Creative Connections was created to share creativity during lockdown and social distancing. The commissioned projects for Spring 2021 were selected by a community panel and are now either underway or complete.

The call out for the commissions was for socially distanced/lockdown activities that could bring fun, joy and creativity to local people in the Black Country and keep them connected. 17 projects were selected and you can find out more about each one below.

Creative Connections Commissions 2021 have been supported by Paycare and Black Country Living Museum.

Please note that there will be a NEW round of commissions announced shortly.


2021 PROJECT COMMISSIONS THAT ARE BLACK COUNTRY WIDE


Yam Cams image courtesy of Jay Mason-Burns

Yam Cams image courtesy of Jay Mason-Burns

Yam Cams - Tom Hicks
https://www.instagram.com/theyamcams/
Yam Cams was a participatory photography project that aimed to inspire the public to photograph everyday life in the four Black Country boroughs of  Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. Via the use of mobile phone cameras, the project encouraged people of the Black Country to take a closer look at their local environment and view it with a fresh eye. Through involvement in the project, participants were introduced to street photography as an artistic practice and shown examples of internationally known photographers who have worked in the Black Country. Participants were invited to submit images throughout the project via email which appeared in an online gallery.
A selection of these images were compiled in the form of a Photobook/Zine to commemorate the project. See more in the blog post here.

Black Country Beat Boxing
Creative Active Lives CIC in Partnership with The Beatbox Collective
Creative Active Lives CIC offered a 6-week course to teach Black Country children aged 9-16 how to beatbox, with the course leading up to them creating their own piece of music. Creative Active Lives CIC partnered with internationally recognised World Beatbox Champions The Beatbox Collective to offer local children the chance to learn from the expert and champion.
The classes were held via Zoom for one hour per week, starting at the beginning of April – and were led by an award winning, official World Beatboxing Champion, Rupert, who has over 15 years workshop experience working with range of abilities, and organisations.
See them in action here.


PROJECTS FOR DUDLEY RESIDENTS

Positive Postcard Packs produced by Holly Grove Art Club

Positive Postcard Packs produced by Holly Grove Art Club

The Positive Postcard
@ruthturnbullartclub
Holly Grove Art Club, in Stourbridge delivered a number of creative workshops (adhering to social distancing and national lockdown rules) to encourage community, engagement, communication and creativity to help to battle isolation and loneliness during these difficult times.
Bringing neighbours and families together, while developing and sharing new skills, workshops included drawing, printing, clay and textiles. Some of these outcomes have been used to decorate the local area.
The Club created postcard packs with a positive message. Each participant got the opportunity to develop their skills, imagination and creativity with simple art techniques; creating a postcard (independently or as part of a zoom workshop) with a positive message to send to a local resident, family member or friend living in the Black Country to spread optimism and creativity. You can see some of the creations here.


Life from our doorstep 
A Joint project by Wordsley Together and
Sion Bree
Life from our doorstep was a photographic competition that aimed to capture an aspect of life during the Pandemic and encourage connection in the community across Wordsley, Stourbridge and neighbouring areas.
As people headed out on their permitted daily walk, they were asked to take a photo of something that had given them joy or they had appreciated. This could be a green space, local park, canal or a more urban setting where nature or wildlife may be found. 
If people were shielding (or not able to physically leave the house) then people could send a photo from their window, doorstep or garden.
Communities were encouraged to take part who do not have a creative background with guidance from the photographers to encourage people to get involved and take a photograph using a camera if they have one or their phone.  “We want to create a communal record and memory of the positive impact that the green spaces in our neighbourhood have had  at this historic time that we can refer to and remember when all restrictions are lifted.” 
Take a look at the Facebook group here.


The Future Beneath My Feet
Woodsetton Art Pottery
Last year The Black County was awarded  UNESCO Global Geopark status on 10th July. This is a splendid achievement of an urban and often overlooked area. “The Black Country is a special place in the heart of England, where the minerals on our doorstep and the geology beneath our feet helped shape the industrial revolution and the world.” Woodsetton Art Pottery is a 5 minutes walk from Wrens Nest Reserve and the potter Lorraine has, for 25 years, taken her inspiration, materials and mineral colours from the ground on which the studio is built. Using the emerging Geopark status to inspire local people and guiding them to use the local clays, fossils and minerals guided workshops will allow people to make a personal and permanent 3 dimensional expression of the land beneath their feet.


