Moments of Joy: the value of participatory arts
Celebrating the next phase of South Yorkshire Housing Association’s arts programme-Moments of Joy Phase 3
Project date 2020-
Team:
Cara McAleese - creative direction/producer
Vic Stirling, Edyta Bancer, Age Better in Sheffield, South Yorkshire Housing Association - commissioner
Extra care residents - participants
“Art remains one of our best ways of understanding ourselves and our experience, of expressing our feelings or sharing our hopes, dreams, fears and terrors, of finding common ground and empathy, of imagining other ways of being, of making sense and finding meaning. ”
At South Yorkshire Housing Association we want our customers’ experience with us to be a joy.
Since 2013 we have been exploring through a series of test projects how participatory arts can add value to our purpose: with us you can settle at home, live well and realise your potential. We call this programme Moments of Joy.
This year the programme has had fresh impetus as a direct result of the pandemic: as we locked down our extra care housing (homes for people aged 55 and over) we knew we had to do more to connect with people isolated in their homes.
With the help of Cara McAleese we have curated a programme of dance and music, funded through our Age Better in Sheffield Lottery programme, that has engaged individuals on their doorsteps and brought them together as virtual groups, dancing in their gardens and singing along from their balconies.
The programme delivered 45 sessions with over 1000 attendances across 5 schemes in a few short months and the response has been fantastic.
Mini garden-gigs, 2020: professional musicians including simply strings trio Played in gardens and corridors. The sessions included social time for residents to connect with one another. Further work is planned including participatory work, indoor gigs and family shows.
“It gave us three such a wonderful time that we have missed for such a long time. Communicating through music and for us to ‘be’ musicians was such a treat.”
mini garden gigs, 2020: matt hunt from music in the round on clarinet.
“I only hope it did for others what it did for me, whisking me away from this horrible nightmare of a world with Covid-19. Gone for nearly 2 hours of heaven by angels on strings.”
Dance to help you feel good, 2020: Charlotte Armitage, dance artist, has delivered weekly sessions of 3-4 pop-up bursts of dancing in gardens (and in corridors when the weather is bad). A ‘social space’ is included to help people feel more connected; family members join in. The next step is to create and perform dance with participants.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen my husband get up for anything in months.”
We now have the opportunity, thanks to further funding from the Lottery, to continue the programme over the next 18 months to reach a wider audience and expand the activities on offer. Ideas include visual arts, story telling, poetry, theatre, singing and development of the dance and music programme to include performance and intergenerational work.
We hope that this extended programme will allow us to embed Moments of Joy as part of how we work.
Why did we choose an arts programme? And what makes for a successful participatory arts project?
Why an arts programme?
Throughout my career I have returned time and time again to the value of participatory arts as a core component of my practice.
In the Lower Don Valley in the early 90s I commissioned David Nash’s Eye of the Needle sited on the river Don, the oak charred in a steelworks. At Groundwork Dearne Valley in the late 1990s I worked first with Jo Henderson of Yorkshire Arts Circus on writing that celebrated local walks (Jo and I have been crossing paths ever since) and then with sculptor Marcela Livingston and poet Matt Black. Inspired by the likes of Common Ground this was a fledgling programme to uncover and reinforce the identity of mining villages through environmental projects.
Eye of the needle. 1993: David Nash created a growing piece from birch and charred oak that evoked the regeneration scrub woodland on industrial land and the black sheds of the steel industry.
Welcoming boundaries, 1996: Marcela Livingston crafted cast-iron fences in Thurnscoe village centre, a contemporary version of Victorian railings, the abstract motifs derived from community workshops.
That experience was followed by a decade-long partnership with Clare McManus from Eventus, a cultural planning agency in Sheffield. Creative Futures, (2000) a cultural action plan funded by Southey Owlerton Area Regeneration (SOAR), a community regeneration partnership in north Sheffield, led to a DCMS Cultural Pathfinder programme (2005) and then to Creative Places (2006-10), a nationally unique programme of activity across north, south and east Sheffield, funded by Housing Market Renewal and Arts Council England in Yorkshire.
roads & flowers, 2008-10: david gunn & incidental with families in wincobank, north sheffield.
The work with Eventus came out of Clare’s frustration with bits of funding and small-scale arts projects that went nowhere: she didn’t want the work with SOAR to become yet another one-off project that got lost.
The programme started with 3 arts workers based in neighbourhoods. But it only started to take off when Eventus were able to connect artists with local people and groups and with non-arts workers. One really successful feature was a local community cultural fund, managed by local people, that groups could bid into. Not only did this provide a catalyst for cultural activity, it also helped groups develop skills in bidding for funding.
A Cultural Steering Group, facilitated by Eventus, connected local people with representatives from city centre cultural organisations. This created a brilliant two-way relationship: Opera North, Crucible Youth Theatre and Yorkshire Artspace, all participated in community projects in north Sheffield; and people from north Sheffield all participated in activity in cultural venues in the city centre.
Andrew Skelton, Sheffield City Council’s public art officer, part funded by ACE as part of Creative Places for 3 years, supported the Creative Places programme. When I moved to South Yorkshire Housing Association in 2013, he helped get our first Moments of Joy programme off the ground. We also renewed our collaboration with Rachael Dodd from Yorkshire Artspace.
What is it about the arts that draws me back?
Three things:
#1 The arts provide a different way to talk about who we are and where we live, to uncover feelings, stories and identities and change how we see ourselves, our homes and our neighbourhoods.
#2 Done well, they offer rewarding, stretching and fun experiences for participants, both professional and non-professional.
#3 They leave an impact beyond the project for those involved.
good neighbours, 2019: angie hardwick worked with families on the manor, sheffield to create giant ceramic mugs at the entrance to their estate
What makes for a successful participatory arts project?
Francois Matarasso has been reflecting on this question for many years. I find his conclusions, articulated in A Restless Art, chime with my own experience and so draw shamelessly on them here.
#1 Twin experts: the contribution of professional and non-professional participants is equally valued; their collaboration drives the end result.
#2 Process and product: both have to be excellent. I find Francois’s criteria helpful:
francois matarasso’s criteria for successful participatory arts
flowers in the frame, 2006: clare mcmanus worked with local people in the manor and parson cross to photograph the wildflower meadows that green estate had created. the results were displayed in the winter gardens in sheffield city centre.
#3 Presentation: some form of public presentation, both in the local community and in a town/city centre venue, is essential.
#4 A skilled creative producer and connector: this role is absolutely critical in ensuring the quality of process and product through brokering relationships between all participants - artists, non-arts workers and customers/local people.
#5 Long-term relationships: continuity of participants, clients, arts partners and funders can transform a series of projects into a sustained programme.
The examples below have been selected to illustrate these 5 themes in three different contexts:
#1 Community & place - over a decade of place-making in north Sheffield.
#2 People & well-being - South Yorkshire Housing Association’s LiveWell programme.
#3 Neighbours & home - projects to celebrate South Yorkshire Housing Association’s new buildings.
Community & place: north Sheffield, 2000-2013
Team:
North Sheffield Regeneration Team, Sheffield City Council - commissioner
Clare McManus, Eventus - cultural planning
Andrew Skelton, Sheffield City Council - public art officer
Rachael Dodd, Yorkshire Artspace - creative direction/producer
Communities of Parson Cross, Wincobank, Firth Park and Shiregreen - participants
Southey Owlerton Area Regeneration (SOAR) - community engagement
Postcards from Parson Cross, 2001: Trish O’Shea working with Encounters led creative engagement in developing six neighbourhood plans. At Parson Cross Festival, 150 people created postcards describing what they liked about their neighbourhood and what they’d like to see change. The results fed directly into the new plans.
In the early 2000s Eventus helped us engage local people in a series of community-led regeneration plans for 6 neighbourhoods in Southey Owlerton in north Sheffield, led by artist Trish O’Shea (who coincidentally has a long-standing relationship with South Yorkshire Housing Association). From this work, we developed a programme of participatory arts projects with regeneration funding.
Below I feature projects within just one of the neighbourhoods - Parson Cross - chosen to illustrate the breadth and longevity of the programme.
Clare McManus initiated the programme with a series of pilots including The View, a forum theatre piece developed with residents of Parson Cross. A further project, Flowers in the Frame, is covered in my Pictorial Meadows blog.
