Community Arts in Cannock Chase District

Today I went to Chase Leisure Centre to meet Lisa Shephard and Kerrie Jones, of the Arts, Health and Well Being team. which is managed by Wigan Leisure Culture Trust. Two enthusiastic ladies who are passionate about using the arts to increase the health and well being of the people of the Cannock Chase District.

Communities within Cannock are still very much based around the traditional but now defunct mining areas. Each had their own pit, their brass band and their identity and people are still reluctant to travel from one area of Cannock to another. New manufacturing industries have not replaced the pits; traditional manual work is in short supply with new industries being based in the service sector. We discussed the possibility of doing an arts and well-being project in the Blake area of Cannock to help build capacity within this community. This is an area Cannock with a lack of literacy skills and academic aspiration and a high incidence of alcohol and substance misuse. Work has been done here previously by the Cannock team; it has been thoroughly consulted and connections are in place which would enable Lichfield Mysteries to do projects in this area. They are currently compiling a Reaching Communities funding bid for a three year programme of work in Blake and other areas of Cannock Chase District.

It was lovely to meet such committed and enthusiastic people who care so much for the communities in which they live and work. I am looking forward to further discussions and planning some exciting community arts projects with them.

Every little helps

What a smart green car...

I've just got back from meeting with Laurence Shenker, Lichfield Tesco's Community Champion. Tesco employ 300-400 people at this store, making it one of Lichfield's largest employers. They operate on a variety of shift patterns so large numbers of the workforce are unknown to each other. Part of Laurence's remit is to encourage staff activities and the social committee have organised several competitions - Easter egg decorating, poster making etc. These have not been overwhelmingly supported and Laurence has concerns about whether we could motivate people to take part in an arts activity. I think this sets us a challenge!
Laurence is going to sound out the staff and see if there is any response and I am going away to think of arts activities which might appeal and projects which individuals could perhaps contribute to over a period of time creating a collaborative piece.
I will also contact other Tesco branches in the target areas - we might be able to do a project all together.

Hmmmm...thinking caps on....

Simon and Mal

I've just got back from afternoon tea in the Lichfield Garrick Green Room with Simon Quinn and Mal Dewhirst, two lovely gentlemen who areas  passionate about community arts as me. Brilliant!
Simon is Director of Fired up Theatre, devising and delivering performance projects with people who do not usually access the arts. They do lots of intergenerational work breaking down social barriers and challenging perceptions and are very keen on partnership working. Amongst many other projects, together with Mal Dewhirst, Simon was responsible for The Wall, Tamworth's largest community production to date based on Pink Floyd's album and they are now both working on Quadrophenia as a community piece for performance in May 2013.
Mal is a poet, writer and film maker and is Staffordshire's first Poet Laureate. Mal's ideas for poetry in Staffordshire are really innovative and accessible.
.
Together they make a great and multi-talented team.We had a lovely chat about multi-disciplinary art works; they have used projections, sound installations and textile work in previous projects, all of which would be an exciting new adventure for Lichfield Mysteries. Being well established in Tamworth they have made lots of contacts with all kinds of people and are thinking about potential participants and work which we could do in partnership to extend community engagement with Lichfield Mysteries in the Tamworth area.

I like nothing better than a cup of tea and a good conversation about community arts!

Friends 2 Friends

Today I had an excellent meeting with Alison Wellon from Friends 2 Friends. This is a user-led group of adults with learning disabilities which has been up and running for just a year. It was formed to provide social opportunities for those people involved in COGS - Cherry Orchard Gardening Service and goes from strength to strength. Friends 2 Friends meet at the lovely Cruck House in Lichfield and the service operates as a free drop-in centre 6 days each week. It aims to give people the confidence to lead more independent and active lives and enables users to make real friends with which to share social activities.

 

Cruck House

Friends 2 Friends provides opportunities to improve life skills such as cooking and ironing, and through volunteer support enables users to organise themselves in a range of activities. Courses such as horse riding, computing, graffiti art and sugar craft have been held in the past twelve months as well as several fund raising activities, raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support, Children in Need and Comic Relief.

They are very keen to get involved in drama, dance and music activities so I am looking forward to meeting the group next month to have a chat about what they would like to do.

I really do love my job - what an inspiring group of people!

Meeting people - what a brilliant way to spend the day!

On Tuesday 26th March I visited my first contacts.
I started the day with a cold and snowy drive to the Old Mining College in Chasetown where I had a lovely chat with Samantha from the Changes organisation.

Old Mining College, Chasetown

Changes is a Staffordshire based registered charity, run mainly by service users and volunteers, providing a service that promotes mental wellbeing and recovery in a safe and friendly environment. Read more about it here http://www.changes.org.uk/
They are providing a fabulous service and are keen to have a go at an arts activity. The service users are going to discuss what they would like to do. We also talked about the possibility of linking the work with other Changes groups in Lichfield, Tamworth and Burton. I think this could become a really exciting project and it has lots of possibilities for extending the work beyond the initial project.

Later on I went to visit the Tamworth Arts Development Team, a very hard working trio of ladies who gave me some very useful suggestions and contacts.

Tamworth Assembly Rooms

There is a lot of good arts work going on in Tamworth - it is to my shame and embarrassment that I am not more aware of it - although I don't think that I am alone in this! It is amazing how parochial we can be; if Lichfield cannot supply what we want we tend to look to Birmingham, when there is lots of interesting stuff right on our doorstep. I think some county-wide coordination in the promotion of the arts would be helpful in all sorts of ways. More joined up thinking across Districts is required on this - we are really not making the most of what we already have. See here to find out how to keep up to date with the arts in Tamworth http://www.tamworthassemblyrooms.co.uk/arts-activities/artswitch

Many thanks to Elanor, Laura and Hannah in Tamworth and Samantha in Chasetown for giving up their precious time and making me feel so welcome.

One week on

I have had several positive responses and will be going to meet with both the Tamworth and Cannock Arts Development teams and the friends2friends group in Lichfield. I've also had a positive conversation with the Arts for Health team at South Staffordshire and Shropshire NHS Foundation Trust. I feel I am making some good contacts both for this project and the future of Lichfield Mysteries.
I have sent out information to several other community groups including Changes and Forward Action Burntwood so I'm hoping to hear back from them very soon.
I still need to investigate large companies. A workplace group would be an interesting development - watch out Gareth Malone!

The first contacts...

I have contacted the Arts Development Officers at Lichfield District, Cannock Chase District, Tamworth Borough and East Staffordshire District Councils. All lovely, enthusiastic people! Hopefully they will make some useful suggestions for potential participant groups. I have sent them more detailed information which you can read here:
Community Engagement Project Info

24 hours later I have the first positive responses - excellent!