Conquérir: Dance to feel fabulous
Asnath Mokeka Losala
Profoundly Deaf professional street dancer, Asnath Losala recruited women from the Black Country, both Deaf and hearing, to take part in closed zoom dance sessions. She focused on health, wellbeing and moves that make you feel fabulous, that you could take to a dance floor post-lockdown. Deaf women traditionally suffer from lack of accessible activities, especially in dance and the arts, and despite a desire to dance, many Deaf women are put off by lack of access and attitudes still prevalent in the wider community that: “Deaf can’t dance.” Asnath hoped that providing accessible workshops, lead in BSL (with a BSL interpreter providing spoken English translation) she could bring Deaf and hearing women together, lead by a strong female role model and professional street dancer.

Alarum Productions - Heather Wastie at site of Stewarts & Lloyds 2021 (Sam Frankie Fox)

Alarum Productions - Heather Wastie at site of Stewarts & Lloyds 2021 (Sam Frankie Fox)


Walking Through Waterways History: Netherton Tunnel to Hawne basin on the Dudley No 2 Canal
Alarum Productions
Alarum produced an audio trail celebrating the Dudley No 2 Canal – based on a three mile walk between the southern portal of Netherton Tunnel and Hawne Basin, an area once lined with industry, including the once huge Stewarts & Lloyds where over 2000 people worked.
They introduced stories of Dudley’s rich history to new audiences in Netherton and Dudley and provided a walk down memory lane for those for whom the canal and those industries are part of their lives in the Black Country.
Listen to the finished piece here.


PROJECTS FOR WOLVERHAMPTON RESIDENTS

Wednesfield Art Map App
Hands On Wednesfield 
Hands On Wednesfield have created the Wednesfield Art Map Mobile App - a mobile web app containing a map of public art in the area, enabling people to discover and visit local works. 
In little over 2 square miles there are at least 36 pieces of art in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton. This includes sculptures, plaques, benches, fences, stonework,  walls and railings. Many works pay tribute to the area’s heritage, referencing subjects as varied as Olympians, Canals, Calligraphers and Vikings! 
The app includes a map plotting all of the local artworks, along with photos and stories of how they came to be and details of who created them. 

Helen Wood - Sewing The Seeds

Helen Wood - Sewing The Seeds


Sowing the Streets
Rudge Wood Horticulture CIC
Rudge Wood Horticulture CIC distributed seeds of corn poppy and corn marigold to create pockets of yellow and red flowers to spread colour and nature amongst the streets and allow local people to connect with nature and each other. 
The group ran seed sowing sessions in a local park and green space with participants being able to help, watch or view as a recorded video clip over social media. They distributed 500 small packets of seeds to local individuals and groups to sow in their own neighbourhoods. 
See their Facebook page here to learn more and see the progress of the flowers.


Exploring gender identity: an aide for parents and teachers 
X2Y
X2Y is a charity based in Wolverhampton who run LGBT youth groups serving all those across the Black Country. The groups offer a safe space for young people to express themselves and their feelings  regarding their gender and sexual identity. 
For their commission they worked with their youth groups and a producer to make a film that will help parents and teachers understand the issues facing young LGBT people. “Because of the current climate of anxiety and isolation at home, our youth workers report a high level of anxiety in the groups at the moment; ‘quite a few are in homes where their families are not supportive of their choices so it’s been extra difficult being isolated’.”

Lost in Isolation
Social Steam Engine Community Association
Participants were given the opportunity to take part in a photographic exhibition on the theme of loss, grief and being forgotten during the pandemic, led and delivered by service users/survivors of secondary mental health services. The Association hoped to encourage participants, especially those from marginalised communities who have been disproportionately impacted by Covid19, to photograph their experience of what they have ‘LOST’.

Life and Science project by the STEM response team

Life and Science project by the STEM response team

Life and Science
STEM Response Team - University of Wolverhampton
‘Life and Science’ aimed to provide free and accessible mutual learning experience to all ages within the local Wolverhampton community through community-based art. Their aim was to raise the community’s aspirations around the Arts and Science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), highlighting their importance and show how they can be fused together.
Life and Science encouraged individuals to think about how STEM has affected their lives and its presence within their community. The project will span several weeks and will be split into two parts. 
The first part of the project was a collection of artistic representations focusing upon the impact of STEM, which were collated across a variety of platforms. In the second part of the project, these representations were interpreted by a local artist to form a stained-glass themed display which was presented at the West Park bandstand (Wolverhampton) for the community to view. 
The bandstand has been chosen to centre the project due to both its STEM significance and communal location; aiming to engage a diverse range of the community within a central and accessible location and reaching those who would not ordinarily seek out to engage with STEM or Art interventions. 


