Winscombe community festival of Arts and sustainability
We are planning an exciting pilot this year, of a Bi-annual, intergenerational community festival of Arts, Culture and Sustainability in Winscombe, North Somerset.
The festival will bring exciting and vibrant activities and performances to the community of Winscombe and surrounds, celebrating the locale, and forming and strengthening intergenerational relationships, through song, visual arts, theatre and food.
This year we are programming a series of festival arts workshops and a pop-up choir in the run up to the festival. There will be workshops in giant puppet making, masks, carnival costume and decor, all run from 2 local homes for the elderly, Winscombe Hall and Sandford Station Retirement Village. We want to bring people of all ages together to create, make friends and have fun! We will also be delivering this workshop series to 2 refugee homes, 3 local schools, a nursery, a mother and baby group as well as other community groups, such as The Scouts and The Brownies. Our Art Club will be creating an interactive installation using sculpture and creative tech tool Spokeboard to explore the ideas of community and sustainability which will be installed at Winscombe Community Centre for the public to explore. We are also creating a 50 foot Mural on The Strawberry Line alongside a public consultation, and there will be community painting days to get involved with in the run up to the festival.
On the day there will be environmental arts and crafts to have a go at, like seasonal wreath and crown making, bug hotels, stick bread and herb-hair-heads to get families learning about sustainability and local worldlife, as well as learning to grow and cook their own food!
There will be a parade of giant puppets for families to join, performances from local choirs all topped off by a village feast, served from our community kitchen at Winscombe Community Centre. We might even have some dancing!
In the future, we would like to invite local professional theatre companies, local musical talent and local food businesses to come together to celebrate the talents of the region and make Winscombe a destination for arts, culture and community spirit.
Intergenerational work seeks to create a wider understanding of one another through connections, friendships, learning and research…
Artwork by year 6 Art club member
The retaining wall we will be creating The Strawberry Line Society commissioned Mural upon.
The festival will be an exciting programme of:
A Mural project, created alongside a public consultation & commissioned by Strawberry Line Society
A public installation using creative technology to turn sculpture into an interactive art experience, created by Art Club students and supported by Daniel Birch, one of Somerset Films creative technologists.
12 pop-up choir rehearsals at Winscombe Hall care home, and Sandford Station retirement village for residents & public.
12 classes in crafts, creating costumes, puppets & masks, at Winscombe Hall care home, and Sandford Station retirement village, & 5 more classes in 2 local refugee accommodations, supported by Trigger
6 classes in parade puppet making in Winscombe and Sandford Primary Schools, Churchill Academy & at our Art Club
A community parade of giant puppets along The Strawberry Line from our Mural to Winscombe Community centre
Performances by our pop-up choir & 3 invited local choirs
Local Wildlife charities invited to install stands about their work
Performance of an excerpt from our new show, The Food Show
Environmental arts workshops on the day in seasonal wreath and crown making, Insect Hotels, Herb-Hair-Heads and Stick Bread
A Village Feast, served from our community kitchen, hosted by Winscombe Community Centre
…Connections between the generations have been proven to reduce loneliness in older people, evoke feelings of joy and happiness, and uproot stigmas caused by ageism.
Melissa Pollard - Alive Activities
The Food Show - Touring Theatre show going to Community Spaces
The Food Show
Three generations from a family of foodies cook up a storm in this deliciously silly, thought provoking and spicy treat of a show.
Gary is a cook, and loves to share stories from his colourful family (who just won’t stop interrupting!) as he whips up a feast for the senses in The Food Show. Weaving family history, traditional tales, cooking tips, and belly rumbling tunes, Gary inspires us to taste, experiment and share our way through life. Is it a cooking demonstration? Is it a science experiment? Or is it a DJ set? Who knows, but with Gary, Nothing is off the menu!
Charming and surreal characters, food puppetry and live electronica played on vegetables will fill your tummies and leave you with a satisfied smile on your face.
Key Points
A show suitable for intergenerational audiences
Devised by Tomasin Cuthbert and Directed by Liz Felton
Multimedia storytelling, combining puppetry, visual theatre and innovative music technology ‘Spokeboard’ to enable objects to be triggers for sound, music and projections
A high production value set with the ability to transform a community space
Accompanying workshop series using Creative Technology ‘Spokeboard’
Explores themes of food customs, community and the connection of all living things
The Consortium
As part of our dedication to community building locally, we are setting up a consortium of 4 local Theatre and Arts organisations.
