By Dan Thompson
Cardboard models of Ramsgate buildings are wanted by a national project that’s asking for creative ideas about the future of the High Street.
Public art and design studio Mooch is running Our Model High Street as part of a four-year-long Cultural Programme led by Historic England, in partnership with Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Mooch is asking people in Ramsgate, and in Ryde on the Isle of Wight, to imagine new uses for iconic high street buildings. People who want to participate can download templates of local buildings, design new shopfronts, and colour them in. The buildings will later be added to a giant map of the island of ‘Rydesgate’ which will be displayed in empty shops in Ramsgate and Ryde.
Mooch are based in Ramsgate. Creative Director Theresa Smith said: “Our Model High Street will link the seaside resort towns of Ramsgate and Ryde on the Isle of Wight. The project will create scaled versions of key buildings in both high streets and invite residents to re-imagine and design them for display in an exhibition over the Summer season.”
The £7.4 million Cultural Programme is part of the £95 million High Streets Heritage Action Zone initiative, which is currently working across 68 English high streets. Ramsgate is home to not one, but two Heritage Action Zones.
The programme is funded with £40 million from the Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport’s Heritage High Street Fund, £52 million from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Future High Streets Fund, and a further £3 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
For more information about Our Model High Street and to find the templates, visit www.mooch.co.
