Ways of connecting.
Image created by Marianne White, Big Loves Design
The Artist On My Street Exhibition, ‘Connection’ launched at Coventry Railway Station.
Our collaboration with the Life Path Trust community to create artwork celebrating connections. On Tuesday, 23rd April 2024, the Heart of England Community Rail Partnership and Coventry Artspace unveiled the work, funded by Avanti West Coast.
The exhibition featured 10 unique pieces of art created by participants from the Life Path Trust and myself (local artist Donna Preece-Jones). The CONNECTIONS exhibition in the tunnel connecting the station to the bus interchange celebrates what connects us and the world around us. The official unveiling of the exhibition was attended by friends and family of the participants, volunteers who had helped throughout the sessions and the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Coventry, who praised the project.
The CONNECTIONS exhibition is a significant part of the ARTIST ON MY STREET initiative, a project by Coventry Artspace. This project, designed to foster connections and partnerships between local artists and organisations, is a testament to our community's vibrant and collaborative spirit.
The Heart of England Community Rail Partnership and Coventry Artspace commissioned me to guide the adopters through four sessions. These sessions were not just about creating art but also about fostering connections. The participants were encouraged to express what they loved and personally connected with their work through painting and collaging.
This process of self-expression and connection extended beyond the individual participants, reaching out to the people involved in the project. The result of this collective effort is the stunning artwork that now adorns the Coventry Railway Station.
Why was I Pulled to this Creative Project?
After reading through the brief, I applied for this project because it would allow me to push my comfort zone and work responsively and collaboratively.
It was also an opportunity to build my confidence and experience teaching and supporting people exclusively from a creative perspective within the learning difficulties sphere, which I would relish.
I knew that putting myself forward for this project would mean that my artistic perspective would be secondary, and the primary objective would be to capture what 'Connection' was for the participants.
Artist vs Facilitator.
I would first approach this as a facilitator to encourage the participants to produce more insightful and profound results. Then, using my artistic creativity, I would tie everything together into a powerful and inspiring statement. This would enable me to demonstrate my versatility and value as a creative artist and facilitator.
As an artist, I would learn so much about myself and others. It would also be a privilege to support the Life Path Trust group in this way and showcase the power of creativity and how it can enable everyone to connect.
Nurturing Connection.
To encourage theme connection and keep the process accessible, I kept the session open but with parameters for the participants to capture what they love and connect with. In each session, we explored the possibilities of painting, drawing, collaging, and photography.
I planned to double down on the ‘connection’ elements through this process by encouraging connection through:
Process – via the facilitated workshops and the themes within them
Method – using a variety of techniques to demonstrate personal narratives
Output – by curating the panels to display the more extensive connections from the group
Narrative – enabling the viewer to connect through a webpage/blog post demonstrating the deeper stories and contributing factors that play a part in the final pieces
Interaction – connecting with the viewer through the interactive PDF activity
Where Connections Could be Communicated.
After mind mapping the process post-sessions, it was clear that we felt and witnessed many areas of connection.
The main inspiration for the final work was the whole experience of the sessions, not just the artwork made; it was the conversations, interactions, and emotions that were felt going through the process for everyone, and I approached the results as an artist journalist, capturing them.
Each piece stems from a participant's work and passion expressed in the sessions. It took work to link each participant to at least one pre-dominant board and ensure the way the visuals were presented was represented.
It was fun getting back to my inner child and immersing myself in the collaging process, physically reprinting, cutting out and using what they had produced and creating little narrative boards that were essentially dedicated to the participants.
The Exhibition.
COMMUNICATION 2024
(Collaged photography, acrylic painting and marker on acrylic board)
Observations from the sessions - (between all of the senses) - talking (conversations, sharing, stories, singing, laughter/humour), listening (conversations, music, observing), body language (hugs, facial expressions, cheek kisses, personal affection, and interactions)
Where the group's work featured - Freya's abstract background, Tony’s writings and my observations about the communication styles
CREATIVITY, 2024
(Collaged photography and acrylic painting on paper)
Observations from the sessions - patterns, shapes, constraints, support, freedom, colours, visual communication
Where the group's work featured – Freya’s peacock, everyone’s abstract backgrounds
FOOD, 2024
(Collaged photography)
Observations from the sessions - sharing, similar likes, biscuits, lunchtimes together
Where the group's work featured - Gurbax, Alex, Dan and Megan all shared their love for food through their collaging.
GRATITUDE 2024
(Collaged photography and acrylic painting on paper)
Observations from the sessions - love, verbal, body language, vibe/energy
Where the group's work featured - Alex’s abstract background - The level of gratitude from EVERYONE was palpable at the end of each session and in general. It’s been a really beautiful and rewarding process.
LOVE, 2024
(Collaged photography and acrylic painting on acrylic board)
Observations from the sessions - love your neighbour, caring/support, seeing and spending time with loved ones, friendship, romantic love
Where the group's work featured - Megan’s background and painting of Dan and Megan. Of course, Dan and Megan had to be the centrepiece, but there was so much multi-layered love in that room. The friendship and support were beautiful.
MUSIC, 2024
(Collaged photography and acrylic painting on paper)
Observations from the sessions - favourite songs, singing, laughter
Where the group's work featured - Everyone’s abstract background. Alex and Megan shared their love for music; we may have had a little sing-song.