Funding is becoming more scarce, fewer people are coming to watch shows in traditional theatre settings and the combination of the cost of living crisis, the Covid Pandemic and Brexit has brought our sector to its knees. Alongside this, the government is stripping the Arts out of our schools, despite the fact that the creative industries in this country are a thing of national pride. In 2022, the creative industries generated an estimated £126 billion in gross value added to the UK economy and employed 2.4 million people.
The consortium will work together to find our way through this tricky time.
We will be working with 3 other amazing local companies to try and problem solve together ways of becoming more resilient, by pooling resources, knowledge and networks to find our way through collectively. The benefit of this work will ripple out to the other companies we all work with as freelancers, finding ways to be stronger together.
The Consortium members joining us are:
Front Room Theatre is an award-winning venue and producing company based in Weston-super-Mare. We are passionate about using the arts as a powerful tool for social change. Our mission is to make high-quality theatre and creative opportunities accessible to everyone, regardless of their background or income.
We believe that cultural participation goes far beyond entertainment, it builds confidence, fosters a sense of belonging, and creates pathways to new opportunities.
Alongside presenting high-quality touring theatre in Weston, we also offer a range of community-focused programmes. These include skills workshops, performance groups, mentorship for local artists, and arts outreach for community groups and schools. We also provide professional commissions and artist residencies for creatives in the local area.
In addition to hosting other artists, we produce our own original work, which we tour across the South West and beyond; reaching both established venues and underserved community spaces with limited access to theatre.
Our impact has been nationally recognised: we are proud winners of The Small Awards’ "Best Social Enterprise Business" in the Mission Possible category, and finalists in the Green Growth Awards for our commitment to sustainable practices and eco-conscious touring.
Roustabout is a company dedicated to creating epic theatre for family audiences. We explore the biggest of questions in the silliest of ways, using play as a way to engage with some of the more complex & serious realities of the world we live in.
Roustabout Theatre is an award-winning team of theatre makers based in North Somerset and Bristol, born out of ten years of collaboration, fun and nonsense. We seek out extraordinary tales, both true and imagined, and tell them with clarity, simplicity, humour and a wild imagination. Performed in theatres, schools, libraries & community venues, our work is for audiences of all ages, for anyone who loves play, and for anyone who delights in the communal act of sharing a story.
Tidal Tales Collective
Tidal Tales Collective CIC (TTC) is a theatre company based in the South West of England.
They use design, music & theatre to make striking folk-theatre that finds cultural connections through world stories and songs. Through a blend of modern and traditional forms, TTC explore the commonality of all people, our interwoven history & our reliance on the health of the planet.
TTC brings together 30 years plus of experience in the Arts to create new female led theatre. Their backgrounds are hugely diverse & distinguished, including work with indigenous communities in Australia & environmental activist groups to high budget Hollywood films for Warner Bros, Disney/Marvel and Universal and with world renowned organisations such as The Royal Shakespeare Company, Sky TV, The National Theatre, The Young Vic, The Barbican, & many more. They bring this huge bank of varied experience together to create excellent theatre and make use of these skills and experience to support & strengthen communities and the environment.
They are passionate about bringing work to audiences who don't get to access arts and culture and have partnered with several key local organisations including Heart of BS13, Trinity Arts, Front Room Weston and Taunton Brewhouse to ensure their work reaches and connects to their target communities.
Sarah White - Co- Producer
Sarah is a producer based in the South West. She is passionate about creating engaging and exciting theatre experiences and working with young people and communities to foster creativity and confidence.
In 2013 she co-founded immersive, site-specific theatre company Four of Swords, producing and performing in all 11 shows while partnering with organisations such as English Heritage, National Trust, Exeter RAMM, Exeter Cathedral, Exeter, Plymouth, Marjon and Cambridge Universities.
She is an Associate Artist with Exeter Phoenix & produces their Summer Film School, taking it to Shanghai in 2018. She has also worked as Associate Producer for Devon based companies Common Players and Links to A Life.
Alice Cunningham - Co-Lead Artist for Mural Project
Alice is a visual artist with a diverse practice working with a breadth of materials, renowned for her sculptural carvings and work in social engagement. Alice is equally passionate about concept and materiality in her artwork. She has exhibited widely throughout the UK and internationally.
