By Audrey Aidoo-Davies, Project Manager at Magic Me
‘Working with the young people is the best part – waiting for them to bring up some new ideas’
[I enjoy] ‘the sense of community regardless of ages. I’ve gained a lot of creative experiences’
‘I liked it [the project] a lot, it let my imagination go wild.’
Creative Mix participant feedback
2024 saw the launch of Creative Mix: an arts project aiming to build on our post-pandemic work in our community hall at Pott Street, Bethnal Green. We wanted to make a place to foster local intergenerational connections through creative activities.
To set the scene for the project, we ran a series of taster sessions for residents from local sheltered and retirement housing complexes – Ted Roberts House, Hugh Platt House and Rochester Court, in partnership with Gateway Housing Association. Residents learnt about some of the creative activities the group would be exploring in the months to come such as marbling, drawing using maps and shadows.
To add to the mix of Creative Mix, we brought in some Year 10 Health & Social Care students from our partner school Mulberry UTC for an Intergenerational Gathering event, encouraging the connections between our older and younger participants to start forming.
Our sessions then moved to Pott Street, with participants working together to reimagine their new shared space through activities with paper, projections, light and film.
Between May to June participants met weekly working together to create mainly using paper, led by artists Polly Beestone and Amy Leung, featuring guest artist Georgia Akbar. A final celebration event transformed the space using all the different elements that the group had created over the summer term. Papier mache bowls hung from the ceilings, we projected short films onto the walls and artwork was admired as the intergenerational group celebrated all that had been created over the last 6 weeks.
What’s next?
The team will continue planning the next phase of Creative Mix using the learning and feedback received so far. We are hoping to reach even more local residents by connecting with more groups and organisations. Creative Mix is a 3-year funded project which will grow and develop in collaboration with our participants.
Thank you to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for their support of Creative Mix.