Arts Uplift Community Interest Company (CIC)
Arts Uplift CIC, set up in 2016, uplifts the community and explores heritage through inspirational arts activity.
Our mission is to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of people of all ages, and documenting and learning about our past by working with imaginative artists.
We also have a track record of running arts and reminiscence projects with people living with dementia and their carers’ in the community and in care homes.
Highlights
- We have been running a project called Suitcase Stories across Worcestershire in partnership with Museums Worcestershire, county and district councils for the last four years.
- We have worked with reminiscence workers, a storyteller and musicians creating new stories and songs from the memories of people living with dementia and their carers. Visit our website for a short film about the project, the evaluation and listen to the stories and songs created.
- We also delivered a pilot Suitcase Stories project in Alcester and Kenilworth with Orchestra of the Swan and Warwickshire Reminiscence Action Project in summer 2019 which was very successful.
- We have a long-standing relationship with Entrust Care Partnership who specialise in supporting children with physical and additional needs and their families. We ran together the successful and inclusive ‘Grown Ups and Wigglers’ dance and movement project for under 5’s and the parents/carers across the Wychavon District of Worcestershire and also Stratford, Warwick and Rugby.
- We have also delivered a dance summer school with Anjali Dance Company for children with physical or additional needs and their siblings.
- In 2018 we delivered ‘Bridging The Gap’, an intergenerational poetry and song writing/performing project with year 6 students from St Mary's Primary School, Broadway, and a group of older people and veterans from WW2 to commemorate the 100 years Centenary. The children interviewed the older people and created new poems and songs from the memories and then performed them in their school, local care homes and also museum. These were recorded and are available to listen to on our website.
- ‘True Tales’ was also a storytelling and visual arts community cohesion project that was delivered in Evesham. A poet interviewed an older people’s group, a group of people with mental health issues, some people from Eastern Europe and a school group about their experiences of journeys. A visual artist then interpreted the interviews and created an installation at Evesham library.
Our work, operating across Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Coventry, is funded by grants from trusts and foundations, local authorities, ticket sales and donations.
In the future, we would like to work with offenders in the probation service participating in arts activities as part of their community work. Also, we would like to work with young carers across South Warwickshire to produce some theatre and music about their experiences. We would also like to deliver a series of arts workshops for people who are over-weight, have Parkinson’s or have suffered a stroke, and work with new mums who are at risk of depression. We are also developing a dance Falls Prevention project for older people.
Tel: 07946 585978
Email: Jenny@artsuplift.co.uk
www.artsuplift.co.uk
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