These creative experiences have propelled her to delve deeper into the intersection of art, society, and the environment, resulting in the creation of several impactful pieces where concept and materiality have an equal focus. As an artist and environmentalist Alice is passionate about using sustainable materials as much as possible in the creation of her works. She explored this further when awarded a residency at The Earth Sciences Department of The University of Bristol and in her resulting self titled solo show ‘What does Climate Change Look Like?”
Alice’s portfolio includes a myriad of significant commissions, from site-specific artworks in Amiens (France), Vittorio Veneto (Italy), Weston Super Mare and Stoke on Trent, (UK) to permanent sculptures in Trinity Arts Centre, Bristol and a new commission alongside Richard Long for the Royal West of England Academy’s recent Earth: Digging Deep in British Art 1781-2022. Each commission reflects a narrative interwoven with personal experience, site response and environmental consciousness.
Collaboration lies at the heart of Alice’s practice and includes engagements with the Royal Society of Sculptors, University of Bristol, and the Bank of England, London. Awards include the Outstanding Prize at the Royal West of England Academy and the Leonardo Da Vinci Scholarship in Seville.
Jannah Warlow - Choir Leader
I am a freelance performer and singing leader based in Bristol.
My work is firmly rooted in live theatre, with singing and voice at its core. I have worked extensively as an actor, musician, devisor, singer, musical director, choir leader and workshop facilitator with both international and Bristol-based companies.
As an independent practitioner, I run community choirs and singing workshops in my local area. I am co-founder of In Our Hands theatre company. We create theatre with rigour, discipline and humour, that explores the meeting point between physical theatre and the voice.
The Community Project Creative Team
Tomasin Cuthbert - Artistic Director and Lead-Artist
Tomasin is proud to have produced seven Arts Council funded shows with Soap Soup Theatre, which have toured nationally and received high praise from bookers and audiences of all ages. A multi disciplinary artist, Tomasin’s skills span design, illustration, puppet making, storytelling, performance and puppetry as well as producing and running the company single-handedly. She is passionate about making high quality work which surprises and pleases, reminding adults of the magic of play and imagination, and encouraging children to explore, discover and create. Making work that touches people's hearts and makes them think is at the core of her practice. Her performance style explores the relationship between puppet and puppeteer, fusing expressive human performances, detailed puppetry and above all lots of humour! She has designed and/or made puppets, or been a puppetry mentor, for numerous companies including Stuff and Nonsense, Sixth Sense theatre, White Horse, the Bristol Old Vic, The Bristol Old the BOV Theatre School and the BOV young company.
Tomasin is a resident of The Studio, Bath, and Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol, UK. The Studio is a creative technologies collaboration with Watershed, University of the West of England and University of Bristol.
Daniel Birch - Creative Technologist
Music composer, sound artist and workshop facilitator, looking to further engage with communities and empower individuals by sharing my passion in using Creative and Digital Technology to harness new opportunities and approaches in creating, experiencing and sharing great art.
Nick Jannaway - Composer
Nick is a singer, sound designer and multi-instrumentalist based in Bristol. He performs with Sarah Owen in folk/electronic duo solarference, writes and performs solo, and specialises in theatre sound design with a live electronic improv element.
Liz Felton - Director of The Food Show
With over 25 years working in the world of theatre, Liz has made her mark specialising in devised production and the writing of beautiful family theatre experiences. Her ability to extrapolate the very best from her actors by allowing truth and personality to help shape the piece, makes every project a unique journey to the finish. She is very comfortable with large cast, energetic, ensemble productions and often directs performances written by herself. But she also has the experience of directing work written by others and shaping work devised by the company.
Soap Soup Theatre
We at Soap Soup Theatre are proud makers of devised visual theatre and are passionate about making work which inspires, surprises, and ignites our audience's imagination and creativity. Making work for families means just that – making work that is accessible and enjoyable for adult family members as much as the children, so that a theatre trip to Soap Soup show is a shared experience, touching the hearts and minds of the young and old alike.
Our work is design led, so expect to see and hear colourful and creative design, tactile puppets, costumes and inventive object work. We are committed to making work with and for young people, developing meaningful engagement experiences for young people, and strive to connect with families who might not be able to access traditional theatre settings, through our innovative creative offerings.
We have been working hard within our community to forge relationships with organisations who share our vision to improve the wellbeing of care home residents, isolated adults, and low income families and to work with local residents and creatives to make our locale a vibrant and creative place.
You can see some letters of support below:
