eclectic mix of final presentations. Some chose to work on the computer, using images from their imagination or exterior sources. Others chose to design by hand, some completing their work on computer. Whichever method they chose, Ben guided them sensitively and with great skill. He encouraged them to look beyond the limits of their own methods, achieving highly innovative and personal responses. By the end of the course the students had a sense of privilege at having been given the chance to work on this project and we are eagerly anticipating another series of workshops with Ben this year.

Julie Stevens

Head of Art, Talbot Heath Girls School, Bournemouth.
Ben (Trill) is the artist engaged by DAMSET to run the workshops.

The Project

admin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:09:29 +0000

The project is to create a permanent memorial to those in Dorset who have lost their lives to AIDS. At the time the project was initiated, these numbered over 200 and the number is still growing. By creating this memorial, DAMSET aims to bring home to the wider community the fact that the virus is active everywhere and spares nobody if adequate precautions are not taken.

Grants from Awards for All and the Community Foundation Local Network Fund have enabled us to engage a professional artist to conduct workshops for secondary school children in which each student is given the name of one person from Dorset whose life has been cut short by AIDS. The class teacher then encourages the students to discuss HIV and what it means to them, whilst they are creating a tile design. In this way, the students are made aware that HIV/AIDS is both a world-wide problem and right on their own doorsteps. The students are encouraged to have ownership of the project and pass the message of HIV/AIDS awareness and not the infection.

The tiles will be assembled to form the memorial wall at Pier Approach, Bournemouth.

It is intended that the memorial be a community-wide project. It will be a permanent and potent reminder to the public at large and particularly to the young people involved, that the incidence of HIV/AIDS has not gone away and that new infections are on the increase.

We aim to unveil the memorial for World AIDS Day 2010.

Friends

admin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:06:10 +0000

Roger Taber

At a poetry reading at Bournemouth Library, shortly after the launch of the project, DAMSET’s Chairman met poet Roger Taber and talked to him about the memorial.

He immediately offered to write a poem dedicated to DAMSET.
Thank you, Roger.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A BEACH

Sun and moon, sailing fickle skies
to safe harbours;
Sea, like a cabbage-stained tablecloth
edged with white lace;
Heads peering up, peering down
as they have always done,
listening to waves, voices of the heart
that stay with us, move on with us,
play a part in our lives, no matter all
temporal hosts come and gone,
sun and moon out of reach, cabbage
stains on the world’s tablecloths..
tales told by shells on Bournemouth
beach of those whose faces may
blur with time but we remember them,
who died of AIDS and not to blame
(the fruits of love bitter-sweet, yet better
by far to live by it than hate)
nor sexuality, physicality, morality,
any match for our own mortality
but as small boats on a passionate sea
driven by a feeling for integrity;
Come a time when death may put love
out of reach, then take a walk
on the sand, talk with the waves, listen
to shells on Bournemouth beach
(or any other that stirs a grieving soul
to recover the heart’s grail);
join a passing ship awhile, carrying
family, friends, lovers, even
old neighbours…by day and night,
be they gay or straight…cruise
Loving Memory’s fair shores, share
old jokes, laugh about crises
over cabbage stains on best tablecloths

To inner eye (and ear) time never deleted
nor love, through AIDS, never defeated

The Tiles

admin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:51:52 +0000

To date we have worked with students from these Bournemouth schools: