Community Voices: Workshops and Art Work

Online Workshops with Zoe Murphy

Taliesin has partnered with the Fusion project, City of Sanctuary and Creu Cymru to connect with a group of refugees and asylum seekers living in Swansea, offering them the opportunity to create a programme of films that resonate with them and their life experiences. The group’s final selection of films will be screened at Taliesin as part of Fusion’s Change Makers Festival and will form the basis of on-going community-devised programming at Taliesin.

Facilitator Zoe Murphy has been leading these online workshops throughout November and the final selection of films will be announced in the coming weeks.

Loaded: Workshop with Bill Taylor-Beales and Swansea Residents

Online workshops exploring; Truth – Lies – Propaganda
The Story – looking at the importance of oral history and the structure of story.
The Song – exploring how protest song and community singing play a role in inspiring and galvanising people to a cause.
The Picture – the power of image from stained glass to photography and how it conveys truth or lies.
The Joke – exploring the role of the Jester as truth teller and the way humour can deliver powerful truths.
This music video is the culmination of some of the sessions we had together -the lyric writing and how they were inspired by the images out of idlib.

Criw Celf Swansea Protest Placards

Criw Celf West is an education programme delivered by Mission Gallery and funded by ACW. The project brings together more able and talented students in the visual arts, and is part of a ACW national initiative to nurture young artistic talent in Wales. Students taking part in the project range between ages 9-18. Working closely with schools, Criw Celf seeks to develop pupil’s creative practice and knowledge of the Visual and Applied arts through a series of masterclasses. These masterclasses are lead by professional artist and designers, who offer a wider investigation into visual arts practice. The outcomes of these master classes are then showcased in exhibitions, films and publications that celebrate the portfolio of work created throughout the course.
These placards were created by our Criw Celf Secondary students (from school years 7 & 8) during a masterclass lead by artist Lucy Donald, looking at the role of art in protest “

Workshop with Lucy Donald and Kirsty Guise at Llys Y Seren Care Home, Port Talbot

Llys Y Seren is situated in the heart of Baglan, Neath Port Talbot, offering long term residential care, respite stays and are specialists in dementia care. They are very proud to have recently been runner up in the Age Cymru awards ‘Best Care Home’ category.

We asked residents to share their stories about protests they had been involved in, their family had been involved in, what they would like to protest about these days or if there was any advice they could give the younger generation.

Port Talbot steelworks is the biggest in the UK, producing a third of the country’s total annual production. The steelworks has been central to the community since 1901. Some of the residents made poster designs based on the “Save Our Steel” Campaign.

In 2012 Neath Port Talbot Council decided to sell all the care homes in the county. The residents, staff and local community were up in arms. David, decided to go to the council and started his own rally ” No ifs no buts No Public Service Cuts!”

The ladies of the “Llys Y Seren Warriors” expressed their fears and frustrations in response to lockdown in the care home as a result of Coronavirus.

Group – Crossing Borders RCC

Jamie Panton Video Services and the young people’s group Crossing Borders (Race Council Cymru) got together for 3 days over lockdown. During these online sessions they co-created a short but powerful film exploring race equality and Black History, inspired by Black Lives Matter.
Merveille Ntumba, Tina Johnson, Sultan Awolumate, Blessing Oduah, Saba Humayun, Reuel Udoh, Andre

Workshop with artist Laura Reynolds at Sketty Primary

Collective Voices Protest Postcard Workshop“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead, American Cultural Anthropologist, 1901-1978

Sketty Primary year six, had begun looking at disappearing worlds, focusing on the Antarctic.
Blaenymaes Primary year five and six had just seen Theatr na nÓg’s Eye of the Storm.

We started with a live experiment to show the power of our collective voices, then played an active game to find our ‘tribe’ (embodying our cause through mime) the pupils worked collaboratively to create a logo to represent their tribe and what they were championing, this was then rendered in a lino cut and printed on to green ribbon, creating their own tribe’s protest ribbon.
The pupils developed hashtags and slogans to use with their painted protest postcards, giving voices to the animals and areas their tribe championed.

After the exhibition we plan to get our protest postcards to the people in power!

Workshop at Blaen-y-maes Primary School with Laura Reynolds

Collective Voices – a protest postcard project

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead, American Cultural Anthropologist, 1901-1978

Sketty Primary year six, had begun looking at disappearing worlds, focusing on the Antarctic.
Blaenymaes Primary year five and six had just seen Theatr na nÓg’s Eye of the Storm.

Together we made a protest postcard project to raise awareness and share our feelings about our world; climate change and its affects on our environment, endangered species and disappearing habitats of our planet.
We started with a live experiment to show the power of our collective voices, then played an active game to find our ‘tribe’ (embodying our cause through mime) the pupils worked collaboratively to create a logo to represent their tribe and what they were championing, this was then rendered in a lino cut and printed on to green ribbon, creating their own tribe’s protest ribbon.
The pupils developed hashtags and slogans to use with their painted protest postcards, giving voices to the animals and areas their tribe championed.

After the exhibition we plan to get our protest postcards to the people in power!

Workshop with Lucy Donald and YMCA Good Vibes

Good Vibes is YMCA Swansea’s popular LGBT+ Youth Forum and supports young people 11-25 years. Our workshops on Zoom explored aspects of protest/positive action poster design from the exhibition and a range of contemporary artists.

Autism and Neurodiversity workshop with David Toft

We had a total of seven children at the workshop, autism and dyslexia were the neurotypes disclosed by the participants.

Workshop with Lucy Donald and Pen Y Rheol Primary School

Year 4 created their own protest poster designs based on Bob and Roberta Smith placards, Jeremy Deller’s Mural in Swansea and Grayson Perry’s and ASAFO flags. They also looked at the Cofiwch Dryweryn graffiti and Banksy’s Season’s Greetings Graffiti at Port Talbot. They chose their own protest campaigns that they felt strongly about and some chose to create their designs in Welsh language.

Workshop with Lucy Donald and St Helen’s School

Year 4 examined the Changemakers exhibition and we discussed the artefacts and campaigns that had taken place in Swansea. We looked at artworks of local interest including more poetry is needed by Jeremy Deller, Art Makes Children Powerful by Bob and Roberta Smith, Banksy’s Port Talbot Graffitti and discussed what they meant and what we felt about them. Children created their own colour paper cut out posters inspired by the brightly coloured ASAFO flags, which we then animated.

Workshop with Mark Folds at Elysium Gallery

Participants designed and made large protest banners from coloured bookbinding papers. On completion, the banner/Flag were be fixed to thin wood to hold aloft. Workshops were aimed at families and 6-16 year olds and took place in the gallery community space.