The View, 2006: Dead Earnest Theatre, were appointed by a group of local people to work with neighbours of a site that was to be developed for new housing in Parson Cross. The aim was to uncover stories and features that could help shape the plans. A forum theatre play, called The View, was scripted from the conversations with residents and performed live on air on BBC Radio Sheffield.
the view 2006: A studio audience of local residents including young people, watched and commented on the action and issues raised. Listeners also phoned in and contributed to a message board. Several stories revolved around a mature tree which became a key feature in the plans for the new homes.
In 2010, SOAR took ownership of two key assets, both in Parson Cross: a managed workspace called SOAR Works which incorporated artist studios managed by Yorkshire Artspace; and the Learning Zone, a new library, located in a newly-created district centre. The centre brought the first major supermarket to an area with a population of 50.000 people.
Yorkshire Artspace used their new studio base to manage a Community Engagement Programme with funding from Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Arts Council England and with support from SOAR Works and Green Estate. Rachael Dodd of Yorkshire Artspace facilitated the programme.
Soar works, 2010: managed workspace including artist studios designed by architecture 00.
Made to Measure, 2011: Lisa Gallacher, working with 10 residents aged 15 to 80+, collaboratively developed a collection of garments that function as a portrait of the place and its people. The finished collection was shown in the city centre to an audience of 1000s and helped change perceptions of the area.
made to measure, 2011: lisa gallacher with residents of parson cross.
made to measure, 2011: lisa gallacher with residents of parson cross.
Made for You, 2010-12: Steve Pool & Kate Genever made a piece of art to do something useful for 8 shopkeepers in parson cross. The works were located in the shops and a second edition produced for a city centre exhibition. A screening took place outside the shops in the new square next to the Learning Zone.
PX Story, 2012: Ania Bas located her blue chair in different places in parson cross. The conversations she had led to a publication which was compiled collaboratively and further developed through young people’s drama and writing groups.
px story, 2012: ania bas’ blue chair in parson cross
PX story, 2012: young people’s drama and writing groups in parson cross with ania bas.
Andrew Skelton developed a programme of work to celebrate the creation of the new district centre which included the Learning Zone, ASDA and a new public space, Chaucer Square.
The learning zone, 2010: Ruthie Forde’s guerilla knitting celebrated the opening of the new library designed by schmidt hammer lassen architects.
THe learning Zone, 2010: michael rosen’s poem commissioned for the opening of the new library.
Square Dance Step Change, 2012: Marie Mccarthy from Chance to Dance devised a dance programme with different local groups, that culminatd in a performance in the square. it included kids on scooters and an ASDA flashmob.
chaucer - i come from…2013: stephen broadbent collaborated with sheffield-based artists stacey sampson and vicky morris and the Px youth media project to enable a community’s voice to be heard in a remarkable way.
chaucer - i come from…, 2013: peter griffiths carved text and enamelled panels have created a permanent record of 100 distinct community voices.
chaucer - i come from…2013: stephen broadbent’s stone artworks create sculptural markers at either end of the square.
Andrew Skelton and Clare McManus extended the arts programme to neighbourhoods in Brightside Shiregreen. Projects included:
#Roads & Flowers 2008-10: David Gunn & Incidental worked with families in Wincobank to link a new housing development to its community.
Roads & Flowers,2008-10 : local residents appointed a team led by David Gunn of Incidental, to work with community members of all ages to explore real and imaginary pasts and futures focused on an area of new housing in Wincobank, creating a link between old and new communities. The results were published as four chapters in a ‘book’.
roads & flowers, 2008-10: in chapter 2, words and feelings were formed into lanterns.
roads & flowers, 2008-10: in chapter 1, words from poems written by local children were written on stones from the old houses and buried in foundations of the new ones.
roads & flowers, 2008-10: in chapter 3, older people’s words and phrases were inscribed on wood to form a treasure hunt word trail. in chapter 4, text panels were fixed to the new homes.
#Journeys to Hidden Places, 2008-11: YSO? a team of artists led by Gordon Young created with communities in Firth Park and Wincobank a series of artworks along walks celebrating local landmarks and green spaces.
