Conversations in Colour - Final Session

During this last session, we all participated in a vocal warm up and then every single member of the group delivered one or more performances to the rest of the group.  Considering some women were unwilling to read out to a small group at the beginning of the project, that they were delivering spoken word performances by the end is an achievement that should not be undervalued.  And that isn’t even to mention the content, which was of a very high standard.  We were given strong imagery in group poetry exploring emotions and states of mind.  We heard about why the moon follows people around, how the giraffe got its long neck and about one woman’s love of chocolate.  We had fun throwing oranges at Paul McCartney and were transported back to a medieval battlefield.  There were laughs, whoops and much applause.  There was also cake, which was much appreciated by everyone!

    

  

These were Hayley’s thoughts on the readings:

It was amazing to hear everything you've done.  You’re all so talented.  It was all so good and I can’t believe how much variety there was.

And here’s what Milena had to say:

Today was the first time that I've heard women perform and read their work. It was very exciting and touching witnessing the power of their words and the strength of their voices. In a few short sessions they have outgrown their old cocoons and revealed themselves in splendour of their new multi-coloured attire.

It was extremely satisfying to work with this group, and I'm sure they will all continue to develop their artistic skills. After the reading we finished and cleared the space in the studio upstairs.

I cannot wait to see the exhibition, it will be brilliant!

I quite agree.  But what did the group think of the project?  Looking at their comments on the evaluation forms, they seemed to have benefitted a lot from the work undertaken over the last few weeks. 

They loved tie-dying and lino cutting.  One of them admitted to having been somewhat pessimistic about lino prints at first but she now wants to try the technique in future to make her life more interesting.  People liked creating new images both visually and in poetry.   They learnt to make a creative mess and different strategies for starting creative writing and found writing to be a great outlet.  They learnt to ‘write positive stuff’ and enjoyed working on their sketchbooks. Someone said she enjoyed the challenge.  Another said she had written her first poem in forty years.

Participants reported developing confidence in writing and performance (even though the evaluation forms were filled in just before the performance when nerves were bubbling away under the surface)!  They loved the supportive atmosphere and the variety of activities, one woman commenting that she found it very relaxing to be in a female-only group. 

And they are not going to leave it there.  One woman is going on to write stories for her grandchildren and create a new batik background as a basis for embroidery. Others talked about how they would use learnt techniques in other groups they attend.  Still others said they intended to incorporate these new ways of working in their own work.  One is hoping to exhibit with Arts and Minds.  They were all keen to develop their work in a similar project in future.

The session ended with women swapping numbers, and requesting copies of each others’ work.   Some of them even went for coffee afterwards.  We will miss the sanctuary of Thursday mornings but look forward to catching up with them and hopefully some of you blog readers on the 10^th July at the Open Door exhibition!