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smallworld, 2000 saw its’ first large scale project, successful funding and many new networks formed. We have
worked with young people and families, running activity sessions and working with other groups. An exciting year with many
lessons learned and an overall feeling that we are on the right track. The response we have had from the organisations and,
most of all, the participants has been brilliant. We began with the belief that creative activity has an important and powerful
effect on people’s lives, that it can bring people together; this year has confirmed that belief. We now
need to sustain a level of activity throughout the year and develop the links we have made with youth & community groups
to continue to establish the organisation as a fundamental part of Keighley. This
year we have worked with 800
young people 15 organisations 7 artists In May
of this year we held an arts networking weekend at the Ponden Centre. Beautiful weather allowed a very informal, creative
weekend with lots of new and familiar faces including our first meeting with Pat who has since continued to be a source of
support, information and inspiration. The
withy workshop was run by Nikki Gunson who is undoubtedly the most excellent community artist in the country. With her guidance
the group produced lantern stars, a dolphin and fish lampshade, a tepee, the beginnings of ‘Mother Tongue’ later
exhibited at Communications at Keighley Arts Factory as well assorted other works of arts. The drumming sessions were run
by Joe Caswell whose superb skills had young and old playing together, sitting in the sun. A host of volunteers provided arts
for young children, food, tea and coffee and ensuring publicity and feedback was collected during the two days. After
the idyllic bliss of a sunny weekend in beautiful surroundings to the reality of doing our first large scale project. ‘Sheep
Race 2000’ came from wanting a local connection with the area. Side stepping the obvious Bronte choice and going for
the lowest common denominator, the town grew up on the woollen industry. Sheep. Sessions
began at Worth Valley (then) Middle School situated at the edge of Bracken Bank estate. The three classes produced a host
of giant, brightly coloured insects, flowers and banners. The high point was the overheard quote ‘I thought arts and
crafts was crap till I did this,’ from a young man who was already in trouble for taking a car without consent (twocing).
It provides an insight into young people’s opinion of creative activity, and the need to offer things which young people
want to do, which are fun and not linked to some ‘issue’. Art for arts sake, for the pure pleasure of creating
something. The
sessions continued all over Keighley for the next six weeks the last four at Keighley Arts Factory community arts space. Thanks
to a session we had done for Town Centre Management in the town centre the sessions were attended mainly by families with
some of the youth groups coming in minibuses. Most
people who attended found the venue difficult to find and not an accessible one. There were other problems associated with
the suitability of the venue, but it enabled an intensive period of activity which produced brilliant puppets, sheep and banners
from people of all ages. Both aspects of activity are vital to a healthy, creative community. Both have their differing aspects
but are essentially the same in that they provide an environment in which people can create. There
were many problems along the way most of which come down to resources, paying for extra workers to cope with different age
groups, transporting materials and sculptures and keeping up with associated administration. The
project ended with a day in the Town Hall Square, decorated with the collective creative product of 600 or so people from
across the town. With a twelve foot high Bo Peep rounding up giant racing sheep and an MC dressed in a fluorescent and sheepish
suit bellowing through his giant pink and purple megaphone. Activities
were on offer and a steady stream of young people took the opportunity to make a hat or a mask or join in a drum session.
