Student’s volunteering at Helix Arts

Posted on: 23rd June 2023

I'm Daryna, a student from Queen Alexandra and this week I'm participating in Helix Arts as a volunteer. Expectations, to be honest, were completely different from what it was in the end. When I came to the office on the first day, I did not think that we would attend so many interesting events.

Falling on Your Feet

This is a program for people aged 65+ that offers the opportunity to work with professional artists to maintain physical health and make new friends through dance.

Based on what is written on the site, I imagined that it would be some kind of long event, something like spontaneous learning of a silent theatrical dance performance.

Before attending the event, we bought sweets and drinks for tea, and then went to the Segedunum Roman Fort and Museum. At the beginning, everyone warmed up, then the organiser brought a box with headphones for all participants. It was called “silence disco”, the point was that everyone danced and walked around the room to the rhythm of the music, and when it died down, they took any position they wanted.

Then half of the participants danced with headphones on their heads, and the other half of the participants had to guess what kind of music was playing by the movements of their bodies.

In fact, this event turns forced physical exercises, which, let’s face it, few people like to do – into a game. People laugh and have fun during the process, which is no less important than physical activity, and also associate themselves with art. Easy dancing, exercise and fun is what makes “Falling on Your Feet”.

Real Voice Celebration

This is a youth program that will allow participants to build their confidence, skills and voice in music. In the first year, participants receive master classes, and in the second year they can find more freedom by forming groups, writing songs and rapping on topics that are important to them.

When I went to the celebration, I had no idea how it would be, I knew the essence, but I could not imagine the exact picture. Will it be a big event or a small one, how will it go?

Joseph and I arrived just as all the equipment, chairs and food were being set up. We helped a little bit everywhere, and then sat in the hall and listened to the participants rehearse their performances.

I liked how everything was organised: even the stage decorated with light bulbs complemented the atmosphere. Sometimes I play the guitar and sing as a hobby, so it was very pleasant for me to watch what was happening, all the people did their best.

It’s funny, but in this event, I got more experience not even from helping to arrange equipment and buying pizza, but from the trip to the right place. It was a really long trip for 2 hours, after which it was also necessary to find the right place, which, for some reason, Google maps showed incorrectly. It was a long and eventful day, which I am very satisfied with.

Artists' Agency Networking event support

It was an event to meet and support creative professionals. People showed their presentations, and then sat in groups at tables and talked to each other.

In this event, unlike others, we were from the very beginning to the end. When we arrived, the room was still empty and we were laying out the necessary things.

What I remember most of all was the opportunity to take pictures with a camera. I rarely ever had to use this and it was a little nervous, but I understood what was happening. I didn’t think about it before, but now I realised that when you take photos for an event, you need to watch people. I’m not talking about a beautiful picture, but about movements, I tried to photograph people when they actively gesticulated or had an active discussion with each other.

Art is the passion of my life, so it was nice to meet so many people associated with art in one place. The only difficulty for me that day was that English is my third language and it was difficult to take in so much information at once.

Exploration of a venue's cultural offer

The task was to describe what a good cultural offer for children and youth looks like, it could be done in any form.

I came up with a little comic book concept. This is that through the main character and her family, the pros and cones of cultural places are revealed, with the help of comics, it would be possible to instil interest in children and young people and offer them real places that the main characters visited.

The comic begins with the main character realising that her main interest is boring for her siblings and comes to the decision to question them and show them why these places can be exciting.