The Lodestar Project

The LodestarProject is a multi-component research output produced by David Moore and Kate Davis. The output is comprised of 8 illustrations for a poetry pamphlet, a multi-media installation, a live event, an exhibition and a set of designed ‘advertising’ materials including badges, flyers, banners, 3 billboard-size images and 3 films. The output explored the cultural history
of the iconic Lodestar nightclub in Ribchester, Lancashire (1960–1984), and its legendary owner Margo Grimshaw (1928–). The Lodestar Project was commissioned by Andrew Grimshaw, a Ribchester local who had worked at the club and was the son of its owner. It was funded by Blackburn Chamber of Commerce, Blackburn and Darwen County Council and The Bureau Centre for the Arts, Blackburn. The output centered around a group of 8 illustrations that combined images made by Moore and Davis with poems written by the British poet Mark Ward in response to oral testimonies given by Margo Grimshaw. These were published as a poetry pamphlet titled Portrait in Black. A selection of these works was exhibited at The Bureau Centre for the Arts, Blackburn, 3–29 September 2017. The images were also developed and disseminated across Blackburn and Burnley as billboard prints, advertising banners, flyers and badges. Moore and Davis produced a short film, Lodestar (Space Odyssey), which they projected on the large digital screen at Blackburn Rovers football ground on 29 April 2017. This reached a mass audience in excess of 56,000. The output was thus disseminated through a variety of techniques that reflected modes of popular advertising which the club itself would have used in its day. This area of Lancashire has low levels of cultural engagement and as such, the research was an experiment in encouraging cultural participation by re-activating local history.