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 - 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

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)

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.

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
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 - 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.

Creative Connection BLOG POSTS