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The Dark Store is an exciting new collaborative project between Sarah and writer

Charlotte Oliver. It shines a spotlight on those who would not ordinarily have a chance to share their story: hidden workers from the 19th century up to the present day including the covid era.

The Dark Store is named after the retail distribution centres that cater exclusively to online shopping: places where no members of the public will ever browse.

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Below, you can listen to clips from three of the songs that form part of this hour long radio ballad. You can also see events where you can hear The Dark Store.

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See EVENTS page for latest opportunities to experience The Dark Store.

 

Bandcamp

Listen to 4 full tracks from The Dark Store here: https://thedarkstore.bandcamp.com/

 

More about The Dark Store

 

The Dark Store is an hour long radio ballad: a collection of spoken word and nine original folk songs, highlighting the significance of the hidden labour and lives of essential workers, throughout history to the present day. The project uses historical material: the work of governesses in the 19th century; the herring girls who worked the north-east coast of England, and miners in the 20th century. Contemporary supermarket and dark store workers, a Glaswegian lorry driver, and NHS nurses tell their stories of the covid era.

Writer Clare Shaw speaks of her online writing sessions during lockdown with USDAW workers, in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. An office cleaner tells of her daily essential work. These provide fabric that is worked into poetry, folk music and song by a collaboration of writer Charlotte Oliver and composer Sarah Dew.

We provide a platform where voices are heard. We challenge invisibility; promote respect; applaud the creativity and struggles of those working in ‘the dark’, and disrupt preconceptions of historical forms and folk ballads.

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The Dark Store:

Installed in The Sitwell Library, Woodend Gallery, Scarborough from 11.30am to 4pm, on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th November, 2022. For more information see here: https://www.crescentarts.co.uk/whats_on/event-the-dark-store/

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Premiered at South Square Gallery from Friday 3rd June until 31st July 2022.

See https://southsquarecentre.co.uk/

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Broadcast in full on CAMP radio; 17.06.2022. See http://listen.camp

 

Broadcast in full by Leeds Chapel FM community radio;  20.05.2022.

See https://www.chapelfm.co.uk/

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Further opportunities to hear The Dark Store to be confirmed.

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For information about Charlotte Oliver, see www.charlotteoliver.com

 

For information about Clare Shaw, see www.clareshaw.co.uk/ 

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Supported by Arts Council England; South Square Arts Centre;

Arcade Production Company, Scarborough; Chapel FM.

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Please contact Sarah or Charlotte for further information.

Birds of Heart and Sky came about through a love of birds. It is a radio ballad: a collection of emotive audio works, songs, compositions and field recordings celebrating a selection of birds currently on the Red List of most vulnerable birds in the UK. This audio installation was created to help raise awareness and promote more public support to help increase bird populations. It is a suite of songs illuminating puffins, turtle doves, curlews, skylarks and cuckoos; linked by sound art, field recordings and spoken word. It includes printed text to give further information on the birds, also enabling hearing impaired audience members to fully access the lyrics.

Music, lyrics and sounds are composed, recorded and produced by me,  Scarborough composer/songwriter Sarah Dew with recorded contributions from guest singers and other field recordists. 

 

The project was installed at Hull University as part of ‘This Is Hull’ week. In July, 2024, it received great acclaim when it was installed with dramatic and atmospheric lighting at St Mary’s Church, Scarborough as part of Scarborough Art.

It is endorsed by the RSPB. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birds of Heart and Sky will be installed with ambient lighting, in beautiful churches, in collaboration with the North York Moors Arts and Culture partnership; part of the North York Moors National Park Beacon for the Arts Festival, 2025. See the Events page for more details.

Also see northyorkmoors.org.uk/artsfestival

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