Make Art Happen (2014 – 2018)

Leisureworks is a health and community wellbeing trust dealing with leisure, sports, arts and culture, which has spun out from Local Authority. The Make Art Happen programme was brokered through an existing fruitful working relationship with Helix Arts staff. Aims were linked to capacity-building for user-led social proscribing activity for mental health and wellbeing as a sustainability strategy in response to potential loss of future funding; as well
as offering extension activity for existing participants who were potentially ready for additional challenge and development.

The Old Low Light is a three storey listed building based inside the Clifford’s Fort on the Fish Quay in Tynemouth. A former fish warehouse, it was transformed in 2014 as a heritage centre. The organisation formerly known as The Net is managed by a voluntary organisation. Through taking part in Make Art Happen The Old Low Light benefitted from volunteer development and capacity building, and has since continued to deliver participatory arts and heritage projects.

Working with Mind, Helix Arts partnered up to deliver Make Art Happen enabling the participants to produce arts projects which are not only participatory but encourage mindfulness and improve people’s mental wellbeing. This resulted in a 10 week art journaling programme with each week focusing a new technique.

Blakelaw Ward Community Partnership took part in MAH in 2015. Working with a group of children, the team planned and produced an alternative pantomime for the local community.

The aim of the project was to create  visual artwork made up of multiple components that were created by a wide range of local people from Bill Quay and Pelaw. The artwork used the themes of nature and/or local history as its inspiration. 

Participants worked together to take part in the training and plan ‘Telling Tales’. Telling Tales was developed by a volunteer project team which was born from a capacity building programme “Make Art Happen.” Working in collaboration with lead artist Effie Burns it was designed to enable the older people who live in wardened accommodation in Birtley to share their untold stories.

Bensham and Teams Arts Project is worked to provide a programme of high quality Participatory Visual Arts and music activities for residents of Bensham and Teams in 2016. Creating an artwork using recycled materials and sound to enhance the local urban environment.

Emerging artists took part in our Make It Happen Course in 2016. Using their new skills the artists in both teams and individually provided 5 local projects to Gateshead to allow members of community to engage in participatory art.

Helix Arts ran a free training course for residents of Darlington providing the opportunity for participants to develop skills and run their own art project in Red Hall, Darlington.

Initially taking part in our eight week course, participants used their new skills to plan and facilitate a free day of high quality workshops for community members. “Create, Stay and Play” was open to all ages and encouraged the development of social skills, an interest in the arts, health and wellbeing and community spirit.

Partnering with Perigrini Landscape Partnership, Make Art Happen participants developed a project to help raise awareness, take part in conservation and celebrate island. Encouraging members of the local community to take part, the Make Art Happen team ran a series of workshops and art walks with both artists and local experts to make a creative responses to the area. These responses were then turned into art books and final peices which were exhibited at the end of the project.

The Cultural Spring is an ACE-funded strategic Arts Participation Development programme for communities in 10 areas of low cultural provision and high deprivation located across Sunderland and South Tyneside.
The Make Art Happen programme aim was to push forward the community champion’s group, local people’s level of engagement from taking up participatory opportunities to decision-making, management and delivery; building the skills base in the local area.

Sangini Whist was a compact Make Art Happen Project in South Tyneside.  Working over several sessions, participants planned and facilitated ‘Rewild Yourself’.  Focusing on the power of plants and flowers, community members took part in varying workshops which included pop up garden books, creative seed packets and print making.

Students took part in two cohorts of our Make Art Happen Compact in spring 2017 and 2018. Developing skills to create their own projects, participants worked together to build their own projects. This included the project ‘Mapping Yourselves’ with RT projects.