Quite a bit of 2012 was taken up delivering silk painting workshops in Airedale, Knottingley, Eastmoor and Portobello for Communities In Time. A detailed summary of the project by Faceless’ Community Engagement Manager, Charlie Wells, can be found below as she can write these far better than me.
The silk paintings were turned into 4 wall hanging with artists Helen Thomas and Stephanie James. Each wall hanging represents one of the communities.
(In 2016 they were exhibited together again at The Hepworth, Wakefield)
The wall hangings can be seen at Wakefield Council’s new building, Wakefield One, as part of the Wakefield Art Walk on Wednesday January 30th between 5pm and 8pm. Pop in and say hi.
In 2012 The Faceless Company delivered a series of creative community projects which explored peoples’ personal experiences of community history.
The company looked at how events and personal experiences shape different areas of Wakefield and how common themes link different areas of the District.
We worked with people of all ages to create visual records of these community timelines. This work forms the exhibition which you can see here and which will be on display in individual communities from March 2013.
Communities in Time was a trans-generational project looking at community cohesion and pride of place and was funded by Wakefield Council through their Creative Partners programme.
We have been to Eastmoor, Portobello, Knottingley & Ferrybridge and Airedale & Ferry Fryston to deliver workshops for the project.
We worked with around 300 people from across the areas above, participants were aged 2 to 96 and came to the project from a variety of backgrounds.
Throughout the project we asked participants to answer questions about Community Cohesion and Pride of Place, in order to help us measure the project’s impact. They were;
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I feel connected to local people my own age |
I feel connected to people in my Community |
I feel connected to other communities in Wakefield |
I feel a part of the Wakefield District |
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Before the Project Began 88% of people agreed |
Before the Project Began 80% of people agreed |
Before the Project Began 38% of people agreed |
Before the Project Began 76% of people agreed |
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During the Project 91% of people agreed |
During the Project 77% of people agreed |
During the Project 61% of people agreed |
During the Project 80% of people agreed |
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I feel proud of my contribution to this project |
I feel proud of my community |
I feel proud of the Wakefield District |
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Before the Project Began 66% of people agreed |
Before the Project Began 78% of people agreed |
Before the Project Began 70% of people agreed |
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During the Project 96% of people agreed |
During the Project 80% of people agreed |
During the Project 70% of people agreed |
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We will ask these questions again, once the project is complete, to see how the project has impacted on the communities we have worked with.
Where did we Start
Before we began the project, we researched the areas we were working in and created timelines of significant historical events that we could take into the communities to spark conversations about how these events relate to individuals and their families in the area. This included using photographs of the area, both old and new, along with maps. We also prepared some questions to stimulate conversation, but were careful not to be too rigid in our session planning.
We wanted to create something people can be proud of, and to create a visual record of people’s thoughts and memories which can be treasured by them and also displayed for both their communities and the wider public to see and enjoy.
To this end, in our initial launch sessions we collected information from a wide range of community members that was added to the historical timelines, and that gave context to events within each community.
We then used Silk Painting workshops, to visualise these events and community happenings in a way that was relevant and showed the importance of particular events, buildings, people and places to those communities. These images created by community members from inspirational source material gathered in the community were then collated by artists at Faceless, into the wall hangings you see here today.
We used the tree design as we felt the roots, trunk and growing, changing foliage provided a good metaphor for how the communities have grown and changed over the years.
The response to the project was very positive, with many events and personal remembrances added to the community timelines and over 150 community paintings being created, in sessions within each area.
It is hoped that through this exhibition, and further showings within each community, participants can come together to learn about other community timelines within the district.
We are currently pulling together a book, called Communities in Time, which contains stories and information from each community along with art works, photographs and illustrations showing the important events from those communities, as told to us by individuals within them.
tony wade 