Thank you to our 10for10 supporters!

I would like to thank everyone who supported me to raise money for Artlink by doing the Orwell Walk. I managed to walk 19.6 miles, the first few hours were a bit wet and muddy, but it didn’t ruin a beautiful walk in good company. I am very pleased to say that I have raised £455 to date – do visit Suffolk Artlink’s Just Giving page if you would like to support our 10for10 campaign.
www.justgiving.com/Suffolk-Artlink

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Suffolk at Play

So, it’s goodbye to Cedars Park Community Primary School, and hello to Stowmarket library.

The Cube has moved from the primary school, where it took pride of place in the main reception area, and will now spend a month at the library, before moving on to the Museum of East Anglian Life (MEAL) in the summer.

To mark its arrival at the library we ran a special Sunday morning craft activity for children.

Artist Caitlin Howells brought a collection of dolls and the group discussed how dolls had changed over the generations – from china dolls with painted faces to Action Man and Barbie.

They then made their very own fantasy characters – including Blue Striker, Steve, and the White Arrow.

During August, Suffolk at Play will be running FREE family workshops at the Museum of East Anglian Life (MEAL).

The workshops will run on Tuesday 9th, Thursday 11th and Tuesday 16th August and include craft activities with Caitlin Howells, creative writing with Dean Parkin and animation sessions with Emma Curtis.

Places are limited and must be booked, which you can do via the MEAL website at their online store – museum-of-east-anglian-life.myshopify.com/collections/events-and-activities

Suffolk Artlink Annual Review

Suffolk Artlink’s review on our activities in 2015/2016 has been published. Over the year we worked with 2,546 people including family carers, people with learning disabilities, older people and young people at risk of exclusion and in hospitals and hospices. We worked in all 7 districts in Suffolk and employed 42 freelance artists to deliver our work. To have a look at the full review go to www.suffolkartlink.org.uk/annual-reviews/

Jumpstart

In Lowestoft it seems amazing looking back on the last few weeks of the Carnival Module and what the students have achieved and how much effort everyone put in to make the exhibition at the Coconut Loft such a success. The African animal inspired masks looked very colourful and eye-catching in the venue’s new annex. Richard the venue manager was delighted with the result and remarked upon the high standard of work that the JumpstART students achieve in all of their exhibitions. The Lowestoft journal and local photographer Ben Jackson covered the event and captured the festivities and the pride of the students perfectly!

The exhibition was followed a week later by the Southwold Arts Festival which held a ‘circus’ carnival down the high street. There was quite a group of us participating in a vibrant parade with samba music and dancing in front of crowds of people!  The day came to a wonderful conclusion with JumpstART students winning best group entry and Natasha and Penny winning best mask.

We had a great finale to the Carnival Arts course in Bury St Edmunds with a procession through the streets to the photography exhibition at the Cathedral Cloisters. Students dressed in their costumes, masks, head dresses and back packs. The multicoloured portraits taken by Jeremy Webb brilliantly captured the work everyone created.

In Ipswich we had a screening of the Carnival film created by the students,and an exhibition of all the artwork created.  We had a great turn out at the Town Hall Galleries in Ipswich and the students were very keen to talk about their work and ahcievements.

We’re now running tasters for the next course which will be run by poet Dean Parkin, Jazz Musician Maurice Horhut, artists Caitlin Howells, Kasia Posen and Gareth Bayliss. For this module, we’ll create poems, music and artwork and create a film with film at the end.

We’re running Explore Days for anyone interested in Ipswich at the Jerwood Dance House on 3rd and 10th August, in Bury at the St Johns Centre on 9th August, and in Lowestoft at the Bethel on 18th and 25th August. Contact Charlie or Fran for more information via 01986 873955 or [email protected] / [email protected]

Forget me not Visitors                                         

The Forget Me Not Visitors have been back on the Wards at Ipswich Hospital over the summer months. With instruments and creative kit in hand, they have been engaging patients living with dementia. One Forget me not artist shares a little about their experiences: ‘With patients we have shared smiles, raspberry blowing, comforting strokes, holding and cuddling for reassurance and comfort. The use of music, the ukulele, bells, thumb piano, iPad and humming, singing, tapping and clapping with strong beats, these have all contributed to connections. Some of the most magical moments have been when you get an eyebrow moving in recognition, a head that is slumped moves up, the whole body posture changes and you are able to maintain eye contact this is truly touching. It is in this moment we have tapped into the individual, a meeting is made’.

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Culture Club

Suffolk Artlink is working with Steeds Meadow Sheltered Housing to set up a singing group for their residents. Working with artist Mary Lovett, sessions begin this month with the aim to enable the group to continue singing together beyond the project.

