Creative Black Country supports 20 new projects that respond to creativity in the time of Coronavirus
#PosterPositivity Feed by Fokawolf
Creative Black Country have supported 20 new projects that respond to creativity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Over £30,000 of commissions has been handed to projects across the Black Country to help communities stay creative, learn new skills, and keep connected.
The Creative Connections Commissions programme has been designed to respond to the current crisis with community groups, artists and organisations taking on the challenge.
Creative Director of Creative Black Country Jenny Smith said:
"We knew that people were struggling at home to find creative pursuits, engage children, and keep connected so we put a call out across the Black Country to see what ideas people might have.
Creative Connections is a new strand of work that has been developed to support creativity across the Black Country during these extraordinary times. Each project has been chosen by a panel of people from the Black Country and includes a wide variety of ideas that will take place both online and offline, in specific areas and across the whole region.
We’re delighted by the diversity of ideas that people came up with and hope that lots of people will join in."
Some of the projects are underway with others due to start. They include creative projects sent direct to your door. Ceramic Rainbow Kits have been designed by Stourbridge-based Sazs Ceramics, while artist Caitriona Dunnett is inviting families to take part in the oldest form of photography with her Sun Prints project.
Football fans are being invited to chronicle West Bromwich Albion’s League championship-winning season of 1919/20. Jack and Harry Trow are asking people to make and submit short video clips of a goal being scored from the confines of their locked-down homes. The submitted footage will then be edited together to make a ‘re-enacted’ highlights reel of the Albion’s victorious season for the 100 Years Ago and 100 Yards Away project.
Black Country Arts Council are working with the Black Country Foodbank to distribute arts and crafts kits to over 200 families, and Walsall Creative Factory are creating physical and on-line printable packs and resources that the local community can access.
Corridor of Colour by Luke Perry
Sculptor Luke Perry is getting his Wollaston neighbours involved with a Corridor of Colour that will see bunting with positive messages hung across his street and the High Street.
Poet Rick Sanders, with the help of CoLab Dudley, is inviting Dudley residents to join an 8-week writing course to share stories of isolation. Black Country trio Poets, Prattlers and Pandemonialists are asking people to Stay Up Your Own End using Facebook to reach people and create new pieces of creative writing about different areas or aspects of the Black Country.
Performance artist Hannah Taylor is using the official government NHS letter (which states that the safest course of action is; ‘To stay at home at all times and avoid all face-face contact for at least twelve weeks from today,’) to produce a series of videos by people in Wolverhampton who were identified as at risk of severe illness.
Profoundly deaf streetdance artist Billy Read from Walsall is joining forces with a Hong Kong based Hip Hop dancer to produce a set of new dance videos to inspire young hard of hearing people to video their own dance moves for a collaborative video. While deaf comedian and writer Rinkoo Barpaga is interviewing people from the deaf community to share stories of their social distancing experiences.
Fairytales will be retold by households using the increasingly popular video conferencing platform Zoom with participants being directed by the team from Fizzog Community Trust.
Illustrator Fokawolf is using his notoriety for good causes by sharing the wonderful window art that has been adorning the streets over the last 8 weeks and hosting a series of talks.
Projects can be accessed by visiting creativeblackcountry.co.uk to find out more information and get involved in the projects.