The winner of the cardboard trophy was thrilled, though unfortunately we didn’t have time for the over 60’s
round despite requests. A fantastic start to what
we hope will be the first of many annual events. 2001
has been an exciting year for smallworld, a chance to review the previous year and move forward with the knowledge learned. A funding
package was put together to put on a summer project and day event in the town and small activities continued whilst new links
were made. Most notably the one with Prime Movers which has grown to become a vital part of smallworld and opened up a whole
new aspect of involvement in a wider community context. We were
successful in gaining funding through the Regional Arts Lottery Programme for summer activities and The Baring Foundation
& Keighley Area Panel provided the money to put on a day event. We now
also had an office space thanks to Ben at Click-On and when we out grew that we were offered space at the Keighley Volunteer
B and we now have regular sessions running with various Prime Mover groups. A big
thanks to Chris who has given us space, support and inspiration as well as the opportunity to work together to develop Small
World and Prime Movers. Over
the year we have worked with 1500
young people 20 organisations 10 artists Most
notably the summer project but there has been an underlying level of volunteer activity through work with youth groups and
community centres. Prime Movers, Winfield and Bracken Bank had Small World sessions. Decorating a community centre & meeting
room as well as a mural and two gala floats were going on during the early part of the year. The
summer project involved new artists Charlotte, Kerith and Alice from Hebden Bridge, most of whom have worked for long established
group Action Factory in Blackburn, a group with similar activities but a remit that covers the whole of the north west. Familiar
local artists Sarah, Julia & Rachel were also involved and Kathryn returned as a much appreciated volunteer, more experienced
and more confident, coping easily with leading a jewellery making session at the Asian Women and Children’s Centre. A giant
withy bird, an assortment of beautiful banners, drama, mask making, hat making, puppets, windsocks…….activities
in sites all over Keighley. Again the most successful being through youth groups already established, Highfield
was the lowest turn out as we have had no previous contact with the area. We distributed flyers and posters in the locality
but there was no local turn out, only previous participants. The
highlight was the week spent at Hainworth Wood. We had total run of the community centre for a week and local contact Amanda
spread the word. We sat there on the first morning expecting a similar turn out to Highfield, the first to arrive was Kate
who was there all the way through, closely followed by over 20 more each day for the next week. With brilliant knowledge and
communication skills Nikki helped the group turn out an array of vehicles, flowers and the king & queen of Keighley. Plus
various other bits and we set up a ‘compost corner’ for the younger participants who had come along with sisters
and brothers. After the first morning there was a crowd waiting to get in each time we arrived. A good finish to the project!
During
this time we secured funding for a year, from the National Foundation for Youth Music, to form a youth drumming band in Keighley.
We began taster sessions along side the arts projects in venues across Keighley and in the rural areas. September
the 1st was the date of the performance day, originally planned for the town centre the venue was changed for two reasons.
We did a drum day in late July as part of the Children’s Festival and they had also put on another two music days themselves:
over the summer there was an awful lot of negative reporting around the Lund Park area and a general feeling of tension after
the Bradford riot. What was fundamentally a youth problem became a race issue and reports seemed overblown to the people who
live locally, knowing that people believed a lot of it. So to redress the balance and bring a positive element into the equation
we moved the site to Lund Park. There
was a dry run the Saturday before with a session for Keighley Friends of the Earth ‘Green Fun Day’ with one marquee
to put up and the day was beautiful. Abilitate did recycled instruments and Small World volunteers occupied a succession of
children making whatever took their fancy. So at
7am on the 1st we were busy erecting a marquee in the dewy grass and sorting out the dozens of other things which needed to
be sorted out due to the change in venue. The artwork from the project decorated the park and a drumming, arts and youngsters
tents were set up. The bands arrived (and very kindly helped put up a marquee) people began to come and see what was going
on. The
Hainworth group paraded down from the community centre with the vehicles for the ‘Wacky Races’ and Nikki donned
her pink fairy persona. For the rest of the day over 250 people participated in the activities which ended with a parade round
the park, the giant bird looking glorious riding along the top of the procession. There were no major hassles and Dean &
Glynn from the Youth and Community Police team, who had come along in the morning, came back to be greeted by the end of the
parade and the end of a brilliant day. A huge
learning curve for Small World, lots of new experiences and most of all the response of the participants who confirm the need
and place for celebratory arts in communities. One
significant thing which became apparent over the weeks was the amount of young people who look after younger family members,
