18 – 29 January • Wednesday to Sunday • 11am – 6pm
LAUNCH PARTY 19 JANUARY 2012  6-9pm

“…We found the parish in an exceedingly demoralized and irreligious state; small in extent, but containing upwards of 1100 inhabitants. The cause of the great iniquity that abounds, must I believe, be traced to thelamentable ignorance of the people, there never having been a Day School in West Coker!”(1)

(1) Correspondence between Mary Penny (of West Coker Rectory) and Queen Adelaide (widow of William IV) in May 1849, leading to the building of the OldSchool Room in West Coker, Somerset.

The Old School Room has been a place of learning, meeting and gathering for over 160 years and this project brings together artists Rebecca Strain and Simon Lee Dicker in a new collaboration which responds to its social history, the building itself and the people associated with it.

After the building’s short life as a school, it became a space for rural, social activities such as discos, whist drives, jumble sales and theatrical performances and it is based on this amalgamation of the celebrations, get togethers, parties, socials and other events that the artists create a new language inspired by the trace of what once was.