On this page you will find:
- Arts and Culture Overview
- Key Facts and Figures
- Sustaining the Landscape
- Management Influences and Forces for Change
- Policies and Priorities
Arts and Culture Overview
The Isle of Wight AONB includes a wealth of history contained within the landscape. These are physical reminders of our past; linked to this are the varied components that gives us our sense of history and define the distinctiveness of both the Island in its entirety and also the different areas within it. In this context we consider that arts and culture reinforce the local distinctiveness and character of the AONB landscape.
More recently the Isle of Wight National Landscape Partnership has encouraged partners to reinforce the connection between the landscape and environment with the people who live there. Projects have included a bid to the Great Place Scheme; helping employ apprentices under the Lift the Lid project; co-ordinating the Creative Biosphere project; supporting the formation of the Island Collection (now Creative Island); contributing to Supporting Young Minds and Biosphere in the Bays project. We believe this effort has helped the Isle of Wight being recognised as a priority area for the Arts Council.
This topic acknowledges the important role of dialect, customs, folklore and fable, people, writers, artists and landmarks. It is also about the communal and individual importance of landscape to people. This is a more ephemeral appreciation of the sense of belonging to the area. Change is part of the story of Isle of Wight AONB, and we need to capture past influences and embrace new stories.
The Isle of Wight AONB has been and continues to be a source of inspiration to people who have expressed this through writing, art, sculpture and more latterly photography and film. This has led to associations of notable individuals with the Isle of Wight National Landscape such as Lord Alfred Tennyson, Julia Margaret Cameron, John Keats, Joseph Turner, Algernon Swinburne and J.B. Priestley. Other residents and visitors from Robert Hooke, Guglielmo Marconi, John Nash and in particular Queen Victoria and her entourage have contributed to the story of the Isle of Wight National Landscape, often also leaving their mark on their landscape (Tennyson monument, Dimbola House, Hooke Hill, Osborne House, Marconi memorial, John Nash designed buildings).
These associations were celebrated through the West Wight Landscape Partnership (2008 – 2013) with walks and trails highlighting the life and work of Robert Hooke and the ‘Freshwater Circle’ including Tennyson, Charles Dodgeson, William and Helen Allingham, Edward Lear, G F Watts, Charles Darwin and Julia Cameron. The Down to the Coast Landscape Partnership (2015 -2020) also highlighted the work of artists from the late eighteenth century to the modern-day such as Turner, Brannon, Daniell, Barth, King, Vickers, Gray, Kirkpatrick, Gregory, Cooper, Tomkins, Carrick, Cooke, Knowler, Richens and Samuelson who have all produced landscape paintings inspired by the Isle of Wight AONB and coast.
More recently the arts and culture scene has become more vibrant on the Isle of Wight with the creation of the Creative Island organisation (previously Island Collection) and the work of the Creative Development Network (with over 100 artists and growing) and Cultural Education Partnership. The Ventnor Fringe Festival and other local events highlight the work of local artists and performers as well as attracting celebrated people from off the Island. These developments have been reinforced with the award by the Arts Council National Portfolio grants to three more local arts and creative organisations.
This topic is, of course, intrinsically linked with the Historic Environment and heritage. However, we have separated the two to reflect the statutory basis for the management and protection of the historic environment as against the less formal context for arts and culture issues.
Key Facts and Figures
The Local Heritage List also records locally important places (parks and gardens) and other heritage assets which have been acknowledged by the local community as being of significance and importance.
Nine hundred works of art featuring the Isle of Wight were exhibited at the Royal Academy or other significant London exhibitions in the nineteenth century.103
Landscape Partnership Schemes on both West and East Wight have sought to capture oral history, experiences and stories and complement the previous ‘All Our Stories’ project which captured stories from people during the celebration of fifty years of designation of the AONB from 1963 through to more recent times. The enthusiasm and interest in stories from the farming community was particularly fruitful.
Since 2019 the IW National Landscape has supported:
- Isle of Wight Mardi Gras – 2019 and 2020
- Crossing the Bar – celebration of coastal access – 2022 and 2023
- Relay the Bay 2024
- Cultural Education Partnership conference 2022
- All Along the Riverbank – celebration of IW rivers
- Creative Biosphere – artists and young people project 2022
- Hullabaloo – 2020 and 2021
- Biosphere in the Bays – 2023
- ‘It’s Your Museum’ Project – 2024
Between 2020 and 2023 the IW National Landscape was also a partner in an international project ‘UNESCO Sites Across the Channel’ with Kent NL in the UK , Amorique, and Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Natural Parks in France104.
Sustaining the Landscape
Arts and Culture are a valuable contributor to local distinctiveness. They are individual and collective representations of belonging and emotional responses to the Isle of Wight National Landscapes and the part it has played in people’s lives.
An important factor is educating and interpreting the natural and historic environment to local audiences and visitors through experiential learning such as IW Walking Festival, IW National Landscapes Summer Walks Programme, Forest Schools and cultural activities run by New Carnival Company, Ventnor Exchange, The Common Space and Quay Arts.
The Island has played host to many internationally renowned artists and writers and continues to expand its creative economy by attracting more artists and makers to live here.
The Isle of Wight was a major resource in the development of knowledge of geology and palaeontology in the C17th, C19th and C20th.
The Undercliff was a significant part of the appeal of the Isle of Wight during the Picturesque Movement in art and architecture from the late 18th century.
The Isle of Wight AONB is perceived as quiet, traditional, and safe, with a slower pace of life and high levels of tranquillity. Residents often feel a heightened sense of identity as part of the wider Island community.
Management Influences and Forces for Change
Whilst there are methodologies which include consideration of the contribution of cultural associations to a character of an area (Landscape Character Assessment, HLC and Ecosystems Services) there would seem to be no definitive national policy in relation to this landscape service.
Society is more fluid in that people move around and are less likely to stay all their lives in one place. Conversely an increase in interest in family history and the advent of electronic records and the internet has enabled people from further afield to investigate the history of their ancestors and the areas in which they lived and worked.
The Creative Island105 organisation is a National Portfolio Organisation funded by the Arts Council England, committed to ensure access to cultural activities for everyone on the Island, in order to enjoy and shape the place they live in. The IW National Landscape is an active supporter of this aim.
‘All the Wonder’57 is the Cultural Strategy for the Isle of Wight with a vision that:
‘By 2033, the Isle of Wight will be nationally recognised as a distinctive set of communities with a rich cultural heritage and vibrant creative spirit’.
Creative Island supports the IW Cultural Education Partnership and the IW Creative Network. The Network supports artists and creatives through business support, networking, resources, and profiling. It aims to nurture and inspire, allowing creatives to thrive and become more sustainable.
Policies for Arts and Culture
These policies should be read in conjunction with the overarching objectives for the Isle of Wight AONB as detailed on the welcome and overview page – Isle of Wight National Landscape: Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management Plan 2025-2030 – Isle of Wight National Landscape.
P36 Support initiatives that celebrate the relationship between landscape, its use and people (including place names, stories, folklore, customs)
P37 Support initiatives that promote education and health and well-being in the Isle of Wight AONB.
Priorities for Delivery
- Support arts and culture-based education and health and well-being programmes that reconnect people with the natural world.
- Encourage the celebration of, and access to, the Isle of Wight National Landscape arts and culture through increasing audience development and community engagement.