and the need to provide for this in future work in order to be inclusive. There are legalities with age limits, but are we
doing our job to turn away a 14 year old because she has a 6 year old sister whom she has to look after most of her holiday? For
the rest of 2001 and into 2002 we have been able to extend our range of activity. A successful bid from The Craven Trust allowed
the purchase of a CD mixer and sessions have been run at Prime Movers and the Asian Women & Children's Centre with more
planned for the Duke of Edinburgh and Bracken Bank. Banner making has accompanied the DJ sessions and the idea for the ‘Party
Posse’ project to train young people in a wide variety of skills to enable them to put on parties for members of their
local communities, from young to old. There are some fantastic opportunities within this project which is running with minimal
resources until funding is secured. There have been various short sessions across the town, despite an overall lack of community
space and structure. The current work being done to improve these facilities will allow a greater level and diversity of Small
World activity. Small
World has been working in Keighley since May 1999 to offer viable alternatives for young people in the area. Formed by local
people who have grown up with the same lack of choice which still exists and who had first hand knowledge of the huge potential
creative activity has in the development of individuals and community. In reality our work is as much about community development
as arts and over the last 3 years we have grown to suit the needs of a diverse youth population. Our
continued community activity has strengthened our networks and developed the organisation, providing Keighley with a creative
focus and raising the profile of arts as a part of life. This
has been a relatively quiet year, smaller projects and earlier on a more long term involvement with Prime Movers which, for
a while, absorbed a lot of time. The two groups have not worked together since the end of 2002 to allow each to redefine their
roles. We still come in contact with many of the participants and Small World has begun working directly with the schools
to offer opportunities to mentored young people. We are
keen to develop this work with schools and other organisations to access those most at risk and offer long term activities
which provide an environment for real change. Over
this year we have worked with: 1570
young people 11 organisations 15 artists During a re
draft of the constitution we set out our objectives as follows. Target young
people aged 8-18 from the urban & rural disadvantaged areas, working with schools, referral agencies, other organisations
and local youth workers. Provide regular
after school drop-in sessions. Provide a creative
community network based at central premises and reaching out all over Keighley, encouraging volunteer involvement from local
neighbourhoods. Offer training
and activities to provide volunteers with the ability to use creative skills in their communities. Employ professional
artists in to inspire and stimulate and offer skills and motivation, working on celebratory events at local centres and central
locations. Offer basic
training, advice, support and guidance to enable capacity building and paths to further education, training & employment
through local voluntary and statutory organisations. Develop a broad
range approach to creative activity as a tool for individual and social change. Actively encourage
representation by the users of the project on the Management Committee. No large scale
project was planned for this year, to allow a concentrated effort to fund premises and worker. All to no avail when our constitution
came back as not being suitable for a charitable organisation! A valuable
lesson learned and with Jenni Dansons help we were able to re draft it. We had lots of smaller projects to keep us busy however
with our summer presence in the Town Centre and continued involvement with Prime Movers. Culmination
of the Cliffe Castle mural project working with pupils from Greenhead &
Eastwood schools. Winter DJing
and banner activities at Parkwood
Young Peoples Centre. Continuation
of the drum group with Stuart & Adam working with a fluctuating group of young people initially at the Keighley Volunteer Bureau and later at the Shared
Church Hall. Prime Mover activities including video.
A short film was produced to explain the origins and development of the project. Start of the
Youth Voice video project working to give young people a platform for their views and opinions. Drama project
with the Bangladeshi Community Association for a performance at the Multi Faith day in Cliffe Castle
park. DJ, drumming,
banner and arts sessions with the Dalton
Lane boys group. Sessions for
Bradford Youth Service ‘Splash’ scheme. Day event for
Town Centre Managements Children’s
Festival with performance and activities. Transition
day for Greenhead mentor scheme. Mural with
Southward Youth Project. Jewellery sessions
at Keighley Asian Women and Children's
Centre. Music compilation
for Keighley Asian Women and Children's Centre fashion show for International Women’s Day. Beginning of
mural project with mentored pupils at Oakbank
School. Smallworld is now in it’s fourth year of operation and having relocated to a smaller space, we have
concentrated on the work we do within the community and schools. This has continued to be a fundamental part of our work as
we build up a presence and exposure and ensure we reach those most in need. Smallworld has continued to have a strong ground level presence in Keighley, despite lack of premises
and the struggle to continue based at the co-ordinators home. The good news is we secured funding from the Arts Council to
