Community Arts Programme

We were thrilled to be invited to design and deliver a programme centred around community arts for Manchester Metropolitan University students in 2021.

​The thematic programme was comprised of creative workshops, interventions and field trips, investigating the make-up of a community based creative project. The programme aimed to help students build the skills and understanding to undertake their own community based projects, supported by a network of young creatives interested in social change.

CAUSE

Our group of students worked collaboratively to plan and deliver a food drive event on the Manchester Metropolitan University campus. ​We had a great day getting to the root cause of community arts campaigns and why we're doing the work we're doing. Together the students collected an incredible 132kg of food, going towards helping 55 people with emergency food parcels.

​After the food drive, we headed to Manchester Central Foodbank to sort the food into their warehouse and to hear from Freya, a member of staff, about the processes of how foodbanks work and the campaign work they do across Greater Manchester.

COLLABORATE

This session introduced students to the importance of collaboration in community work, understanding some of the history and overlaps with community organising and activism. We discussed examples of community arts projects and then got to work on our own collaborative sculpture.

​Creating this improvised sculpture, we explored structures, shapes, shadows and string, using torches to light up different areas of interest. This session removed the pressure of creating a final product, and was an opportunity to play and connect with other students.

SPACE: DROP-IN

Taking over the Benzie building cafe at MMU, this drop-in session was an introduction to the main Space workshop. Our group of students began to explore inflatable architecture, learning to play with materials to build a space for creativity.

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If you had nothing but tape and recycled plastic bags, you could make your own space for art. This is disaster architecture, this is architecture for the end of the world. Familiarising themselves with the materials, the students made a large inflatable worm. In the following session we started to explore creating spaces further.

SPACE

Continuing from the Space: Drop-in session, our group of students worked to create an inflatable dome space. In addition to making a physical space, we discussed why it is important as creative practitioners to create spaces that are comfortable and inspire creativity. In creative community projects, a comfortable and democratised space for participation doesn't always have to be a physical space; it can be created through small gestures, even something as small as bringing food to share. Throughout the session we discussed co-produced theatre, immersive installations, sustainable arts practices, luminariums, the city as a space to serve its people and more...

SUMMIT

Get It Done was invited to be part of the You Are The Brand! Summit at Manchester Metropolitan University in December 2021. The summit was a one-day micro-conference where Get It Done Director Mimi Dearing spoke about building a sense of ‘personal brand’ through Get It Done and her journey from a care worker and the communication skills and interest in diversity of experience built in this role to Director & Creative Producer of a community arts organisation.