A year of art, storytelling and theatre
What happens when a community becomes the subject of someone else’s art?
The Newlyn School gave us some of the most enduring images of life in West Cornwall: fishermen, children, women at work, the harbour, the landscape and the everyday life of a small Cornish community. But behind those paintings are people whose lives have largely been recorded through somebody else’s eyes.
Golow Lulynn is an attempt to look again and ask new questions (whilst celebrating our shared rich Newlyn School art heritage)
From October 2026 to July 2027, I will be the writer-in-residence at Newlyn Art Gallery, exploring the Newlyn School through research, community stories, creative writing and theatre. The project will culminate in the development of a new play about the artists, the people they painted and the complicated relationship between them.
There are plenty of stories about artists and their muses. I’m interested in what happens when the muse is an entire community.
Who gets to tell the story of a place?
I grew up in Newlyn and Penzance, so this isn’t simply an historical subject for me. Newlyn is part of my own story, as well as being the subject of generations of artists.
I want to explore the relationship between the artist and the community being represented, as well as the power that comes with deciding how other people’s lives are seen and remembered.
But I don’t want to answer those questions from a distance. A major part of Golow Lulynn will be listening to the people who live in, come from, and feel connected to Newlyn.
Perhaps you have a story your grandmother told you. A family photograph. A memory of a particular artist. A connection to somebody who appears in one of the Newlyn School paintings. Or perhaps you simply have something to say about what Newlyn means to you now.
You don’t have to be an art historian, a writer or an artist. You don’t even have to know whether your story is relevant.
Have you got family stories about the Newlyn School artists?
Did your parents / grandparents know any of the Newlyn School artists? Have they got a story about them? Would you like to contribute to the project and perhaps even influence the story the play will tell? Here’s how you can get involved with your Newlyn School story.
How do you feel about the Newlyn School paintings?
I’m equally interested in your opinions about Newlyn today.
How does it feel to live in a place that has been so extensively represented by artists? Do those paintings feel like an accurate reflection of the community? Do they make you feel connected to Newlyn’s history – or perhaps disconnected from it?
A contemporary response to a painting might completely alter the way I understand it. If you live in Newlyn and you’d like to offer your personal response to the paintings here’s how to send your thoughts on Newlyn School art
Making something with the community
I want Golow Lulynn to be made with the community, rather than simply being a project about it.
I will also be working with local charities and community groups, particularly those supporting people who don’t always feel that galleries, theatre or the wider arts are spaces for them.
Local writers, actors and theatre practitioners will also be involved in the creative process, helping to turn the research into something that can ultimately live on stage.
There will also be opportunities for audiences to encounter the work as it develops, from research and development through to performance.
I want people to feel that this is part of their artistic heritage – not something being taken from the community and turned into a story somewhere else.
Casting actors from West Cornwall
The plan is that there will be a work in progress sharing around Easter 2027 (with an audience) and a scratch performance at the end of the Summer 2027.
If you’re an actor based in West Cornwall and you’re interested in potentially being cast in the production – please email me in the first instance.
How can writers get involved?
Alongside the wider research and development of Golow Lulynn, I will be running creative writing workshops at Newlyn Art Gallery throughout the residency.
These workshops will provide opportunities for local writers to develop their own creative work while engaging with some of the ideas at the heart of the project: art, place, memory, identity and the stories we inherit. I will also be offering participants an opportunity to get involved with contributing towards the creation of the play.
You’ll be in safe hands. I’m currently an Honorary Fellow in the Drama Department at the University of Nottingham (lecturing on writing scripts and prose) and I also lead the weekly Writers Room workshops at the award-winning Nottingham Playhouse Theatre. I was also lucky enough to give a workshop at the fantastic Penzance Litfest this year.
Find out more about the writing workshops
Why me? Why this project?
My connection to the Newlyn School of Art is both personal and lifelong. I am a distant cousin of Gertrude Harvey (née Bodinnar), a Newlyn School artist and the wife of the celebrated Cornish painter Harold Harvey. Growing up in Newlyn and Penzance, with deep family roots in West Cornwall, I have always felt a strong connection to the artists, stories and landscapes that have shaped this remarkable artistic community.
My fascination with the Newlyn School artists began when I was a child. I remember being taken on an Alverton Primary School class trip to see Elizabeth Forbes’ painting School is Out. Someone pointed out the impossible shadow cast by the covered window, and I it was like discovering a delicious secret. I was hooked — on stories, on paintings, and on the way art can make you look at the familiar world with fresh eyes.
That early love of art stayed with me. I was hugely encouraged by the St Ives artist John Piper, who was my art teacher at Mounts Bay School. Later, Martin Val Baker took a leap of faith and exhibited my first paintings in his gallery in Penzance. Those experiences gave me the confidence to pursue my own creative path.
Today, my work is also shaped by more than 15 years as a professional screenwriter and playwright. Storytelling has always been at the heart of what I do, whether I am writing for the stage and screen or exploring the people, places and history of Cornwall through painting.
I am fascinated not only by the paintings themselves, but by the stories behind them; the artists, their families, their communities and the Cornish landscape that inspired them.
For me, exploring Newlyn art and Cornish artistic heritage is a way of connecting past and present: bringing together family history, storytelling and a lifelong love of painting.
Who else is involved?
Newlyn Art Gallery is hosting the Golow Lulynn project, and it is in dialogue with Penlee Gallery‘s current Newlyn School exhibition.
With research and marketing support from Penzance LitFest, Morrab Library and Newlyn Archive
You can meet the Golow Lulynn team here
Responsible handling of any information you give us
All contributions will be credited, and nothing will be shared or used without the contributor’s permission.
Your contribution may influence the story of the play. Your quote may be used verbatim in an academic paper. We will ensure that the process if handling the information you give us is completely transparent and that we have your permission to use it in a responsible manner.
Be part of the journey
The research will bring together archival material, oral history, personal memories and creative responses. Theatre gives me a way to bring those different voices together.
Golow Lulynn is a project about looking at Newlyn’s artistic past – but listening to the people who are still here.
A painting can show us a moment. An archive can give us a name and a date. A family story can give us a feeling. A play can allow all three to speak to each other.
I’m particularly keen to hear from anyone with a connection to the Newlyn School or to Newlyn itself.
If you have a story, memory, photograph, piece of research or personal connection you’d like to share, please get in touch.
I will be updating my progress, new discoveries etc on social media, so please do follow me on Instagram @SaraBodinar or Facebook @theCornishScreenwriter.