allow us to find premises. Whilst this has proved harder than it sounds we continue to seek a building which fulfil smallworld’s
needs. We have also secured funding for a part time worker which will provide community based development work. With funding from the Arts Council & the Baring Foundation we have been working with different groups
around Keighley to provide activities for young people with a fantastic summer project featuring young volunteers working
alongside professional artists to create a performance with puppets large and small to the beat of the drummers. Over 2003-2004 we have worked with 2832 Young People 15 Local Artists 11 Local Organisations Holycroft School Wall Art -
Artists; Shanaz Gulzar & Sarah MacHenry – years 4, 5 & 6 helped to create dozens of pieces of wall art to brighten
up the drab corridors of the new extension. Oakbank Mentor Mural – working with Carla from the Mentor team at Oakbank to design and
paint a mural for the ‘Oasice’ room. Keighley Asian Women & Children’s Centre Drama
- Artist: Sara Thomson – producing a play looking at the effects of girls & women in Bangladesh who had been disfigured
by acid attacks. Bangladeshi Community Association Drama - Artist: Sara Thomson – themed as above with a different story. Drumming Band - Tutor:
Stuart Kaplan, Assistant: Adam Goodison Braithwaite School - Artists:
Richard Jenkinson, Sonia Morrell, Richard Burns – a performance which encompassed dance, music technology and visual
arts. A video was produced for the school of the summer show which included the performance. Hainworth Wood Gala Float – a large group created an outrageous yellow submarine and dragon
decorated a huge wagon with a sea theme, a delighted group won TWO first prizes. Highfield Boys Group - video sessions, banners & a bit
of digital art. Kirin Project - video
sessions out and about in Highfield. Wishes of Keighley - Artists:
Shanaz Gulzar, Diana Bayliss, Charlotte Zunder & Julia Burns. Young Women's Day - in cooperation with Susan Brown
of Keighley Young Women's Unit. Boys Learning Club - Sara
Thomson, Shanaz Gulzar & Daren Medley worked with a large group of boys from the Lawkholme / Showfield areas of Keighley
to produce drama, video & music pieces. Hainworth Wood Project - Keighley
Healthy Living Network commissioned Small World to work with 8-12 year olds in what is a very deprived area & work with
the PCT has succeeded in transforming the tuck shop into a healthy food outlet. 2004 -
2005 Chair persons report. Small World’s fifth year has brought important changes. We are now a registered charity, which increases
our financial and other inclusive opportunities. The range of organisations, both statutory and voluntary, which we work with,
continues to grow, along with the list of creative people working in partnership for us. Smallworld has now moved into the
new building on Russell Street, and considerable work has taken place to enable groups to use this dedicated space, along
with the installation of additional electronic facilities for music and visual art work. The Worker’s Report indicates our wide range of existing activities, both inside and outside the building.
Once two further tasks have been completed in the building, it will be fully usable throughout the week and the year, and
we will expand our publicity so as to ensure that local organisations are aware of Smallworld’s capacities. In addition,
the building itself will be available for use by relevant groups and organisations. We are looking forward to another exciting and creative year. Welcome to another exciting year at smallworld which has found us with our first premises
for sustained youth art & development and a part time development worker for a year. We took lease on a large building
at 20, Russell Street thanks to a grant from the Arts Council with match funds coming from Bradford Council. The building (or smallworld cp as it has become known) was a lot bigger project than we originally
intended but is very central and offers a huge amount of potential for future development. Our volunteer architect/builder/joiner has been working hard to create a beautiful and inspiring
place with echoes of Gaudi, from a very limited budget but lots of good ideas. An artwork in its own right. We are due to take our first group in April with more bookings coming and planned projects
of our own. The first step towards our goal of regular accessible activity for young people. We have also taken on a part time development worker to expand our user base which has given
many more young people in Keighley the opportunity to try out smallworld’s own special brand of community arts. The
post is funded by Children In Need for 12 months and began in June of 2004. This year we have worked with 2454
young people 16 organisations 5 local
artists Two sessions planned with Nicola Corrigan who runs the young parents group, very small turnout
but the activities which included digital t-shirt printing & jewellery were enjoyed by those parents & children who
came. The continued work with the Hainworth youth group involved work with drama tutor Sara Thomson
to put on a production of Cinderella & the Godfather. Local artist Pam, provided some brilliant costumes and for the first
time we actually had several parents turn up to support their offspring. Two days in the summer for the successful summer scheme organised and run by the mentors from
Guardhouse School. This was the first time they had included arts and it was very well attended. The children made dragonflies,
mobiles and monsters as well as a variety of freestyle pieces. Working with the Southward Youth Service team, the kids produced a large mural for the side
