Life on the Edge has partnered with the National Trust at Wembury Beach to raise awareness of the impact of water quality on biodiversity as part of their Wembury Stream Resilience Project. An arts trail of 8 large dragonfly sculptures created from marine-ply by a local devon artist, Annie, at Laser + Grain, and have been painted by community groups local to the Wembury area and then installed throughout the meadow alongside an interpretation board  to inform visitors about water quality and the vital species in the area that are affected.

On a summer day last year, Sam, Community and Volunteering Co-ordinator at National Trust South Devon, attended the Wembury Summer Fair with a stall to inform local residents about the planned project. Alongside this, she ran a competition for children to colour a design for one of the dragonflies. The competition was also sent out to Wembury primary school students and was available to Wembury Marine Centre visitors.

In October, the winner, Ollie B, proudly attended a session in which they got to be the very first to paint one of the incredible dragonfly sculptures. Since then, we’ve seen seven more come to life. In a multitude of ways, these pieces of artwork now represent the wonderful people and organisations that have been involved in bringing them to fruition. Groups have approached the task with energy, passion, and a sense of fun, and in doing so, have produced wonderful contributions to our trail, as well as having enjoyed a creative painting workshop and a social and/or peer support opportunity. The value of mindfully enjoying a craft with others, shouldn’t be underestimated.

In November, a LotE Devon Mind group based in Wembury painted ‘Darter’, their beautifully painted sculpture with themes around the wellbeing benefits of being out in nature. Individuals came to take part, and over the course of the session they worked incredibly well together, becoming a group.

In January, the Monday Club of Dementia-friendly Parishes around the Yealm, supported by LotE, enjoyed their painting workshop so much we had to schedule another one the following month! Most recently, a group of Adult Carers in Modbury used luminous colours on their dragonfly called ‘Joy’, in an effort to express their summery optimism. Other groups that took part were: Plymstock School KS3 Art Team, 1^st Wembury Scout Group, Coombe Dean KS4 Afterschool Art Club, and National Trust and Wembury Marine Centre Volunteers. Huge thanks to you all.

With painting now complete, the art trail was installed by the wonderful National Trust volunteers at Wembury Beach. Huge thanks to them all for their help, which went way beyond installation. Saturday 28^th March saw the launch of the trail on a glorious sunny Spring morning, just in time for the Easter holidays.

What a pleasure to see so many people join us for the unveiling! 60+ people packed into the Marine Centre to hear Sam Barnes and Stuart Riddle, LotE Community Officer, talk about the project, its hopes and the wonderful engagement it has already enjoyed. Everyone then followed the trail and enjoyed each of the new sculptures in turn, appreciating the huge amount of love that had gone into each design. Attendees were impressed by the variety of ideas and inspiration that each group took, and many comments on the day celebrated how wonderful it was that such a diversity of groups were involved.

The trail will be in place at Lower Mill Meadow throughout the Spring, Summer and Autumn, so do come down to Wembury Beach to enjoy it. There’s even an Explorer’s Challenge sheet for children – Dragonfly explorer trail at Wembury | National Trust .

We hope you enjoy it, and even learn a little about our amazing landscape. For more information, drop in to the Marine Centre, or email [email protected].

LotE is in its second year of a five-year project. To find out more see: Life on the Edge.