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.
I’m looking for the stories that don’t necessarily appear in art history books: family memories, anecdotes about Newlyn School artists, stories passed down through generations, details about everyday life, and personal connections to the paintings and the people within them.
I’m equally interested in 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 tiny family story might change the direction of the play. A forgotten detail might open up a new piece of research. A contemporary response to a painting might completely alter the way I understand it.
The project will be led by what we discover together.
I will be updating my progress, new discoveries etc on social media, so please do follow me on Instagram @SaraBodinar or Facebook @theCornishScreenwriter.
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 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 residents will be invited to contribute memories and research, take part in outreach activities and respond to the ideas developing through the project. 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 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.
From paintings to people
The research will bring together archival material, oral history, personal memories and creative responses.
I will be working alongside Newlyn Art Gallery, Newlyn Archive, and Penzance LitFest, as well as local writers, actors and other creative practitioners.
The stories and information gathered through the project will, where appropriate and with contributors’ permission, help create new resources for the Newlyn Archive.
Theatre gives me a way to bring those different voices together.
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.
Be part of the journey
I’m particularly keen to hear from anyone with a connection to the Newlyn School or to Newlyn itself.
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 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.
That’s what I’m interested in finding out.
All contributions will be credited, and nothing will be shared or used without the contributor’s permission.
If you have a story, memory, photograph, piece of research or personal connection you’d like to share, please get in touch.
Golow Lulynn is a project about looking at Newlyn’s artistic past – but listening to the people who are still here.
Please email me in the first instance to find out when I’ll next be there, or drop a note into the main desk. I will be at the gallery often, but not every week.
Actors, directors and dramaturgs in West Cornwall, please get in touch if this project is of interest. The plan is that there will be an R&D around Easter 2027 (with an audience) and a performance at the end of the Summer 2027.
Writing, theatre and creative engagement
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.
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 marvellous Penzance Litfest this year.
Find out more about the writing workshops
If you’d like to be kept informed of any additional workshops that I may be adding to the schedule, or you’d like to find out about any West Cornwall revelations that come up, please contact me to receive my monthly newsletter.
Why me?
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.
Why now?
A significant collection of Newlyn School art will be touring the UK over the next 2 years. It’s having a moment! I’m very excited to be involved. Come and be part of the story by following the project on social media, subscribing to the newsletter and sharing your own stories of Newlyn.
