This is a very special post, through which I would like to take the opportunity to introduce you all to the Skirts & Tales project! This is the title of the latest venture from Team Cultivate. Its where we'll take all the learning we've been doing over the last year, working on the port parade and creative communities, and we'll use it all to create our own project.
We've already been working on this for several months, brainstorming, researching, trying things out, running up against brick walls, starting again...! But we're finally able to present the project in what will hopefully stay as its final format...hopefully...
Its been quite a tough journey to get the project to this stage. Even though we're a pretty small group of five or six, we had a thousand million different ideas and suggestions and tying them all together was quite a challenge! We've also found it difficult to arrange times when we're all available to meet, and this became even more of an issue when we had to start thinking about what groups we'd like to work with and when we'd all be available to meet with them. We wanted to involve new people as a way of expanding on last year's project, where we created big horses and performed with them in the parade. This year, we wanted to involve other groups and get them making and performing in the final parade, and we would be leading, supporting and sharing our skills. We spent many a morning in various Aberdonian cafe's and community centres scratching our heads and trying to sort ourselves out, and to be honest, for a while it was looking like we were going to have to compromise on the aims of the project by remaining just the six of us. However, purely by chance we had a meeting on Friday with a couple of new faces (well, more old faces we haven't seen for a while), and with a new perspective on things we were finally able to come up with a solution. We had to think outside the box - literally! Because most of the group is either working, studying or raising a young family, being available after school and at weekends to work with kids was pretty much impossible. We had to look into places where young people would not usually be. We're now in the process of arranging meetings and partnerships to allow us to do this, and as soon as I know more you will ;)
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| The Port Parade 2012 |
I'm so glad the project is finally taking off. It's been really good fun developing our ideas, but turning ideas into reality has been a bit more of a struggle! I think we're now finally at the stage where we can start really making things happen, and we met yesterday to start working on learning how to build costumes.
I am always seriously impressed by the crafty skills of this group, and yesterday was no exception. As far as the group goes, my thing is writing, organising people, trying to make sure the team functions as a team - my creative skills are not on a level with the art students/graduates who make up the rest of the team. I muck in - yesterday I was "the stripper" cutting wire ties and strips of cloth, and I painted some masks and acted as a dummy while the guys built the dress around me. But I'm not always very sure what I'm doing, although I am learning more and more artsy skills and trying out different things, thanks to being in such a creative environment. I have a list of about a million things I want to have a bash at some time soon, and for the first time I'm feeling like I might actually be successful at trying them rather than ending up with something that looks like a potato!
I think Skirts & Tales will end up being many things to many people. I'm looking forward to building on my creative skills as well as learning about project management and promotion. I think just being involved in a project with friends as well as meeting new people and making a bit of a difference is something that means a lot to most people in the team. I also really hope that the new groups we involve will be able to get something out of it too - our main, overarching aim is to connect with different people and hopefully allow them to learn something new.
I hope I'm getting across something of how excited the team are about Skirts & Tales! From the research we've done and the skills I know the team has there is the possibility to create something really beautiful for the parade. Its also going to mean a lot of learning for us as individuals as well as a unit, and as I said, hopefully for the participants too. I'll be documenting my experiences of the venture here, and the Skirts & Tales blog will give a collective view.
So as far as this project goes, that's all for now! I'm off to do some training on Thursday and Friday so no doubt there'll be another post not too long after that. That one should contain an exciting announcement too so make sure you keep an eye out for it!
I'll leave you will a group shot from yesterday's session:
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| The Skirts & Tales Team |
Over and out!
Love to everyone!
Naomi
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