of the building in Bracken Bank. On the theme of health with poetry from a previous smallworld participant the work was done
over five evenings and two days. With a riot of bright colours and some digital photography which allowed the kids themselves
to be part of the art. Unfortunately one of the panels was damaged, though it has now been redone by smallworld we are still
waiting for it to be picked up and replaced by the Youth Service! Another Youth Service project to provide holiday activities at their base at Parkwood. Mobiles,
dragonflies and digital imaging ran alongside dance, graffiti and other activities. Not a fantastic attendance but those who
came did seem to enjoy. Smallworld spent the day with a girls group at the wonderful Blackhill camp outside Wilsden making dragonflies
and mobiles. These two events were aimed at finding out what the young people in Keighley with special
needs would like in terms of activities. Planned by Tariq at the Asian Disability Network the children made banners which
allowed them to put forward their ideas and feelings about what they would like to see in Keighley. A fantastic project, the last of the Arts Council funded activities was a film, written and
performed by young people who also made the costumes and props. With the help of excellent artists Shanaz Gulzar, Sarah MacHenry
and Sally Stone the scenes were shot in the beautiful setting of Cliffe Castle grounds and the team were based in the education
room. With lead artist Shanaz Gulzar, the group from three different schools looked at similarities
between Christianity & Islam through shared stories. The techniques included digital imaging and traditional art media. A project set up with Susan Brown of the Youth Service to provide young women at risk with
a creative outlet with which to express themselves. We have worked with groups from all three secondary schools who have produced
a ‘secret diary’ for each participant. Continued work with Holycroft School using digital and traditional media to produce artwork
for the gallery, this time through a fruity man! A one day session with the BCA girls group, they made mobiles, silks and hats. A fantastic 3 month project with year 4 class of mixed ability kids alongside parents who
devised their own story about aliens who come to school to enlist the help of class 4B in rescuing the children from their
planet who had been turned into monsters by a wicked witch…..! The kids became part of the story as magnetic astronauts.
Brilliant. A short project about healthy eating to produce a mobile and sample some new and exotic foods. Chair Persons Statement This
has been a year of consolidation for smallworld, and establishing the organisation in its base in Russell Street. The ground
floor of the building and the upstairs office space are now attractive, warm in the winter, and fit for use after much hard
work, and as part of a the agreement for a longer term lease, the roof should be made sound, so that the whole of the upper
floor can also be used. Although
improving the building has been the priority, the work of smallworld has continued to expand, and the organisation has gained
valuable publicity from, for instance, taking part in the Gala, where the entry won two prizes; the lantern procession for
the Peace Festival, and particularly from the involvement with the Keighley Tapestry. This proved to be far more time-consuming
than was anticipated, as many groups needed help with ideas and design skills, but has also lead to useful links with other
local groups, and the potential for additional use of the building. Smallworld
has enormous potential for expansion because of its local base and variety of links in Keighley, but this needs to be planned
carefully so that expansion and resources keep pace, and the focus remains on young people and the arts. During the coming
year, we want to complete a development business plan and also increase our income by exploring further use of existing resources. Sylvia
Watts Chairperson This has been another year of developments and progress and moving towards excellent arts provision for young people
and the community of Keighley. Our base at Russell St was ready to use at the beginning of the year with our first group attending
in April. From then on there was a gradual build-up from then despite the low temperatures, and with the heater finally being
installed in January we now have fully functioning, and very beautiful premises. With a large messy area & a small computer
suite, we are able to offer a range of facilities from basic visual arts and carnival arts & crafts to digital photography,
video production and music recording and arrangement. There is therefore the opportunity for a wide range of creative activity with a very broad appeal. The need to ensure
that the building was usable has been the priority this year, and this has meant that major expansion in our work has had
to wait. However, we continue to maintain a strong community presence amongst the schools and community centres in the area, with continued long term
contacts and new partnerships evolving over the year. We have shown over this year what we can achieve with very few resources (one part time worker, lots of volunteer hours
and a limited budget), to really move forward we will need to look at a business plan to develop the organisation and space
effectively. This year we have: Provided over 3600 participant places Worked with 26 other organisations & schools Worked with 4 local artists Worked with 5 youth & 3 adult volunteers This was part of our Creative Writing project working with disaffected girls groups from secondary schools in the area.
