Events & Projects
Holiday and Community programme
We know that there are many brilliantly creative children in our diverse and vibrant community of Barton Hill, and over the past year we have enjoyed sharing their creativity and imaginations through our holiday and community activities such as Inside Story and Curious Things.
For many children and families in our community, opportunities to play and be creative are few and far between, now more than ever. Our community of Barton Hill is particularly affected by social distancing and school closures with many families living in high rise flats with no gardens and lack of space to play.
We found out from our local children’s centre at the Wellspring Settlement that many families had requested help with craft materials.
In response, we have been working with Travelling Light artist and designer, Edwina Bridgeman, to create high quality story based craft boxes with all materials included. These have been distributed to local families in need who come to the settlement for support. You can find out more about the inspiration for our activity boxes here and read about the feedback received here.
We are delighted to have been awarded funds from The National Lottery’s Awards for All for a year-round programme of holiday and community activities. This funding will enable us to offer creative activities to support wellbeing and resilience in our community during the current crisis and beyond.
Kitchen Circus
The Kitchen Circus project is an ongoing collaboration between three Bristol neighbourhoods and organisations, Travelling Light (Barton Hill), Cirque Bijou (Easton) and Knowle West Media Centre (Knowle West).
Three families from in-and-around our neighbourhoods are connecting virtually with artists who specialise in storytelling, visual art and street theatre, to co-create thoughtful, play-filled time, investigating ideas and hidden stories which are built from the place we call home. The families are working with Megan Clark-Bagnall, Mike Akers, Megan Vaughan-Thomas, Leeza Awojobi and Grapevine.
The heart of this project is about creating time to form connections, think deeply and experiment with ideas and stories that want to be told.
This summer the collaboration will also reach out to invite families' neighbours to take part in their creations. Thinking about home in a holistic way, from the place we sleep to our wider natural world. It seems more important than ever to allow families, artists and organisations to reflect on the importance of family, home and what it means to us as we move through the current crisis.
We look forward to sharing more about this project as it develops.