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Freedom Festival Arts Trust
Creative Participation
Teentalitarianism, 2019 - Mammalian Diving Reflex
Freedom Festival Arts Trust aims for everyone to feel that they are part of the Freedom Festival and year-round programme. Central to this is our approach to creative participation.
We will provide opportunities for local communities to take part in world-class creative and cultural projects in order to develop their sense of joy, pride and belonging and to have a positive impact on their wellbeing.
We work closely with leading artists to develop projects whose narratives are relevant to our communities and where community participation is core to the creative process. Over the years we have worked with companies including WLDN, Mammalian Diving Reflex, Southpaw Dance, L’Homme Debout, Kaleider Studios, Social Art Network and Cie ATSA on innovative and powerful creative participation projects that have had a positive impact on participants and celebrate their personal creativity.
We are developing our approach to provide different levels of access to order to provide a ‘ladder’ of creative participation. This begins with building relationships with community groups, providing accessible opportunities to ‘turn up and be creative’ as part of the Freedom Festival programme and working with local schools and education partners to provide opportunities for creative participation inside and outside of school, that explore our themes and values.
A snapshot of our projects
FEASTival 2017 & 2018
This volunteer-led free feast encouraged strangers to come together to meet, talk and eat.
Southpaw Dance Company - Rush 2017
Experienced dancers and people who had never performed before came together for a performance inspired by 21st century mass protest.
Cie ATSA - While Having Soup 2017
While Having Soup welcomed members of the public to a free “three course dialogue” experience provoking philosophical conversations.
L'Homme Debout - Rise 2018
RISE took an international, large-scale production and rooted it in the city of Hull, opening their creative process to almost 200 local people.
The Print Shop: Rise[up]! 2018
The Print Shop responded to our desire to engage people in the process of developing their own voice, done in this project through protest slogans.
Mammalian Diving Reflex - Haircuts by Children 2017
A group of children are given a crash course in hairdressing and run a salon, offering free haircuts to the public.
Mammalian Diving Reflex - Teentalitarianism 2019
Mammalian Diving Reflex returned in 2019 to offer a new participation project, this time working with teenagers, and addressed what happens when youth rule the roost.
Mammalian Diving Reflex - All the Sex I've Ever Had 2022
A celebration of life, love, romance and sex – All the Sex I’ve Ever Had is a reminder to us all that life doesn’t end once you get older.
La Mecanica - The Little Things 2022
The show’s finale included a team of young people from East Hull, who trained with the company in the run-up to its performance.
Kaleider - A Portrait Without Borders 2020
For Freedom Festival 2020, we invited audience members to have their portrait drawn by Kaleider’s non-learning AI.
Arun Ghosh - Ambhas 2019
Young musicians had the opportunity to perform percussion and rhythms alongside professional players, including Arun Ghosh.
Broken Orchestra - Westcott Primary School Climate Change Podcast 2021
Westcott Primary School hosted a Q&A with Luke Jerram and explored the ongoing climate crisis in a whole series of their lessons with their teachers, which the Broken Orchestra then edited together into a podcast.
Freedom Festival Arts Trust & WLDN - The Hull Vigil
Each participant experienced The Vigil alone and had their own unique experience, but every one shared their thoughts and feelings – which have been collated to tell the story of the performance in Hull.