On the 9th and 10th of October SoCo Music Project and In Focus joined forces to provide creative music and arts activities at West Quay. Children and families could take part in Song Writing, Photography and Tape Art. Bianca was a practitioner making art with tape, here are her reflections:
It was a successful day engaging lots of people from across the generations.
A family with four children under 10 were keen to engage in the tape art activity. I spent some time chatting with them and exploring their ideas. x told me that his piece was for his grandad who had died when he was younger and his family were celebrating his life the next day. I suggested that he might like to work with Jim to write a song about his grandad. He keenly worked well with Jim and wrote a heart felt song about grandad which Jim performed for him. x and his dad were really pleased and touched and took away a recording on dads phone.
The tape became a route in to accessing the music and photography opportunities. Participants became comfortable, chatted with us and were confident to try the other art forms.
I complimented a young mans tape art creature which had great teeth (9?) and claws. Mum told me that she was so grateful for the opportunity. She had never seen her autistic son engage so successfully in a creative project.
A young man (8?) came over very keen to get started on his idea. He wanted black and white tape to create a QR code for Rick Astleys “Never Gonna Give You Up” ! He worked on this for intently for about 2 hours!
The ending of the day naturally became part of the art project when lots of families and individuals happily volunteered to help us peel up the tape from the floor and leave the space as we found it. This ended with a pile of used tape that we all contributed towards which became “sticky monster”!
Several parents talked about the coloured tape. They were impressed by its accessibility and how engaged their families became in their projects. One parent ordered some on her phone as we spoke!
