Songlines
Have you ever wondered what a journey through Tower Hamlets would sound like in song? Taking inspiration from the Aboriginal practice of recording the narrative and history of a place through music and art, this project explores local places and journeys through film, music, photography and storytelling.
Artists from Magic Me and Spitalfields Music have worked collaboratively to create Songlines with young people from John Scurr, Shapla and Osmani primary schools, residents at Pat Shaw House care home and local older people.
The intergenerational groups are meeting on a weekly basis and are working towards a performance of their work in Hoxton Hall in June 2013. The final performance is presented as part of the Spitalfields Summer Festival.
Songlines is funded by Aldgate & All Hallows Foundation, Clifford Chance Foundation and Lucas Tooth Trust.
Digital Intimacy
When you log on to the internet does it increase your connection to the world around you or make you feel more alone? Are dating websites and apps a good way to meet new people or a place where you feel judged and exposed?
Digital Intimacy brought a group of younger and older men who identify as gay together to explore their experiences of using the internet and mobile phone platforms for dating and relationships. Our project partners were Age UK Camden, Gendered Intelligence and the Opening Doors Project. The group met at Central School of Speech & Drama on Saturday afternoons in April and May 2013. Working with Magic Me artists Douglas Nicolson (photographer) and Kieran Sheehan (movement artist), the group collaborated to create art works that were shared informally with invited guests at the end of the project.
Digital Intimacy is funded by:
Wild, Wild Women
This will be our tenth project linking young and older local women, and a research paper will be published in Autumn 2013 to celebrate ten years of women only arts projects at the Library. Every year women aged between 15 and 90 meet at The Women’s Library to share and explore stories about what it is like to be a woman now. This year the group are looking back into the lives of women of the past and exchanging their own experiences.
Working with Theatre Maker Sue Mayo and Designer Polly Beestone the group will create a live performance that celebrates the lives of women who have made a difference, not just those in the history books, but also the women in the group, their families and friends. The group performed at the Kobi Nazrul Centre on 1st May at a sold out show.
Dr Caoimhe McAvinchey, Queen Mary, University of London is capturing the learning and discoveries made throughout the ten projects Magic Me has run at the Library with a research report to be launched on November 7th in East London. The key research questions are:
- What is particular about working with women-only intergenerational groups?
- What are the possibilities offered through developing intergenerational practice in a library or heritage venue?
- How can intergenerational arts work actively involve audiences?
- How do different artforms facilitate relationship building between individuals and groups?
For more information and booking process for the launch contact David on 020 3222 6064.
This research is funded by:
Custodianship of The Women’s Library passed to the London School of Economics at the end of December 2012 and LSE is currently running the Library from the Aldgate site. The Library is now in a transitional period while the planning and implementation of the transfer to LSE Library is underway.