Year 3 and 4 met with older adults at Albany Court, extra care scheme, to explore moments of celebration through photography, costume and storytelling.

Over four months, the group shared personal stories of celebrations, experimented with different creative processes and had a lot of fun! Led by artists Chuck Blue Lowry, Mia Harris and Kathy Horak-Hallett, the group transformed the celebrations they had explored into wearable costumes for the Meet the Street Festival parade.

Using frames made from newspaper twists, the group created frozen tableaus of different celebrations they had attended, from baby showers to Eid celebrations, exploring the commonalities and differences in each story.

One story that particularly struck the group was shared by Chris who is 100 years old. She shared a memory of a party her family held after moving house in Scotland, to a road nicknamed ‘Electric Avenue’. This was the first house she had moved into which had electricity, so they celebrated by having a ‘turning on the lights party’.

We learnt that there are lots of different types of celebration, but that common themes included ‘dressing to impress’, ‘eating good food’, ‘dancing’, ‘community’ and ‘having fun with family and friends’.

Photos by Chuck Blue Lowry and Samia Meah