Winscombe community festival of Arts and Nature
Took place on the 19th July 2025 12.30-18.00 Winscombe Community Centre and Green
In 2025 we piloted our first intergenerational community festival of Arts, Culture and Sustainability in Winscombe, North Somerset.
The festival brought exciting 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.
We ran a series of festival arts workshops and a pop-up choir in the run up to the festival in masks, carnival costume and decor. We worked with the residents of Winscombe Hall, many living with dementia, refugees as part of Triggers Humanity Hotel project, students and winscombe and sandford primary school, children at Rainbow Montessori nursery, home educated families, and adults in our new adult art club. We brought people of all ages together to create, make friends and have fun!
If you are interested in volunteering to help deliver Winscombe Festival 2026, or would like to perform please email Tomasin on soapsouptheatrecompany@gmail.com
Earlier in the year we created a 50 foot Mural on The Strawberry Line alongside a public consultation, and there were community painting days to get involved with in the run up to the festival.
On the day there were environmental arts and crafts to have a go at, like seasonal wreath and crown making, Circus skills to try, and the beekeeping society brought a hive down and to get families learning about sustainability and local worldlife.
There was a parade of giant masks for families to join, performances from local artists all topped off by a village feast, served from our community kitchen at Winscombe Community Centre, serving almost 300 free curries to the hungry punters.
Next year 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 before we created The Strawberry Line Mural
The Strawberry Line Mural on completion
We achieved:
A Mural project, created alongside a public consultation & commissioned by Strawberry Line Society
6 Pop-up choir rehearsals at Winscombe Hall care home, and for residents & public.
6 classes in crafts, creating costumes, puppets & masks, at Winscombe Hall care home, & 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 masked parade
Live music performed by local talent
Performances by our pop-up choir
Invited The Beekeepers society and Strawberry Line society to bring stands about their work
Environmental arts workshops on the day in seasonal wreath and crown making
Other creative arts workshops including Circus skills, pebble decoration, and mask masking
A Village Feast, served from our community kitchen, hosted by Winscombe Community Centre
Mural Artists Tomasin Cuthbert and Alice Cunningham in front of their work
…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
Alyssa Thomas - Assistant Community Arts Producer
Alyssa is a freelance creative, producer and performer. Her passion for using the arts to connect with communities and explore complicated issues has inspired the range of projects she has been involved in. From creating workshops for young people in inner city London to explore local heroes to performing her co-created show ‘FREAK OUT!’ at Edinburgh Fringe, creativity and connection has been the forefront of her projects.
In 2021, Coin Toss Collective was formed, a co-creation of herself and other freelancers aiming to create innovative, multi-media shows to spread awareness about a range of issues. Within this collective, Alyssa went beyond performing to produce, direct and write. Her love of human connection led to a passion for character creation whilst learning a variety of arts from her fellow freelancers including dance, physical movement sequences, music & image creation and performance
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.
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.
The Community Project Creative Team
Tomasin Cuthbert - Artistic Director and Lead-Artist
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. 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.
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.