PROJECT FOR SANDWELL RESIDENTS

The Bearwood Tapestry
We Are Bearwood
Local people were invited to help make a tapestry which will be used to decorate the new Bearwood community hub which is being organised by bearwood.cc. Each person made a small panel, tapestry or cross stitch on canvas. The panels have been combined together to make a hanging. The designs were created by the participants using a common theme and colour palette. A kit was created for each person which contained everything needed to make a single rectangle, including printed instructions, so that it was possible to do this without using technology, where possible people were encouraged to join a zoom session with the artist to talk about it at the beginning of the project with zoom coffee mornings to help facilitate the project.
The tapestry will be launched in Bearwood in September.


RC Rhythm Makerz
The Black Country Recovery College
The Recovery College (RC) Rhythm Makerz provided individuals with experience of mental ill health living in Sandwell and Wolverhampton, with an introduction to creating rhythm and music using household and everyday objects that people will find in their homes.  
The RC Rhythm Makerz was a programme of 12, one hour sessions, delivered on a weekly basis. The sessions included how to find and make instruments from household and everyday objects, how to use these instruments to create music, creating music and using these new skills to play virtually as a group of musicians. 


PROJECTS FOR WALSALL RESIDENTS

2 Metres Ap-Art project by Creative Factory CIC

2 Metres Ap-Art project by Creative Factory CIC

2 Metres Ap-Art - Community Portraits Public Art Exhibition
CREATIVE FACTORY CIC
The 2 Meters Ap-Art project was a collection of community portrait images of local people that were developed into a large-scale public Art show in partnership with NHS worker and professional Creative Photographer Ade Wressell.
The project aimed to document and tell the story of a diverse community, to celebrate identity and togetherness during these adverse times.
Creative Factory hosted an outdoor public Art exhibition of around 200 portraits within the neighbourhood of the participants in the Butts area of Walsall.


Down the Arbo – Our Walsall Arboretum
Bostin’ Creative – Arts & Theatre C.I.C
Bostin Creative explored and preserved some Arboretum memories of Walsall locals, (including the vital role it has played during the pandemic), by creating a short film of the park itself.
The film will be narrated by the voices and memories of the local community, whose words will contribute to a piece of spoken word, created to an underscore. Authentic recordings of authentic Walsall voices will be included. These words and recordings will be encouraged, correlated, and structured by Walsall born Writer, Theatre Maker and one of Bostin’s Creative Directors, Emily Summers. Filmmaker Tom Synnott-Bellwill will capture the footage, which will be carefully edited.
Bostin Creative want to ‘artistically investigate and celebrate the heritage and communities of Walsall, and feel the Arboretum, (the heart of the town), is a great place to start. Our film will be  an optimistic, meaningful celebration, to be enjoyed and shared widely online. A reminder that during a time of so much uncertainty, local beauty and consistency can still be found, down the Arbo.’
Take a look at their Facebook page for updated info here.


ABOUT CREATIVE CONNECTIONS
Creative Black Country (CBC) work with communities in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton to explore and develop new creative projects with local people in the places where they live. CBC aim to support communities to co-create new work with us that is relevant, authentic and genuinely participatory for people living in the Black Country. We also offer support to help communities to develop their skills and confidence in building creative and cultural activities*. 

*Our definition of creative and cultural activity is really broad, and includes any opportunities for local people to explore their creativity through any of the following; performing arts, dance, theatre, music, visual arts, painting, sculpture, photography, design, crafts, heritage, museums, literature, poetry, storytelling, film and digital media.

Creative Connections 2021 has been made possible with the support of Paycare and the Black Country Living Museum.

CBC Creative Connections logo strip.png

Got an idea for a community project? This is how CBC might be able to support you.... 

The CBC team are working from home to support creativity in the Black Country and can help you in the following ways: 

  • Connect you with a Creative Adviser who can offer advice on how to get your project started and connect you with other local community groups, organisations, creatives and artists. CBC commissions projects that take place in the community and that are co-created with community. We are unable to ‘fund’ individual artists;

  • Offer advice on how to promote your community project and activity to engage audiences and participation in your area;

  • Connect you with your local voluntary sector council's Development Worker ('DVSC' in Dudley, ‘SCVO’ in Sandwell, ‘WVSC’ in Wolverhampton or ‘One Walsall’ in Walsall) who can offer support on identifying funding opportunities and help you to grow a long-term strategic plan;

Please note that CBC is not a funder - if you are looking for project funding then the Arts Council England offer project grants and support in developing your creative practice.

