Strafagansa Celf 2000
A series of 6 one day arts sessions, to be held every Friday during the summer holidays at Llanfyllin Youth & Community Centre, commencing 23rd July. The final session, on 27th August, will consist of the setting up and a grand opening of an exhibition of all of the work produced. A maximum of 18 people, 12 with learning disabilities, will work with 3 different artists in a variety of media. The ratio of disabled people to artists will be no higher than 6:1 to allow for maximum interaction and participation. Celfogwmpas in Welshpool will assist with identifying potential participants and with project planning. The exhibition will tour to a variety of venues throughout Montgomeryshire.
Strafagansa Celf 2001
On Friday 25th August, people with Learning Disabilities from across Montgomeryshire will be joined by invited guests for a celebration of talent.
For the past four weeks the participants in the Summer Arts Extravaganza, run by Arts Connection in Llanfyllin, have been exploring their creative potential and learning new skills.
The exhibition will feature dance with Ray Jacobs, and African Drumming with Drwm Viate from Llanidloes, and we might just let the guests join in as well. On display are papier mache mirrors and trays made under the guidance of Ingrid Maughan, and the triptych collage created with Clare Martin, which will eventually decorate the day bases that the participants attend (Rhosllyn, Leighton and Mencap Area Resource). In addition work from Colourshop, Welshpool, and other projects will be on display.
The exhibition is a great chance to celebrate the spirit of co-operation and celebration which runs throughout the project, which is funded by Arts Connections’ Arts for All funding from ACW, a grant from Mencap, support from Leighton and Rhosllyn who allow their support workers to come along, and from the Montgomeryshire Volunteer bureau who help organise the drivers, as well as countless volunteers.
Strafagansa Celf 2002
Summer Arts Extravaganza 2002 held at Llanfyllin youth & Community Centre.
The main part of the Extravaganza this year took place as usual over the 5 Fridays in August. The workshops were fully attended by 24 participants with learning difficulties from Llanfyllin Mencap group, Leighton Day Base (Powys Social Services) and Rhoslyn, Abermule, a privately run home.
Divided into 2, each group had a day session of Yoga Dance, Play in a Day, Decorative clock making, Willow and tissue Mobiles and Felt making.
Yoga Dance led by Linda Ward comprised basic breathing techniques, stretching postures, lotus flower gentle dance variations as well as pairwork and relaxation exercises. Support workers commented on the noticeable benefits from seeing participants in a different environment. Some participants had been so relaxed they had fallen asleep earlier than usual that night.
Play in a Day led by storytellers Steve Gladwin and Celia Eve involved a narrated story, which was performed by the group at the end of the day. The story was broken down into sections, which were rehearsed over the day and then fitted together in a series of tableaux accompanied by the stories. The two stories were: The Departure of the Giants and The Death of Balder. Steve and Celia commented on the high quality of enabler support. We were all surprised that there was just enough time to perform these plays and thus there was a good feeling of accomplishment.
Decorative clock making, led by Ingrid Maugham, involved participants designing individual shapes to be used as a clock ‘face’, which was then cut out of wood for them. They painted a background to be used on their clock face, which was later decorated with mosaics, hologram paper, sequins and mirrors etc, to produce a finished clock. The results were lively, very colourful and unique.
Willow and Tissue Mobile making led by Helen Kozich began by her showing a finished piece to give everyone an idea of what they would be doing. First, pieces of willow were bent into shape, secured and then covered with coloured tissue paper. Some interesting and intricate mobiles were produced by the end of the session.
The Feltmaking workshop was led by Edna Griffiths and was a hugely ‘tactile’ experience! There was much enthusiasm and enjoyment during the process of pressing and rolling the wool. Each participant produced a rough square of colourful felt.
Unlike other years when workshops were split into 2 sessions over 2 weeks, this time there was artwork produced at the end of each day, something the participants appreciated. Jacky Titley manager of Rhoslyn commented that there was trouble finding space for all the artwork but everyone wanted them displayed.
For the 5th year running, groups from different local areas benefited from the experience of meeting together socially and working creatively in professionally led art workshops. These workshops were chosen specifically to provide a range of sensually stimulating opportunities to develop skills and creativity, movement and visualization, as well as interaction and teamwork.
This year Arts Connection was able to provide more enablers so participants benefited from 2:1 direct attention. Also this year we welcomed our first disabled volunteer enabler who came independently, having heard about the workshops from previous years.