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Interchange

The interchange project has now come to an end with a celebratory exhibition at Jerwood Dance House and additional exhibitions at the Cut in Halesworth and at Suffolk Family Carers’ Summer Party. The group’s artwork gained great feedback with comments such as ‘The prints are absolutely amazing, they should be so proud’ and ‘The artwork is really unique, it’s a fantastic collection of prints and it’s even more amazing that all the artists are Young Adult Carers!’.

We are very proud of the Young Adult Carers and their commitment to the project, we had great feedback from them too. ‘I’ve learnt a lot about myself. I didn’t know I had art in my personality but it’s definitely something I would keep doing in the future’, ‘It’s amazing to have something exhibition-worthy, I’m really proud!’, ‘I’ve really enjoyed it, it’s given me respite [from caring] and something to look forward every week.’

Rock Up

We are coming to the end of the current Rock Up music project in Lowestoft – but before we pack away the decks and stick the guitars back in their bags, we’re hoping to run a Summer School in late July, for one final Rock Up and Roll fling.

At the beginning of the month, a young man came to the session, evidently delighted with a mix he had created: for many months now he’s been working on a particular type of sound, and finally he’d achieved what he wanted.

He was keen to play it for all of us – and then explained at length that it was because of the support and tutoring he’d received at Rock Up that he had been able to create his special sound.

He considered it a new starting point, a watershed, an opportunity for broadcasting and sharing his music and developing his particular style and technique – all thanks to the hours he’d spent working away at Rock Up.

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Creative Company

Over the last month we have mostly been making stunning sunflowers, fabulous fish and gorgeous gardens.

Our regular sessions started in Hadleigh, where artist Sara Harrington led the group in a deconstruction – and then re-construction – of Van Gogh’s sunflowers, with amazing results.

The following session Sara used J Vincent Scarpace’s abstract fish to explore contrasting colours – and again the results were very beautiful.

Meanwhile, Caitlin ran a taster session for the regular Meet and Mingle group in Stowmarket, and this time it was fantasy gardens they made. As one participant remarked:

“I used to do this as a child, I never thought I’d be doing it again, but it’s been a lovely way to spend an afternoon.”

Two ladies, who had recently visited Hampton Court Gardens, set about creating their very own miniature version and clearly thoroughly enjoyed the experience. “It’s been such fun, and so much easier to maintain than my own garden back home.”

Clown Round

The Clown Round team were delighted to receive generous funding from The Simon Gibson Charitable Trust and the Essex Community Foundation this month. The support from our funders makes this project possible, so we are immensely grateful for every penny that is raised. The Clown Doctors have been frolicking around at the Fisher Theatre, Bungay this month, for a play morning led by Chris Draude and Filomena Cristallino (aka Dr Misschief and Dr Fidget). Chris led an in-depth discussion into the differences between Clowning and Clown Doctoring, followed by some song sharing with Filomena.

The day before our play morning, two of our Clown Doctors, Lucy Enskat and Kim Moore (aka Dr Dizzy and Dr Quiver) had only just returned from volunteering with fellow artist Alfie Carpenter for Care4Calais. They managed to take vital supplies with them, help with distribution and bring smiles to many faces in their short visit. Alfie managed to capture a beautiful moment they had with three refugees, singing songs in the rain, huddled under an umbrella (see picture below). You can read more about the trip on our blog: www.suffolkartlink.org.uk/clown-doctors-head-calais/

Some of the Clown Round team have also been to see the Magic Adventure installation at the St Georges Theatre, Great Yarmouth this month. An inspirational and immersive piece for babies and toddlers, offering the Clown Doctors an opportunity to be inspired and learn new skills to take to the wards.

 

Bridge Project

June has seen the completion of the Bridge project at Westwood Primary School, culminating in a beautiful mural painted by students from years 1,2,3,4,5 and 6. The mural is paired with little coin boxes for the students to play a game with, these are focused around their learning behaviour characters that they have developed during this project.

The project has also got underway at Reydon Primary School with artist Kasia Posen this month. The first artist led day was spent exploring character art, techniques and ideas for the final artwork. Reydon have decided that they are going to paint a stylised mural at the back of the school. Kasia has been working with the students to develop simplified and geometric looking characters for the painting.

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Other Employment Opportunities:

Pacitti Company are looking for a SPILL Volunteer Coordinator to lead on the engagement, recruitment and management of volunteer support for the upcoming SPILL Festival of Performance in Ipswich, 26 October – 30 October 2016.

Closing date: Thursday 28 July, 12pm noon
For further details visit: pacitticompany.com/opportunities-for-the-upcoming-spill-festival/

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