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.