Journeys to Hidden Places, 2008-11: YSO?, a multi-disciplinary team led by Gordon Young, worked with the communities of Firth Park and Wincobank to identify a sense of place and distinctiveness and change perceptions of the area. 11 artworks, developed with local people, were installed along urban walks, in green spaces and at key points of local interest.
journeys to hidden places, 2008-11 one of seven enchanted chairs on a green in wincobank, a collaboration with penny rae and friends of wincobank hill.
journeys to hidden places, 2008-11: map rock in firth park, hand carved to celebrate the local landscape. it allows people to observe and explore the area in which they live, relive memories and make new ones.
journeys to hidden places, 2008-11: brendan’s glove garden celebrates the community work that brendan and and his family have done over the years around st thomas boxing gym.
#Steeling Skies @ Shiregreen, 2008-11: rednile worked with local people on streetscape improvements linked to Sanctuary Housing’s investment in Decent Homes including a Lamppost Sky Map Trail.
Steeling Skies @ shiregreen,2008-11 : rednile, commissioned by Sanctuary Housing in Shiregreen, took a local contentious issue of mature trees on roads as an opportunity to encourage people to look upwards and enjoy the skies and views.
steeling skies @ shiregreen, 2008-11: Temporary sculptures and creative play generated curiosity and debate; many trees were retained.
steeling skies @ shiregreen, 2008-11: temporary beacons encouraged people to look again at their environment and discuss future ideas for their streets.
steeling skies @ shiregreen, 2008-11: The Lamppost Sky Map Trail included reusing 78 of the original 1930’s lampposts and painting these with images gathered from the community to represent many groups, individuals and businesses within the estate.
People & wellbeing, South Yorkshire Housing Association, 2013-
Team:
Zoe Oldfield (Phase 1), Justine Gaubert (Phase 2), South Yorkshire Housing Association - commissioner
Paula McCloskey (Phase 2), South Yorkshire Housing Association - creative direction/producer
Rachael Dodd, Yorkshire Artspace and Lucy Robertshaw, darts - creative direction/producer
Customers and employees in our LiveWell services - participants
The power of arts and culture led directly to the creation of South Yorkshire Housing Association: our founder John Belcher saw the groundbreaking film Cathy Come Home and was inspired to set up Sheffield Family Housing Association. Arts and culture also have a huge impact on our happiness – that’s why providing opportunities for our customers to learn, grow and flourish matters to us. Here are some of the projects we have tested in recent years.
In our first programme, led by Zoe Oldfield, we explored forum theatre with Cardboard Citizens and an Open Cinema film club. In the second programme, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation and led by Paula McCloskey, we explored music and dance with Lucy Robertshaw’s team at darts, illustrated in this short film; and ceramics with Yorkshire Artspace, described in words and pictures on their website. This work has has led to an annual ceramic commission, All Fired Up, continuing an enduring partnership with Rachael Dodd.
Justine Gaubert of Silent Cities led a creative programme to co-design the bid for our Age Better in Sheffield programme. Our new Moments of Joy programme will bring arts centre stage in Age Better in Sheffield’s final year.
Glasshouse, Benefit, Cathy, Who are yer?, 2014-18: Cardboard Citizens makes forum theatre for social change. They empower people with lived experience of homelessness and strive to change society’s perceptions of homeless people. we worked with them over three productions.
Glasshouse, Benefit, Cathy, Who are yer?, 2014-18: cardboard citizens engaged Our customers and employees in workshops and interactive forum theatre productions over 4 years that allowed them to reimagine their personal stories and relationships. Dead Earnest, as a local forum theatre company, joined the creative team.
Co-design of the Age Better in Sheffield programme, 2013-14: in parallel with Moments of Joy, Justine Gaubert of Silent Cities devised and led a wide-range of activities to engage people in co-designing a 6-year programme to reduce loneliness and isolation. An older people’s theatre group ‘PASSAGES’ LED BY BRIDIE MOORE (that included Clare McManus back row left!) went on tour around our extra care schemes.
Co-design of the Age Better in Sheffield programme, 2013-14: community journalists went out on the buses to collect stories from the most isolated older people in the city. over 50 hours of content was collected and their work was highlighted by the lottery as a defining factor in the success of sheffield’s bid, securing £6 million for Sheffield.