Creative Advisers in your area - you can get in touch with them direct about your project idea:

Dudley – Laura Dicken laura@creativeblackcountry.co.uk

Sandwell and Walsall – Richard Franks richard@creativeblackcountry.co.uk

Wolverhampton – Nelson Douglas nelson@creativeblackcountry.co.uk

For more information contact Rosalind on 07736 275547 | info@creativeblackcountry.co.uk

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Creative Connections - projects to help us through the lockdown and social distancing

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 is chosen by a panel of people from the Black Country and includes a wide variety of ideas that take place both online and offline, in specific areas and across the whole region.

A new commissioning callout will happen early January 2021. Join the CBC mailing list HERE to find dates and details first.


Creative Connections projects 2020
The projects below took place during the extraordinary year of 2020. Browse through to find out what individuals, small organisations and groups did to engage with communities during the global pandemic.


Welcome to Creative Connections 2022. There were 13 projects chosen by a community panel during this round of commissions. Please see info below on the projects that took place…

WOLVERHAMPTON

PROJECT NAME: #itstartswithameal 50 years of The Good Shepherd
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: The Good Shepherd with Kate Penman
PROJECT OUTLINE: Creation of an immersive sculpture exhibition, open to the wider public, and a print booklet that showcases the work of the Good Shepherd over the past 50 years.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Exhibition took place in March 2022
VENUE: The Good Shepherd, 65 Waterloo Road, Wolverhampton, WV1 4QU

PROJECT NAME: Youth Lab Wolves at BAS9
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: Curiosity Productions
PROJECT OUTLINE: A series of pop-up, drop-in workshop activities within the city centre whilst the British Art Show is being hosted in the city, as part of the Offsite9 programme. The focus of the activity will be exploring how young people can take a creative active role in the future of our city.

PROJECT NAME: Make You Mark
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: Kristina Hall
PROJECT OUTLINE: Make Your Mark explored sensory ways of experiencing place through artistic explorations. Using an ecological approach and a series of site-specific artworks and workshops.
Follow Kristina on Instagram here.


DUDLEY

PROJECT NAME: Discovering the School of Polish Posters Through Print and Poetry
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: Sarah Goudie
PROJECT OUTLINE: Through creative activities a space developed for visual and verbal storytelling for members of the Polish and wider communities creating a vital link to heritage and history. This was also a talk, print and poetry workshops that offered new experiences and skills to a new audience.
VENUE: General Office, Stourbridge

PROJECT NAME: Ekho Collective
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: Ekho Collective
PROJECT OUTLINE: A programme of storytelling and craft sessions at Hawbush Community Gardens.
VENUE: Hawbush Community Gardens, Brierley Hill
Follow Ekho Collective on Instagram.

PROJECT NAME: Elemental. Community Crafting Project
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: Lucy Atherton, Friends of Saltwells Nature Reserve
PROJECT OUTLINE: The Friends group will lead and develop free art and craft activities to engage the community, to encourage them to access all that the Nature Reserve has to offer, to have fun whilst doing this and to have a reminder of their visit to take home. The Friends group already runs conservation work parties and walks around the reserve, and wish for more people to feel that they can be involved with these activities and develop new knowledge and skills.
VENUE: Saltwells Nature Reserve, Dudley
Visit the Friends of Saltwells Nature Reserve on Facebook.

PROJECT NAME: Feel the Beat ...and Breathe
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: Beat it Percussion (working with CHADD , Dudley)
PROJECT OUTLINE: In this pilot project, each of the three main Dudley sites will be offered three different Beat It workshops. One each of the Interactive Percussion Workshops, Soundbath, and Creative Soundscape.
FURTHER INFORMATION: February - June
VENUES: CHADD, Dudley - the Churches Housing Association of Dudley and District

PROJECT NAME: Glass and Giggles
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: Kate Figgit, Museums Access and Learning Culture, Leisure & Bereavement Services - Museums Regeneration & Enterprise Dudley Council
PROJECT OUTLINE: Members of the museums learning team will visit each school in the Pentagon group, lead or tag a staff meeting where participants can get creative. School staff are invited to create something from glass. The session will take place in the school hall and all staff invited to attend. During the hour long session all participants will be encouraged to chat and make a piece of fused glass which will be theirs to keep.
FURTHER INFORMATION: March - July
VENUE: TBC



