Glasgow Life Artists in Communities
The Village Storytelling Centre have been Artists in Residence within the Glasgow Ward, Newlands Auldburn in the three previous incarnations of Glasgow Life’s Creative Communities programme from 2019 – 2022. At the same time, Hannah Brackston and Daniele Sambo have been the Artists in Residence within the ward of Greater Pollok.
Damshot Woods, Pollok
Glasgow Life, funded by Creative Scotland and Glasgow City Council have relaunched this programme, now Artists in Communities and this time, The Village, Hannah and Dan have teamed up to work across the South West in an exciting new collaborative project they are calling The
Movement.
The Village Storytelling Centre
It has been an absolute privilege to get to know the communities within the Newlands Auldburn ward throughout the three phases of Creative Communities. We have loved hearing the stories about the history of the community and the people who live there now. It has led to some really wonderful opportunities for us and to ongoing partnerships which we are delighted to be continuing. This includes our continued work in St Vincent’s Primary, Pollokshaws Community Hub, and much more!
However, Creative Communities was a brilliant experience for us in other ways too. We are based, not in Newlands Auldburn, but in the neighbouring ward of Greater Pollok where we were lucky enough to have Hannah Brackston and Daniele Sambo as the Artists in Residence. Our groups in Pollok were able to participate in workshops with them, they brought brilliant activities to our events and, following this, we have delivered some wonderful projects together.
When Phase 4 of the renamed Artist in Communities programme was announced and there was no longer a ward based approach it made sense for us to develop a collaborative approach with Hannah and Dan. This meant we could create and build on opportunities across the wards and neighbouring communities, to come together and do something really special.
The Movement will see us, the Village Storytellers and associate dance artist Dawn Campbell, explore what movement means to the groups we work with – current groups and some brand new ones. How does movement change as we grow? What are the limitations that space and our bodies present us with and how do we adapt? How do we celebrate our bodies? How do we move through our communities and engage with places and space? We are looking forward to drawing out these stories, and to collaborating with Hannah and Dan to bring them to life in new and exciting ways.
Exploring ‘Movement’ with Woodacre Nursery
Hannah and Dan
Creative Communities has taken us on an engaging and inspiring journey over the last few years, through the wonderful ward of Greater Pollok. Working on creative projects with local people from 2 years old to 82! We are visual artists who work in participatory practice and have especially enjoyed
co-creating art projects for the area’s diverse greenspace with families, residents and groups. From school workshops resulting in Bogey cart racing to designing a locally distinctive crazy golf course for G53.
A huge part of the joy and possibility in all this work has arrived because of the strong partnerships we have been fortunate to foster. The Village Storytelling Centre has been one of the key, supportive and collaborative organisations from day 1 and we are over the moon to be working together to deliver Phase 4. We can’t wait to collaborate with the Village to interpret the stories and expressions of Movement that come from their innovative programme.
Our contribution to the ‘The Movement’ project will focus on physical movement within public spaces, in particular how we ‘move’ through expressions of play. So far we plan to work with nursery children, sports clubs, secondary school pupils, cycling groups and patients at Glasgow Children’s Hospital. Our creative workshops will result in artistic interventions for local sports courts, public playgrounds (or potential playgrounds!) and on active travel routes. This will include the development of new imaginative community events orchestrated in collaboration with the Village and local people.
#TheMovementGlasgow