South Yorkshire Housing Association presents, 2014-16: Open Cinema coordinates a network of community cinemas and participatory film-making programmes. We trialled a community cinema but sadly we couldn’t make it work long term, mainly because we couldn’t find a connector to facilitate co-design of the programme and meaningful discussion of the films. We hope to come back to film in our new programme.
Moments of Joy, dance 2016 - darts facilitated two programmes, one music and one dance, with customers in our Doncaster Social Prescribing service. Carefully curated and facilitated sessions supported participants to build confidence and self-esteem, learn new skills and improve their wellbeing.
moments of joy, music 2016: darts facilitated a music programme led by gary hammond.
Moments of Joy, ceramics 2016: paula mccloskey (second left) & Yorkshire Artspace led a visual art and craft programme for customers from our mental health and homelessness services. new friendships were built out of a therapeutic social environment and there were new arts experiences and learning for all involved.
moments of joy, ceramics 2016: The output was a stunning collection of coiled pots - brilliant and creative realisations of each person.
Co-design of the Age Better in Sheffield programme, 2013-14: tea & cocktail parties to explore with older people what would be most useful in tackling loneliness and isolation. zoe oldfield (left) led our first moments of joy programme.
Co-design of the Age Better in Sheffield programme, 2013-14: silent cities hosted a spoken word night at queens social club to share experiences of older people.
All Fired Up, 2017-: Yorkshire Artspace, building on the success of Moments of Joy, invited us to engage annually in their ceramic starter studio programme, All Fired Up. in 2017 the commission was awarded to hannah staniforth and meghan downs who worked with our customers to create their pieces.
all fired up, 2019: the annual commission gives the opportunity to a young ceramicist, in this case rebecca brown, to work with our customers to create two pieces, one of which is displayed in the Millennium Galleries before being added to the Museums Sheffield collection; the other is displayed in our customers’ homes.
all fired up, 2019: rebecca brown’s piece was displayed in the millennium galleries in sheffield before being taken into the museums sheffield permanent collection. her ceramic book focused on stories shared by our customers who were given framed pages of their individual stories to keep.
Neighbours & home, South Yorkshire Housing Association, 2019-
Team:
Clare Oliffe, Christine Davies, Kelly Parks, Development Team, South Yorkshire Housing Association - commissioner
Co-production team, South Yorkshire Housing Association - customer engagement
Residents in our new homes - participants
We have started to include a participatory arts project in our new housing developments, as well as in our new workspace - our new ‘home’ - at Rockingham Street. These involve and welcome our new residents to their new homes and connect them to their neighbours. Andrew Skelton has helped us with these projects.
neighbours and home: andrew skelton (left)
Come Home, 2019: Steve Roche created this threshold stone for our new workspace at Rockingham Street. The piece was commissioned by IF Collective, the agency who recently created our new brand. Come Home is a reference to our history as a Cathy Come Home housing association.
Good neighbours, 2019: Angie Hardwick created a set of oversized ceramic mugs fixed to the walls of the new development at key entrances. These reference both neighbourliness (sharing a cup of tea, borrowing sugar) and the flowering meadows that are a feature of the landscape and a connection with nearby Green Estate, also home to Yorkshire Artspace’s ceramics studios.
Finchwell Road, 2021: we have commissioned Steve Roche to work with our new residents at this development to create stone carvings that will be built into the boundary wall. Each carving will comprise a pattern abstracted from key dates in people’s lives. Picture to follow!
good neighbours, 2019: detail of angie hardwick’s mugs at slingsby place. Angie was selected by our residents who worked with her to create the pieces.
Further reading
You can read more about the work of Clare McManus and Eventus on this website, archived as part of the British Library digital collection: https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20121223231032/http://www.eventus.org.uk/projects/project-name-two/
And here is the flickr site with pictures of Eventus’ work: https://www.flickr.com/photos/creativeplaces-sheffield/page2/
If you want to find out more about any of these or other participatory arts projects, I’d be happy to share our learning so far.
And as always, we’re open to exploring new collaborations with innovative artists and other creatives, so please do get in touch.