BRISTOL UPDATES

NEWS FROM LOCAL BUSINESSES AND COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS

MEET, MAKE, MEND

Voluntary Arts has awarded £2,000 to Bristol Textile Quarter in partnership with the mental health charity, Changes Bristol Peer Support. Together, they are running a series of Meet Make Mend, Slow Stitch workshops, which will give participants living with mental health challenges the chance to connect, learn and share skills regardless of ability.

Bristol Textile Quarter’s Saffron Darby said: “Sewing lets people take a breath and slow down, keep their hands busy and block out negative thoughts when things get too much. Particularly in the darkest times of lockdown, stitching can be so restorative, as you’re getting the chance to progress with something even when the rest of the world is so beyond your control.

Speaking about the workshops, Saffron added: “Crucially I want [participants] to have the chance to connect with one another through creativity. There has been so little human connection over the last year so to be able to stitch together is a great way to come together. Ultimately if the classes can teach participants a new skill, and make them feel a tiny fraction better, it'll be amazing.”

• bristoltextilequarter.co.uk

TREASURE YOUR RIVER

A major new campaign, Treasure Your River, has launched to help reduce the huge amount of litter entering the River Avon and subsequently the ocean. Sustainable Hive and environmental charity Hubbub are calling for businesses, community groups, residents and other organisations situated along the River Avon to get involved.

The campaign will run over the remainder of the year and the programme of activities for this summer, unveiled today, includes a silent disco litter pick, art installation, robot litter-clearing pirate boats and plastic fishing trips.

Treasure Your River aims to be the UK’s largest ever collaborative effort to prevent and reduce the amount of litter in our waterways, tackling seven of the UK’s largest river systems: the Avon, Forth, Mersey, Severn, Taff, Thames and Trent and their tributaries.

• treasureyourriver.co.uk

SHINING BRIGHT

Barton Hill-based theatre company and children’s charity, Travelling Light, is one of ten organisations nationally that has been awarded funding in the latest round of Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Teacher Development Fund.

Awarded £108,500 over 24 months, Travelling Light will work with five Bristol schools, supporting teachers to explore how drama-based learning can develop language, speech and emotional literacy, support wellbeing and address inequality of opportunity which affects educational outcomes.

The project, Light Up School Learning: An Arts-Based Inquiry, will run from September 2021 – July 2023. Travelling Light will work with teachers and artists to expand teachers practice and to embed drama into the wider curriculum. The approaches developed will support pupils’ confidence, learning and their ability to express feelings and aspirations.

Travelling Light will work with its partner schools, Brunel Field Primary, Victoria Park Primary, Redfield Educate Together, Merchants Academy and Hannah More Primary.

Lizzy Stephens, creative learning officer and project lead at Travelling Light, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been awarded this funding to work more deeply with our partner schools in Bristol. We are looking forward to being able to explore and measure the impact of drama-based activity, experiment with new blended approaches and broaden the opportunity for knowledge exchange and learning amongst teachers and artists. It is an exciting opportunity to really embed drama into teaching practice and build a strong school culture for the arts.”

• travellinglighttheatre.org.uk