Internationally recognised arts festival returns to Portland

Portland welcomes a variety of “unique” artists for the 11th anniversary of B-Side Festival

Author: Jamie GuerraPublished 19th Mar 2023

An internationally recognised arts festival will return to Portland this year with artists from all around the world set to appear.

The B-Side Art Festival will celebrate the unique heritage and culture on the Island, as well as explore the interesting people and mythologies associated with the land.

Driven by a community of creative locals, B-Side will showcase the talents of those from Portland’s shores and beyond.

Global artists return to Portland year on year to study this distinctive part of the UK and celebrate the landscape and heritage sites through their art.

In its 11th year, the B-Side Festival focuses on ‘The Land’ of Portland. Rocca Holly Nambi, the Director of B-Side, says: “The theme is an awareness of the challenges of climate change and how that impacts a small island community.

“But it’s also a celebration of community to meet those challenges and visualised through art on what we can do.”

The people on Portland have been working alongside commissioned artists to truly understand how residents can protect and preserve things on the Island, as well as imagine what the future holds for natural and built heritage sites on the Isle of Portland.

Rocca Holly-Nambi said: “Portland is unique to tell that story because it’s quarried in land but it’s also being battered by waves on the outside, so there’s this amazing visual of the island getting smaller due climate change.”

She added: “I love that one of the responses to our landscape changing is a creative one. How can we work on an issue together and is visually engaging way to represent these changes?”

The two heritage sites at the heart of this year’s festival is the remaining area of original Portland landscape at Portland Bill and the ruins of a Tudor cottage, Brandy Row on the seafront at Chiswell.

This year, the four commissioned artworks will focus on these “fragile and unique” at-risk sites, delving into the history and heritage of Portland’s land.

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