Creative Communities special series - PART 02: DUDLEY
Welcome to the second blog post celebrating our Creative Communities strand of work that includes a project highlight and a podcast that we are releasing every Wednesday throughout September.
Project name: ‘Go & See’ to Black Country Living Museum
Group: Women’s Discovery Group (Top Church Training)
Dates: September 2023
Location: Black Country Living Museum, Dudley
The wonderful Women’s Discovery Group, which is hosted by Top Church Training in Dudley, meet every Wednesday at Harry’s Café in Brierley Hill. They decided to apply to Creative Communities for a ‘Go & See’ to visit the Black Country Living Museum. Something that the group unanimously wanted to experience and somewhere totally new to all participants.
With the support of Laura, Creative Black Country’s Creative Advisor for Dudley, their expression of interest was successful and this enabled the group to go ahead with their visit in September 2023. The successful expression of interest meant that the group were gifted seed money to cover the costs of travel to Black Country Living Museum, entry tickets and even a small amount to treat them to lunch!
The group members really enjoyed taking photos, telling each other stories and bonding during their day out. This particular group loves history and because they are all living in the Black Country, they felt that it was nice to see the historic buildings at BCLM and learn more about the area using creative methods such as storytelling and photography.
The ‘Go & See’ was so inspiring to the group it fed into their Women’s Discovery Group’s Heritage Day Event which was held on Saturday 16th September. The public were invited to join them at Harry’s Café and encouraged to get creative by making cards with the photos that the participants had taken on the day of their visit.
One participant shared that she thought it was a: “very enjoyable day…The venue was accessible to all that attended, and I got plenty out of my time at the venue. I hope that there will be other events in the pipeline. Many thanks for supporting the group.”
Tahira, who is the Projects and Volunteers co-ordinator at Top Church said that collaborating with Creative Black Country “had been great and the trip was enjoyed by all”. She adds that the ‘Go and See’ was beneficial to building confidence of all of the participants “by learning about the history, looking back at memories of how they used to live, sharing stories and taking photos to share”.
FEEL INSPIRED?
If you feel inspired by what you have read or heard and have an idea (or seeds of an idea) for a co-created project in your community get in touch with the Creative Adviser in your area.
Dudley - Laura@creativeblackcountry.co.uk
Sandwell - Richard@creativeblackcountry.co.uk
Walsall - Richard@creativeblackcountry.co.uk
Wolverhampton - Nelson@creativeblackcountry.co.uk