Participants were very satisfied with the range of work they experienced and produced as well as the fun they had. Care workers were impressed by higher levels of ability, concentration and interaction made possible by the increased number of enablers.
Urban Strawberry Lunch Event
Theatre Llwyn 13th July 2002 - Two workshops, 10.30am - 12.30pm, 2.00pm - 4.00pm
‘Urban Strawberry Lunch’ is an innovative, Liverpool based band that play a funky blend of jazz, punk, avant-garde, drum & bass and traditional African drumming on instruments made of recycled materials. U.S.L. Play huge and bizarre instruments made out of waste pipes, plastic barrels and ping-pong bats.
The workshops were designed for people of any age and any ability to create music, learn and have fun together. The groups learned about rhythm and then composed and played as a group.
The universal entry fee was £1.00; a booking system was in place before the event and 90% of the participants booked before the event. Only about four people who booked failed to turn up.
There were 42 paying participants, eight enablers and three volunteers. The morning workshop largely consisted of parents and children and was very fast, the participants learned quickly and the resulting music was complex and of high quality.
Unfortunately the band turned up slightly late, which meant that people were left waiting around and we lost some of the teenage participants through this lapse, however, they came back in when the workshop warmed up and played hard right to the end.
Some of the smaller children found it too noisy and too physically tiring, they came back in the second half of the morning when the bat phones were used (waste pipes that you hit with bats, more melodic) and the adults tended to stay with the drums.
The Arts Connection Co-ordinator ran the day along with David Humphreys and Ingrid Maugham as volunteers. Kath Morrell attended in the afternoon and acted as enabler for William Huish voluntarily.
In the afternoon the participants were largely adults with special needs from Rosalyn Home in Welshpool, they bought a number of enablers with them (who seemed to enjoy themselves too). The rest of participants were mostly adults, there were three children who understandably took a long time to integrate into the group.
There was a very cooperative and supportive atmosphere in the afternoon session, with lost of communication going on between all the participants whatever their ability. The music was very original and more melodic.
The afternoon finished with a session outdoors in the sun as the instruments were being loaded into the van, this complemented the Primary School Fete on the adjoining school field. Some members of the public came over to see what we were up to and were very amused and interested by the spectacle.
It was a very successful day and really bought something new to the area that was fun and totally accessible. The participants really integrated and made links with each other and most people left feeling more confident about their ability to produce music and be creative.
The event was part of Arts Connection’s Summer Arts Extravaganza series of workshops and was funded by The National Lottery Fund, The Arts Council of Wales and a SPIRIT bid from PAVO.
Publicity resulting and leading up to the event is in the SAE file (esp. big pic. in Shropshire Star).
Christmas Arts Extravaganza
The final part of Summer Arts Extravaganza became Christmas Arts Extravaganza and took place on a Saturday in November. 18 participants from Mencap, Rhoslyn and Cae Melyn took part in a Xmas Decoration workshop with Ingrid Maugham. In addition a Christmas Craft Fair was held at the Public Institute in Llanfyllin, which included musical entertainment, art activity for children, and a craft demonstration. Arts Connection used this event to conduct a Community Consultation.
In the future we hope to make the Extravaganza available to even more participants.
The Summer Arts Extravaganza was run in partnership with MENCAP and Powys Social Services. The project ran from the 27th July to 24th August 2001, it consisted of five one-day workshops (each Friday) and culminated in a community event. This project was designed specifically with the needs of a user group of Adults with Learning Disabilities in mind. It provided a balanced programme of dance, drumming and visual arts and design for 12 participants per session.
Strafagansa Celf 2003
Four days of Summer Arts Extravaganza, our project for adults with learning disabilities, have taken place at the time of writing. Participants from Mencap Llanfyllin, Cae Melyn, Rhoslyn and Leighton Day Base have enjoyed Dance with Cher Mather, flapping birds with Ingrid Maugham, mobiles with Suzanne Brady, willow work with Caroline Lowe and rush panel weaving with Ingrid and Caroline. One project day took place at Lechwedd Du picnic area at LakeVyrnwy where a good time was had by all. Passers by joined in and the weather was mainly kind to us. The final two days of this project will take place at Theatr Clera in October where participants will work with Ginny Graham, Helen McGreary and Ingrid Maugham. Based on the theme of a good night out the two day event will culminate in a performance / party with invited audience. We have been fortunate this year in recruiting some new enablers to add to our existing pool as a result of a training course staged by Celf O Gwmpas. The project this year was supported by partnership funding from Mencap Llanfyllin and NIACE (Sign Up Campaign).
