Matthew Mella checked in at Sheffield City Council’s latest Culture Club event showcasing what the city has to offer in terms of participation.
January saw Sheffield’s Culture Club complete its trilogy of events reflecting the core values of Sheffield City Council’s cultural strategy. With previous events showcasing ‘impact’ and ‘excellence’, the show and tell for the city’s creative talent turned its attention to ‘participation’.
Hosted by the North Marketing Agency with support from the Council, the event brought an atmosphere of community and collaboration to the Crucible Theatre. This began the moment visitors walked into the foyer, where they were handed a piece of clay to mould and add to a collective artwork.
Speakers at the night all slotted well – and enthusiastically – into theme of the night. Performance played a large part in the talks, including a dance demonstration from Hype Dance and a segment of Prometheus Unbound from the upcoming Sheffield Festival of Ancient Drama.
Sara Hill spoke about the “citizen journalism” of Now Then Magazine, a free, community-driven publication. Born in 2008, the magazine provides a platform for writers, poets, artists and photographers in Sheffield. Ivan Rabodzeenko laid out plans for SKINN, a grassroots development agency for the Shalesmoor, Kelham Island and Neepsend areas of the city. Criticising the lack of people to deliver proposed strategies for regeneration, the offshoot of Sheffield’s Creative Arts Development Space concentrates on small, achievable goals to raise the profile of these historic districts.
Music in the Round is known for their local events and national tour, and Polly Ives detailed their outreach programmes for children and carers. Also helping local communities, Cassie Kill talked about Art in the Park, an environmental arts organisation that encourages pride and ownership of spaces in deprived areas.
Hayley Youell introduced Reflections, a national charity based in Barnsley that uses art to help promote better mental health. Their output includes a magazine of creative work by people affected by mental health issues, and a collaboration with Sheffield United Football Club has seen work exhibited at their Bramall Lane stadium.
The city’s communities also figured highly as the Crucible’s Creative Producer, Andrew Loretto, related his experience with Sheffield People’s Theatre. The ensemble featured inexperienced actors aged from 12 to 84 and their debut production, Lives in Art, formed part of the Crucible’s 40th birthday programme.
The Crucible’s plans for the future are ambitious, extending outside the newly renovated building and transforming spaces around Sheffield, taking theatre to the city’s waterways and telling stories of the urban and the industrial.
The night closed with Jean Cherry, the eldest member of Sheffield People’s Theatre, delivering her closing monologue from Lives in Art. The play questioned what life would be like if art was banned, and the Crucible boarded up and condemned.
This message about the value of art seems particularly relevant as Sheffield battles a storm of arts cuts, and the event highlighted the positive effect that creativity can have on communities. Sheffield is never short of ideas, but perhaps the most inspiring thing at Culture Club is seeing individuals with the drive to take those ideas and reach out to a city.