Because the school had problems getting the group together initially, this meant that we had only 8 weeks to work with the
girls, but despite this it has been one of the most successful groups so far. A mixed Asian/English group from year 8 they
are girls who may experience bullying and have low self esteem. The project at smallworld has been a chance for the girls
to acquire new skills, express themselves and produce a quality piece of work in their books. They have done silk painting,
felting (very popular) transparency drawings and lots of digital imaging. There was little difficulty in motivating them,
with one girl pulling poems out of her pocket which she had written. They have been a wonderful group to work with and the
building has provided an inspiring setting for them. To be away from the often hard setting of school and to have time to
do something different has encouraged them to develop as people in a positive way. This was a similar project, but a very different group. These girls had few apparent problems with confidence but were
getting into some potentially dangerous situations outside school and were very disruptive in school. They have been a much
harder group to motivate although they have done a good amount of artwork and poetry. They give little away during the sessions
and it was only on reviewing their feedback forms and questionnaires that we have been able to really see how they have benefited
from their time at smallworld. There were some quite touching comments and we would like to continue working with some of
the group if they still have problems attending school. A group of Asian girls from the Highfield and Lawkholme areas of Keighley, they have done a 6 week course, extended
to 9 weeks, doing a range of artwork. There has been some excellent work with digital imaging as well as more traditional
textiles based work. The group has been run in conjunction with Keighley Asian Women & Children's Centre with co-worker
Famida Hussain. Small World in partnership with Keighley Healthy Living Network provided space for the youth summer scheme which ran
for 4 weeks. We provided the space for the induction of the groups and also provided 2 full days of activities for the each
group, 8-12s & over 13 girls. The scheme was the first big test of our resources as we were expecting anything up 40 participants.
In the event the actual numbers varied between 12 and 27 and we found the building coped admirably. Not only in the creative
activity but also during lunch when the kids were able to let off steam by playing soft football! The scheme was felt to have
been a success and the building had provided a service which would otherwise not have been available in such a central and
neutral environment. This is a small parent-run group which had been based at an out of centre location but had wanted to expand its user
group and attract more young people. It is aimed at 5-9 year olds and currently has about 12 children of diverse backgrounds
attending with several parents involved. One of the problems had been the activities at their previous location which created
an unacceptable level of mess for the building they were in. They have thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of the creative space
at smallworld and intend to do a publicity drive to increase the numbers of young people accessing the sessions. As a parent
led group they have little in the way of funds and we are currently charging only a small fee which is affordable. This will
be reviewed after a trial period. The Scale club makes & paints models for tabletop gaming. The club is entirely male and we are looking at ways
to diversify the content, looking at developing a ‘Keighley’ game using local geography and place names. It has
been running for a few months, is still ongoing and again we will be looking at a publicity drive to increase involvement. The Gala Club was set up to provide a space for people to learn the skills associated with providing sound and colour
in the gala procession. Keighley has one of the oldest running galas but in recent years the quality of entrants has declined
to the point where, at times, it resembles nothing more than a traffic jam, mainly due to the increasing difficulties in getting
insurance for lorries. We are working to provide a colourful walking tableau using traditional withy costumes, puppets & percussion. Current
membership is around 15 young people of varying ages including 3 young volunteers. We are planning to work with these volunteers
to put together a programme and apply for funding from the Children & Young Peoples Lottery Fund. This project, funded by the Local Network Fund, is working with local artist Shanaz Gulzar to produce a short animation
looking at the world through the eyes of young people. Focussing on national and international issues the group is learning
about animators and animation techniques using stop motion techniques, Flash MX and ToonBoom software. We are overseeing a town-wide project which is part of Bradford Diversity Exchange and aimed at linking communities.
We are working with 25 groups across Keighley, some outreach and some based at the building. It is a brilliant project which
has brought us into contact with a whole host of new groups and brought a whole new user range into the building, namely the
retired. They have been quite excited by the possibilities which smallworld premises can offer them. Many of these groups like
to keep themselves busy doing courses at college but as the choice narrows due to restructuring they find it more and more
difficult to access non-vocational activities. There has been a keen interest in local classes which we can explore more in
time. Although this is not solely youth work it does offer a lifeline to the community and also an increased use of the building. There are several other youth groups we are working with for this project as well as parent and tot groups, schools
and other community groups. The finished piece of work will be about 18 metres long and will be displayed at smallworld and
also at a central location for the Diversity Exchange launch before the individual panels are given back to the groups. One exciting part of the project is the ‘Come Together’ days which will be run later in the year at the
smallworld building and will be an opportunity for the different groups to come together to finish their individual pieces
and meet each other. Without the building this would not be possible and in fact we would not have taken on such a large project at all.
