Windswept Workshops
‘Tell us a story in black ink or charcoal. Tell us story with your whole body or just your index finger. Tell us a story with puppets made from leaves or tin cans or your dad’s old socks. Tell us a story with juggling balls and wear the gold mask you made or paint your face blue. If you’re a dancer or a photographer or a nurse or a plumber, we’d love to share a cake and make stories with you’
Windswept Workshops began in December 2019, and is a community arts organisation based in Birmingham. I am one of Windswept’s founders and co-directors, alongside Erin Gilbey and Charlotte Hooper.
Windswept runs creative arts workshops, courses and events with a general focus on storytelling. We aim for our work to be accessible for those with disabilities, financial barriers, or different cultural backgrounds. Our journey began with writing, and one of our longest projects has been our Writing Community, however we also
make masks and puppets, educate emerging artists around freelance, produce a range of arts provision, and teach equipment-based circus skills as well. Our goal is to have more accessible, long-term creative arts provision in the heart of local communities, and co-create it with our participants.
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Through Windswept I facilitated many circus, writing and craft workshops for a range of different companies. I have also co-produced these events, exhibits and performances:
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1) Theatre in a Shoebox- 2020
2) The Festival of Dreams- 2020
3) Brum Rebuilt- 2021
4) Between Bus Strops- 2022
5) Talking Benches- 2022
6) History Trail- 2022
7) Tales from the Cascade- 2023
8) Northfield Storytelling Fesitival- 2023
To find out more, visit our website: Creative arts workshops | Windswept Workshops | Birmingham
Multistory
Citizen Journalists
For three years, 2021-2023, I ran Multistory’s Citizen Journalists programme alongside the Multistory team. We worked with up to eight young journalists between 16 and 25 to create a community publication around Wednesbury. I ran interviews, idea generation workshops, writing sessions and editing workshops with the group (both online and in-person). I then worked with each writer one-on-one to edit their work.
To read the first edition of the magazine, follow this link here: We Are Wednesbury2.indd (multistory.org.uk)
Sandwell Stories
For two years, I worked with Multistory on their Sandwell Stories podcast. We worked with up to ten community members to create their own podcast episodes around different themes. We brought in guests to train them in the different elements of podcast making, and then launch their podcasts on Spotify.
To listen to last years podcasts, follow this link here: https://open.spotify.com/show/3H5s7ByegDojnOQq1g0sBN?si=db188dcb970a4134
Moseley Road Baths
Young Curators
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In March 2023, I was hired as Creative Producer for a new project called Young Curators with Moseley Road Baths. It was a ten month project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The job was to support six emerging digital curators to curate a digital output inspired by the baths. My role included:
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Visioning and researching the project
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Recruiting the six young curators (18-30 years old)
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Leading development opportunities for the group
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Facilitating monthly sessions with the group
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Producing additional programming to engage young people in the local area
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Creating the digital output decided by the group
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Managing the 50k budget
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Evaluating the project and coordinating with the core team
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The young curators decided to create a podcast called 'Bathcasts', which is a podcast which interviewed people connected to Moseley Road Baths within a bathtub (namely the slipper bath in Moseley Road Baths). Comedian Rachel Baker interviewed six people across six episodes. Around these interviews is original poetry and music commissioned for the project. Lastly, the podcast is designed to listened to in your bath at home, so it starts and ends with a guided meditation, which is when you are encouraged to enter and exit the bath. To produce Bathcasts I:
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Recruited a team to create it, including: the interview host, a videographer, a sound recorder and a graphic designer
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Led a callout and selection process for five musicians and five poets to create original work. I then supported this artists
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Organised interviewees and interview days
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Ran many baths
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Wrote marketing assets for 'Bathcasts'
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Commissioned bathtub models for a bath trail around the local area to market the podcast
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Organised a trip to Glasgow for a special episode of 'Bathcasts'
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Produced the launch of 'Bathcasts', which involved a bathtub cake and performances from all ten of our artists
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All in all, it was an incredible project. I worked for 75 days on it in total and really enjoyed every second of it!
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To listen to 'Bathcasts', follow this link: https://open.spotify.com/show/0ucps5aBc9JIODSDqRr8i5?si=21854c88037d4ad5
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