Our School. A film about Narberth's Old School.

Aim

Were going to make a film about Narberth's relationship with the old school involving ex pupils, staff, teachers and residents.

Our School is a community based film project set up by Friends of Narberth Old School 

With the aim to produce a film celebrating the communities memories of the school and to show the film alongside an exhibition of original art work created by ex pupils and others within the wider community.

                     Our Story

Friends of Narberth Old School (FoNOS) was set up in 2017 to campaign to save the Victorian school building on Moorfield Road. We are a group of Narberth residents who really believed the Old School was worth fighting for.

                             Here are some of us looking a bit daft

After many years of campaigning and working with Pembrokeshire County Council, The Narberth Consortium was formed from members of FoNOS and they were able to purchase the school site, in the process preventing the demolition of the Victorian building.

                     HURRAH!

One of the conditions for this purchase was that a new library and community space was provided by the consortium for FoNOS to facilitate library services in Narberth (replacing the current library on St James Street), as well as a community space for public use.

FoNOS are delighted to say that the work on the old school site is now under way and once the build is completed, the new library/community space will be named The Rainbow Room with reference to the huge rainbow that was painted onto the old school building during the first Covid lockdown by Narberth’s Rainbow Fairy.

When the new build Rainbow Room Library is handed over to FoNOS (under the banner of Narberth Old School Trust), it will be an empty shell, we therefore need to fundraise to fit out the space. This will include all things from internal walls, heating and facilities, right down to carpets, painting and door handles!

                         So, what are we doing?

Well, during our time campaigning and talking to local residents it has become increasingly apparent that there are hundreds of fantastic memories associated with the old school within the community of ex pupils, staff and teachers, as well as the wider community. FoNOS have realized it would be a great idea and an ideal opportunity, to collect and catalogue these memories to retain them for the future and give a voice to the community. And what better way to do this than by making a film and holding an exhibition?

This is how Our School came about…we want to produce a film and an exhibition of art and memories to share with the community and preserve for future generations. This is where this crowd funder comes in!

                  And here we are!

We hope to raise £2,000+ through this crowd funding project and will use this money to pay for the making of the film Our School, and, any we have left over will go towards the fit out and decorating of the Rainbow Room. Once the rainbow Room is up and running there will be a film preview and an exhibition also entitled Our School. 

We are inviting ex pupils, staff, parents and teachers and anyone else in the wider community to donate art work inspired by the old school and these pieces will be auctioned off to raise further funds.

                    Be a local hero!

We want the community to get involved with our work to bring Narberth its new Rainbow Room Library and community space, and you can get involved right here, right now be becoming a local hero!

Local heroes who donate and pledge to help with our film will receive exclusive rewards! What's not to like?

We have mugs, postcards and prints with original art work on them for you to choose from; Lloyd the Graffiti's Buddleia, Karen Hilton's versions of the 'Kipper' window, Diana Brook's image of the old school and cute school days images from ex pupil Lily Hughes. 

We also have books from Narberth Museum, lifelong loyalty cards from Hwb Narberth and a fantastic Smart Wellness online course from ex pupil Julia Jones.

The focus of the film will be the communities relationship with Narberth’s old school. 

We are inviting ex pupils, staff and teachers to get involved and using video and photographs we will document these memories as well as recording the work on the site as it progresses.  It is our intention to have an original music score performed and recorded by ex pupils through out the film.

Once the film, Our School is finished we would like to open the idea of original art work inspired by the old school to the wider community and would put a call out to artists to get involved and donate original one off art work to the project.  This could be any medium and size, as long as it is inspired by the old school. Please get in touch if you would like to donate an original art piece, be involved with the film, or if you would like to be filmed sharing your memories!

The second part of Our School project will be the Our School exhibition and art auction.

Once the Rainbow Room Library is complete and the library is open to the public, we aim to hold an exhibition of the original artworks and preview the film, the community will be invited to attend and the original pieces will be auctioned off to raise funds towards to ongoing upkeep of the rainbow Room. 

Have a look at the great rewards we are offering all the local hero's who donate towards Our School film project...from as little as £5 you can really make a difference

Have a listen to this podcast where two of the members of Friends of Narberth Old School explain a little bit more about how we saved the old school and what is happening on the site.

https://planed.libsyn.com/hwb-narberth

    Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!

We really hope you will get involved with Our School either by becoming a local hero and pledging to help make the film or by getting involved and donating art or sharing your memories with us.

You can follow us on Instragram and watch the buildings progress on our facebook page.

This project closed unsuccessfully on 6th July 2021