NATURE, 2024
(Collaged photography and acrylic painting on paper)
Observations from the sessions - animals (pet, zoo, farm), gardening
Where the group's work featured - Philips's painting of a train as a background texture, Gurbax, Alex, Megan, Freya and Dan’s animal and nature collaging
SPORT, 2024
(Collaged photography and acrylic painting on acrylic board and drawing with markers on paper)
Observations from the sessions - football, rugby, banter
Where the group's work featured - Dan’s abstract background and Alex and Dan’s paintings and drawings of themselves. They had to have a little five aside!
TRAVEL, 2024
(Collaged photography and acrylic painting on paper)
Observations from the sessions - cars, trains, planes, journeys, trips, destinations, home
Where the group's work featured - Philip and Remis's drawings of trains. It was beautiful to see the trains in action and share a bit of escapism
TECHNOLOGY, 2024
(Collaged photography, acrylic painting on paper, and drawing with markers)
Observations from the sessions - tools for work - social media, comfort zone, new connections, science, resources, documentation, equipment, connection, understanding
Where the group's work featured - Remi’s abstract background, collaging, and everyone working to make exploding pixels. Remi’s love for technology and what gives him comfort was clear, so it was really important to capture that connection.
Thought Reflection.
We built rapport with the participants by enabling them to explore what they loved through painting. This was an incredibly enriching process, and individuals I had been briefed on as fairly unengaging and would probably not take part actually flourished through this process.
I identified quirky and colourful common threads of simple but powerful elements of connection that can resonate with us all in this modern world: Communication, Creativity, Food, Nature, Gratitude, Love, Music, Sport, Technology, and Travel.
I am reluctant to answer when asked about a favourite piece; it's crucial for me that people connect their favourite artworks for their reasons. That's where the connection element takes on another form in this project: the connection that the viewer has with the work.
The best thing about working with the Life Path Trust citizens was getting to know each of them and sharing the creative process with them. It was a beautiful experience where the participants came in one way and left in a completely different way. It felt like, for some, it was a transformative experience. They lit up even more in that space. It was also much fun, and we laughed so much.
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After the four sessions, we all started to understand how multi-faceted the levels of connection were. For instance (in alphabetical order):
Alex loved the experience; most of the time, he chuckled to himself, listened to conversations, and enjoyed looking at the images of things he loved, such as dogs, football, and chocolate. His smile makes us melt. Whenever I hear “Who Let the Dogs Out, " I think of Alex’s little chuckle!
Dan was the man; he was a formidable presence in the space; when he couldn't make a session, you could feel the lack of Dan in the room. His passion for football was almost as big as his passion for his love for Megan, which just made us all fall in love with them both.
Freya was very capable and creative. She took to tasks like a duck to water; her love for creating was clear. She shared her love for animals, shapes, and colours and was meticulous in her approach.
Megan was so sweet, and I loved chatting with her about her life, her love for Dan and for her favourite song, Bruce Springsteen, dancing in the dark, and her sneaky cuddles. She was the most apprehensive about what she was doing and then embraced the abstract painting, which led to the beautiful background of the Love panel depicting her and Dan.
Remi was a dark horse, unassuming and leading people into thinking he wouldn’t engage. With the support from the session, he produced so much artwork, reeled off facts about space, and shared his love for technology. Remi’s transition was the most significant in the group, and it made me smile hard, thinking about how much he had gotten out of the sessions.
Phillip is obsessed with Trains. He was very vocal and passionate about engineering and experiencing the sounds of freight trains as they passed. He would engage in the sessions and watch the tightly scheduled trains as they whoosh past the window. He was torn between being in the space with us and wanting to be right next to the trains on the platform.
We also had a lovely, cheeky visit from Gurbax and Tony, who contributed to the work: Gurbax through her love for nature and food and Tony through his love for writing.
What Amazing Support.
When it came to the sessions themselves, I valued insightful and compassionate support, so I enlisted the support of:
Marianne White of Big Loves Design, as her support is incredibly compassionate and insightful.
Trevor Price of TV Trev Photography, who turned out to be more than a media bystander, as he made some wonderful creative calls and decisions to capture the vibe of the sessions and has done a wonderful job.
Roze Navab, whose vast experience and observations were wonderfully astute.
And a special thank you to:
Lauryn Dunn from CoventryArtspace, who was all over it!
Julia Singleton-Tasker from Heart of England Community Rail Partnership pinned down the project.
Kay and Justyna, the Life Path Trust support workers
Madeline Snowdon from Heart of England Community Rail Partnership, who helped kick the sessions off to a strong start.
Melanie Kemble was incredibly supportive and attentive. They also took some fantastic photos that have been included in the project's documentation.
Barnie Giltrap for the opportunity referral and support
Emma Bull, a fellow artist and train station staff member, was a lovely addition to the Train conversation when she popped in on her breaks from working there.
The sessions were hosted in the wonderfully equipped Coventry Train Station Community Hub, where we were very comfortable and had the right vibe to create the artwork that resulted in the exhibition.
The DPA supporters on the exhibition opening day. (From left to right, Trevor, Me (Donna), Marianne and Barnie, Rose was there in spirit.
My Final Reflections.
All of the partners and collaborators have been so supportive, and the project has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Thank you so much for choosing me to support everyone this way and produce some compelling, exciting and fun work.
CONNECTIONS is on display at Coventry Train Station, now.
Members of the public can try their hand at the Brain Cleanser Mini Abstract activity I guided the group to do here: www.thedpa.uk/dpa-for-you
Do you have any thoughts on this topic? Feel free to comment, connect, book a call or email me.
I hope you’re enjoying the rollercoaster of life.
Donna ♡
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