SANDWELL

PROJECT NAME: Coffee and Cameras
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: North Smethwick Development Trust
PROJECT OUTLINE: This new project is designed to encourage adult novice, amateur and professional photographers who share a passion for photography and creativity. The sessions will run every Monday evening between 6:30pm and 8:00pm and engage with approximately 50 people over the course of the project. The project will encourage participants to discover and interact with the local natural environment, socialise with other photographers and local people and learn how to take good quality images and learn how to get the most out of their cameras and editing software.
FURTHER INFORMATION: 7th Feb - 26th Sept
VENUE: North Smethwick Development Trust, Brasshouse Community Centre, Brasshouse Lane, Smethwick, B66 1BA
Visit the North Smethwick Development Trust’s website here.

PROJECT NAME: The Listening Ball
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: Amelia Hawk
PROJECT OUTLINE: The Listening Ball is a tool made through a workshop with a loved one (or someone you care about / for). The workshop is for small groups (socially distanced) to work with the person they have brought to the workshop (their friend, mother, carer, son, etc). Each pair is given a clay ball and access to a series of tools and materials. Through the workshop they are guided to listen and hear each other, to share stories, thoughts, feelings, to say what they want to without judgment or interruption. The pairs are holding space for each other. While one person talks the other transforms their ball with patterns, indents, lettering, whatever feels appropriate at the time. What they are creating is a listening ball.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Feb- July
VENUE: TBC
Find out more about Amelia and her work here.



WALSALL

PROJECT NAME: Bostin' Young Creatives
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: Bostin' Creative (in partnership with The Table, Walsall)
PROJECT OUTLINE: The launch of Bostin’ Young Creatives, in partnership with The Table, Walsall, will recruit 20 local youngsters, aged 8-13, with a keen interest in the arts; open to exploring comedy, improvisation, spoken word, song, movement, theatre, film making and performance. The project hopes to provide an opportunity for participants to explore their creativity, whilst developing confidence, to communicate and compromise, express themselves and ultimately have fun becoming part of a brand-new black country collective.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Starts Feb - Concluding Easter
Follow Bostin’ Creatives on Facebook.

PROJECT NAME: The Menopause Choir
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: Anne-Marie Beaumont/University of Wolverhampton
PROJECT OUTLINE: This project will create a choir for peri and post-menopausal women in the Black Country. Although the Menopause is described, like puberty, as a natural stage of transition, the reality is that it can have a very profound effect on women and their families. Although multiple support groups exist online, this choir will bridge the gap between the real and virtual world by bringing a creative, artistic presence to its members with a final public-facing performance at the end of the programme.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Walsall and Wider Black Country / April - July

BLACK COUNTRY WIDE

PROJECT NAME: Hope Central
ORGANISATION / ARTIST / GROUP: Rick Sanders, Bill Layburne, Holly O'Meara
PROJECT OUTLINE: Inspired by the connective spirit of storytelling and immersive listening, Hope Central will present a conceptual sound piece, which draws on the experience of connecting while apart, and the comfort it can bring when the public, as orator and audience, speaks to itself.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Follow Hope Central on Instagram here.
VENUE: Online and down your phone line.

Keep an eye on our social media channels where we share opportunities and information.

Creative Connections 2023 - the commissioned projects

The Creative Connections programme supports activities that increase opportunities for people to experience great creative and cultural experiences in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton, by bringing individuals together to share new experiences around the arts. This round of projects have been chosen and are getting underway.

Below is a summary of the successfully commissioned projects which were chosen by an independent panel of people from across the Black Country.

WALSALL

Mindful Mosaics with Rachel Hawkins - This is a project for an elderly residential community so that they can come together to experience the process of designing, making and completing a mosaic.

Stories of the Trees with Friends of Willenhall Memorial Park - ‘Stories of the Trees – if only trees could talk’ will help celebrate 100 years of Willenhall Memorial Park. The project will work in collaboration with artists, musicians, writers, and performers, supported by other voluntary organisations to bring local communities together in a 100 years Celebration Day on the 16th July which will include art, music, song, poetry and spoken word.

Creativity Is Good For You with Heidi Summersby - This project will be a new initiative, growing from a creative crafts group which started in The Table community coffee shop in Walsall. Artist Heidi Summersby will facilitate a number of workshops that invite other artists to collaborate so that communities can try different artistic and creative practices including painting, music, sewing, clay making and creative journalling.


