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Costume students bring Dartmoor folklore to life
Wednesday, 30 October, 2024 — BA (Hons) Costume Production students have collaborated with artist and writer Ethan Pennell, bringing illustrations from his Dartmoor Folklore Map to life.
<p dir="ltr">BA (Hons) Costume Production students have collaborated with artist and writer <a href="https://ethanpennell.com/">Ethan Pennell</a>, who works as a Student Wellbeing Advisor & Counsellor at Arts University Plymouth, bringing illustrations from his Dartmoor Folklore Map to life for an exhibition of costume and storytelling at <a href="https://fieldsystem.co.uk/">Field System</a> in Ashburton, on the edge of Dartmoor.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Four performances bringing the Dartmoor Folklore Map to life will take place on <a href="https://wegottickets.com/fieldsystem#">Saturday 2 November</a>, offering a perfectly macabre experience to celebrate Halloween in Devon.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Seven years in the making, Ethan Pennell’s <a href="https://ethanpennell.com/the-dartmoor-folklore-map">Dartmoor Folklore Map</a> is a moorland guide to the world of ghosts, pixies, the devil, witches, legends, strange phenomena and more, based on research into the myths and legends of Dartmoor, home to Dartmoor National Park, on the northern boundary of Plymouth.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Our <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-costume-production">BA (Hons) Costume Production</a> students worked from Ethan’s original illustrations for the map of folklore, interpreting costumes based on the stories of eight legendary Dartmoor women and witches. Dressed in these ghoulish costumes, the students will participate in four 30-minute performances that include live tableaux and storytelling around the art galleries and studios of Field System.<br /></p>
'Lady in Black' by Ethan Pennell
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://wegottickets.com/fieldsystem#">Tickets are for sale online</a>, with 100% of the ticket price going towards the costs of the BA (Hons) Costume Productions end-of-year Graduate Shows 2025 exhibition. Every year students from across Arts University Plymouth fundraise towards their final shows, extending the reach of their work and enabling students to create work that represents the culmination of their studies and creative practices to date.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Field System is a new gallery, print workshop and shop located in Ashburton, on the south-eastern edge of Dartmoor National Park. The gallery is a home for considered works of art, made by active artists, many of whom are influenced and informed by myth and folklore, or who are engaged in the creation of new and inclusive folk traditions.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-costume-production">BA (Hons) Costume Production</a> at Arts University Plymouth offers a fresh approach to the study of design, realisation, and construction for costume. Working from classic and contemporary texts, music, and storytelling, students will become skilled at producing bespoke costumes for a range of performance genres, whether for stage, screen, or live action events.<br /><br />Our students have contributed to acclaimed productions like BBC's 'Poldark', ‘EastEnders’ and their Diamond Jubilee Parade, as well as Netflix’s ‘Bridgerton’. They have also worked behind the scenes of smash hit touring productions of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, Matthew Bourne’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘The Bank Robbery That Went Wrong’. This course encompasses cultural and historical contexts for costume, enabling students to create costumes for public exhibitions and commissions from heritage societies including the National Trust and The Box, Plymouth.<br /></p>