We are also encouraging groups to come and use the building to do their panel as it will offer them more choice and opportunities
to explore different mediums. We now have a number of young volunteers who attend various sessions in the building; we are keen to develop this part
of our work and are currently planning a bid to the Young Peoples Lottery to properly fund the work. Many of the volunteers
had come into contact with Small World through activities and wished to continue being involved. 16 year old Maryam came on
work placement from Greenhead school and now attends the Gala & Anim8 clubs, bringing her younger nieces to the latter.
Amy, 14, was part of a group who came to Small World from school on the girls’ creative writing course. She now
attends both Saturday clubs and also helps out at the Woodcraft group. smallworld is able to offer these girls a unique opportunity
which has the potential to be life changing, as art is, in a unique space with a huge range of media at their fingertips.
The future development of young volunteers in the organisation is key to disseminating art into the community. Not strictly speaking a youth group, JOIN is run by Sarah who we had previously met at our base at the Keighley Volunteer
Bureau. She contacted smallworld several months ago wishing to do an arts project, and when they finally received funding
earlier this year we planned the project to begin in June. The group consists of around 12 adults with special learning needs
and they range in age from early 20’s to late 50’s. We have now finished and the group have really enjoyed the
process and have produced two wonderful murals which they want to donate to the children’s ward at the local hospital.
Sarah has been very impressed by the way the project has allowed the participants to work together as a group as most of their
previous art work has been done individually. They are keen to do more work with smallworld. We have continued our community based work which includes a number of short projects including: Victoria Primary School – safety sessions. Highfield Community Centre – Digital Photo session as part
of a fundraising event for victims of the Tsunami. Teenage Parents group – working with mums and toddlers through
Sure Start Plus Rainbow Children’s Centre – Arts Week based at two
centres covering a range of different art forms Innit Mega open day – to publicise the new youth groups
in Braithwaite Holycroft Primary School – Parental involvement, working
on the story sacks, including production of story CDs in three languages Keighley Healthy Living Network - Cohesion day in Lund Park Youth Participation day -Digital Photo session Keighley Healthy Living Network – Seed banner Asian Disability Network-Activities at Bradford Mela Guardhouse summer scheme – year 2 of our involvement with
the very successful summer scheme This is a venue we had run sessions in as part of our Community Development Worker’s hours. They were keen to
get us back and booked smallworld for a whole school year to work with year 5/6 pupils. Since September we have worked in
the school and the class of 32 children have produced a felted wall hanging, ‘felties’ or dry felted figures,
several pieces of artwork inspired by Andy Goldsworthy and have also had an introductory session about our animation project
which they will be invited to participate in. We had originally planned to bring the class down to the premises but the heating
situation meant it was impractical to do so. The new group are designing dragons for their felted group piece after they voted to make one large panel with smaller
panels to take home. This project was run over 6 weeks and was supporting a newly formed youth group which caters for 5-8 & 9-13 year
olds in the Sure Start area of Guardhouse. The group is run by parents and volunteers and smallworld attended on two evenings
a week to give a broad range of art activities running alongside sports and social activities. The groups were very keen on digital photography which we included as part of the sessions and we aim to produce a
banner for the group which includes the digital photo work they have done. This ongoing activity (which is now funded through the local Neighbourhood Action Plan fund) has seen another successful
stage. The group continue to run their healthy tuck shop and have participated in a range of creative activities. We have
extended the age range to allow those reaching the age of 13 to stay involved, at least until there is more provision in the
area. The group took part in the recent Peace Festival when they came down to the building and made lanterns which they paraded
round to the town hall square for a peace vigil. As an interesting side note, the vicar of All Saints Church who was also
at the vigil and who came back to the building for hot drinks (on a freezing evening) described the building as ‘holy’
and was delighted to see Keighley had such a place. Praise indeed. The wonder of the lanterns made us decide that next year
we would aim for a much bigger procession with many more groups involved. Digital photo sessions for parents & children based at Worth Valley School. This was a short introduction to digital
imaging for mums, dads & children. The group worked on basic skills within Photoshop Elements and produced a calendar
with the resulting photos. A project based at Greenhead school working with young people on a banner for the Stockbridge area. The group also
contributed to the tapestry. |
|
smallworld cp * russell street * keighley * BD21 2JP * 01535 663285 |