WOLVERHAMPTON

Aero-Breaks with Break Mission - Aero-Breaks is a programme of creative athletic activity for young people in Wolverhampton, aiming to teach new skills and improve fitness and confidence through breaking [breakdance]. These workshops particularly aim to support young people from LGBTQ+ communities, a culturally underrepresented group in the Hip-Hop community. Break Mission will deliver a 6-week series of workshops teaching groups of 14–18-year-olds leading to a showcase where participants are empowered to show off what they’ve learned.  

Apni Prithvi – Apna Kal’ (Our Planet – Our Future) with Punjabi Women’s Writing Group - ‘Apni Prithvi - Apna Kal’ (Our Planet – Our Future) will concentrate on the environment issues in our homes, at a domestic level. The group will invite the Punjabi and ethnic diverse communities from around the Black Country by carrying out writing workshops with the opportunity to get work published in an anthology and a performance in their hometown. The Punjabi Women’s Writing Group will provide fun writing, reading and conversational workshops to give more awareness on the environmental impact and provide guidance on how people might change their behaviour to give back to the planet.  

Artism with Kathleen Fabre - Artist Kathleen Fabre will deliver an artist-led programme of creative activities designed to engage the adult autistic/ neuro-divergent community in Wolverhampton. The programme will show how visual arts can be a welcoming inclusive environment, open to all ages and abilities, and how we can connect with arts and culture in various ways to enrich our lives and improve our well-being.

Issa Print & Pose Project with Kupid Val-Essoné - PRINT N POSE is a four part empowerment project for people of all ages living in and around Wolverhampton. The purpose of the workshops is to use creative activities to increase self-esteem and confidence, create an inclusive and social space for people to express themselves freely, have a professional photoshoot, meet like-minded individuals, and discover new connections and opportunities. The project also aims to give people the chance to be a part of an exhibition. Each day will be split into two parts; the morning workshops will aim to build participants' confidence and skill sets, while the afternoons will focus on creating the art for the exhibition. The workshops will take place on the 25 and 26 July with an exhibition on the 29 July.

Get Crafty with Aspiring Futures CIC - Women only, weekly arts and crafts sessions in 3 different locations for people from diverse and disadvantaged communities. Participants will get the opportunity to work with an artist to explore a wide range of topics, tools and techniques to help them learn craft essentials and challenge themselves to learn something new in a warm friendly and inspiring environment. They will learn how to recycle materials and make inspiring and unique thing se.g. gifts for someone special, items for home decoration. An exhibition event will be held at the end to inspire others.


DUDLEY

Arts Connect 2023 with KIDS Orchard Centre - The team will deliver a menu of Arts based activities during the summer term of May to July for Dudley SEND Youth Clubs and young people aged 18-25. This will include Graffiti Art, Animation, Art, Drama, and Music and facilitated by local artists.


SANDWELL

Sensory Story Time with Fantastic Journeys CIC - Children with additional learning and sensory needs will be provided with space to engage with storytelling and music sessions specifically designed to make stories from books accessible to children in a fun and engaging way that centres on their individual needs. 

Lets Get Lyrical with Options for Life - Let’s Get Lyrical!’ encourages participants with learning disabilities and/or autism to join six songwriting and one band music session to learn how to write songs, sing, enjoy music and socialise with their peers. The sessions will be held once a month by Jobe Sullivan (musician, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist) and will focus on creating an inclusive and accessible space for all participants.

Black Country: Green Futures with ITZATNA Arts - ‘Black Country: Green Futures’ is a community video art project that explores how local gardeners and allotment owners in Sandwell think and feel about their connection to land and belonging, and the impacts of ongoing climate change. The video will show an intimate portrait of local people’s trans-national journeys and deep connection to their natural environment, caring and tending to their plants and biodiversity of their little pockets of Sandwell.

Unseen Memories with Sandwell Visually Impaired CIO - The activity intends to explore ways to gather audio recordings of participants’ early memories of living with no or limited sight, choosing personal objects and/or photographs relating to their reminiscences. Karren Visser will photograph the participants so that the creative activity and its outcomes provide a timeline of members' lives past and present.  

Moving Horizons with Connection Dance - 12 weekly sessions will be co-created with a group of young participants (with a range of access needs) and 2 professional dance artists.  Taking place at Coneygre Arts Centre the sessions will culminate in two new performance platforms.  


If you are working on creative projects in communities and have a project idea please make sure that you take a look at our Creative Communities opportunities where we can offer support. Take a look at the page here.