‘Active citizens’ – have completed two community projects so we thought we’d celebrate their success in making lovely things happen under the most unusual circumstances. They’d hoped to start March 2020…the best of plans…
Global Grooves is a delivery partner for Active Citizens (AC), a British Council programme that develops the skills to make positive social change. In March 2020 some of our AC participants worked in partnership with Tameside Ambassadors from The Royal Exchange to plan a small community arts project for the Women and Family Centre in Ashton. What timing! After a lengthy, necessary delay, replanning and digital up-skilling Toubie Jack (Active Citizen and experienced Visual Artist) successfully delivered the project. Participants’ initial doubts about their own skills were gently squished over the weeks as Toubie guided them. Individual art work was installed to create a beautiful collaborative wall mural for the centre. (Image above)
After this successful pilot Nicola Woods from Ashton Pioneer Homes (also an AC participant) helped Global Grooves to reach more people in need of some creative connection during lockdown isolation. Toubie encouraged the skills and friendships blossomed as another collaborative mural was created. A small sample of the tiles is below, showing Zentangle patterns and Mandalas, we’ll post pictures once it’s installed in the centre in St. Peter’s.
“I found myself in a zone that was alien to me, a zone where nothing else was in my head apart from the tile I was working on.”
“I very much enjoyed the course, I learned new skills and was able to relax at the same time. The class was very easy going and very beneficial to my mental health”. Claire
Can you see the calls to live and laugh in the tile above?
Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen.
With thanks to Action Together, Ashton Pioneer Homes, Active Citizens for their support.