Thousands of local people have been getting creative over the last year with Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places Organisation, Barra Culture. Just last week over 6,000 people attended the highly successful Festival of Colours in the town centre.
Last summer, Playcations involved over 1300 people across Barrow creating, singing and dancing in local parks and public spaces and will be repeated later in the year.
A Furness Yule saw creative festivities including a flying Goddess fly over the heads of over 4000 residents and many more people have benefited from the town’s Artists in Residence. Local school children, artists and companies have benefitted and event feedback has been hugely positive:
“I genuinely don’t think I’ve been to a better event in Barrow than today at the Playcations. Seeing everyone smiling and having fun in the park has been great – looking forward to coming to more events like this – the town needs them”
With the new year launching in April 2022 (the calendar runs April-March), the organisation is announcing their new name BarrowFull, which was created after consultation with the Community Advisors, Consortium, Board and the people of Barrow. The new name will replace the temporary ‘Barra Culture’ title which was created before the project got going. What remains the same is the organisation’s dedication to bringing the best of Barrow out into the community and creatively celebrating everything Barrow is.
Helping to provide the new year’s projects are Barrow born-and-bred producers Claire Williams and Kathrin Bonnar. Claire has her own outdoor theatre company Tiny Little Fox who work with partners including the National Trust and Holker Hall, and local Ormsgill artist Kathrin is keen to pass on both her artistic and project management expertise.
Even more local creatives are joining the BarrowFull team. Rappers and music producers Swerve and JD (Josh Spedding and Josh Duncan) will be in-house artists for 2022-23 and their soon-to-be-released track will celebrate the organisation’s new name and mission, while Barrow-based artist Tori Davis will continue her work with the company as in-house artist for the year.
Danielle Chappell-Aspinwall has been appointed to the new role of Artist For Change, having deepened her practice over the last year to look at how art can bring about significant personal changes. Working with the Creative Director, she will focus especially on how physically and learning disabled people can engage even more deeply with the arts and culture.
In another exciting development, BarrowFull has secured funding from the British Council to creatively explore Barrow’s historic links to Kolkata and the Jute trade, with an artist-sharing scheme which will see a cross-continental partnership grow between the two countries. The Kolkatan group will visit the town in July and will take part in the exciting new Coast Roads Festival in Aldingham.
If you would like more information about any of the projects above please follow our socials and website www.barrowfull.org.uk. If you are or represent any local people/groups who might want to get involved, please email info@barrowfull.org.uk.
