BILL'S ATTIC

Bill Mitchell, Artistic Director of WildWorks and Kneehigh, died on Good Friday 2017 at the peak of his powers. Thousands of people witnessed his wonderful gifts in shows like Tregeagle, The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Souterrain , Wolf's Child, Tristan and Yseult and The Passion. Hundreds had the delight of working with him as artists and volunteers.

His Attic was Bill’s private creation space, every WildWorks project had its seeds sown here. The shows and projects are what Bill is best remembered for. But they are the tip of a treasure house of artworks - installations, books of collage, drawings, paintings, writing. And a mesmerising collection of artefacts that he used to provoke his imagination and creativity, a loose-parts-playkit of raw materials, imagery, toys, found objects, archaeology, taxidermy, bones, sea flotsam...

Next winter it will be re-homed at Krowji, Redruth, in a beautiful old stone building in the midst of the artists’ studios. This much bigger space will allow artists and arts companies to be inspired, play, and make new work in response to Bill’s collection and his radical creativity.

You can get a glimpse of Bill's Attic in the magical film made by Chris Morris - 'A Different Place'

I am working with photographer Steve Tanner and digital artist Scott Fletcher to record as much as we can of the space, the artworks, the artefacts, the boxes and their contents before it is dismantled and re-framed. We will turn these files into a fully accessible online experience. Anyone visiting the site will be able to fly into the Attic, hover like a hummingbird, be curious, explore, open boxes, find artworks that have been provoked by the Attic and see glimpses of Kneehigh and WildWorks projects related to the collection.

We are applying to the Arts Council for help, but we need to raise a minimum of £15,000 initially to match the Arts Council bid and to fund the relocation. So I’m inviting people who knew Bill, and loved him and his work, to help me with this.

This idea was formed in the last week of Bill’s life. He was thrilled to think that his strange and beautiful collection might go on to inspire other artists…