Conversations Over a Brew

For this episode of Conversations Over A Brew, we spotlight Textbook; a project which reimagines the future of schools, by giving us the space to dream of alternative approaches to learning together. Artist Sarah Bailey developed Textbook in collaboration with teachers and for this conversation is joined by Danielle Lewis-Egonu, one of the teachers who helped develop Textbook. 

“It’s easy to forget that we were children” - Danielle Lewis-Egonu, Educator

At the time of recording Danielle was the deputy CEO of the Golden Thread Alliance, a Multi Academy Trust based in Kent. In July 2023, Sarah was invited by Danielle to facilitate a workshop based on Textbook for a group of Early Career Teachers from the Golden Thread Alliance schools. The following conversation reflects upon this workshop, the experience of creating Textbook, and the discourse it enables. 

Danielle is a thought leader with over two decades of experience in education. She is known for her commitment to creating supportive and inclusive school environments, where all students are valued and encouraged to reach their full potential. Danielle believes in the value of education as a tool for empowering individuals and promoting social justice. At the time of recording Danielle was the deputy CEO of the Golden Thread Alliance, and has since become the CEO for the Cygnus Academies Trust.

Sarah is an artist, educator and consultant. Her practice sits at the point where learning, community, childhood and art meet. She is a long term collaborator with Heart of Glass. In 2021 Sarah began working with a group of 10 teachers on a project that would become known as Textbook. The first stage of the project produced a pamphlet that playfully and poetically took the traditional idea of an educational text to question the values we want to place at the centre of education. It places a red pen in the hands of learners to write back.

Read more about:

Conversations Over a Brew is back! Join Youngsook Choi and Radha D’Souza, Frances Disley and Sean Roy Parker,  and Lucy Powell and Fiona Whelan for three special in depth episodes exploring Care and the Commons the theme for our With For About conference (2023).

In this episode we are joined by Radha D’Souza and Yougsook Choi. Radha is a writer, scholar, lawyer and social justice activist from India who now lives in London and teaches at the University of Westminster. Youngsook is a London-based artist and researcher with a PhD in human geography. Both Radha and Youngsook have research interests that converge at the intersection of climate crisis and colonialism. In the following conversation we will hear more about their individual practices and what their research can tell us about processing and understanding where we are as a world now. 

Conversations Over a Brew is back! Join Youngsook Choi and Radha D’Souza, Frances Disley and Sean Roy Parker,  and Lucy Powell and Fiona Whelan for three special in depth episodes exploring Care and the Commons the theme of our With For About conference (2023).

In this episode we hear from Dr Fiona Whelan and artist Lucy Powell. 

Both Fiona and Lucy employ the act of listening as a central tool in their work. 

Fiona’s artistic research explores systemic power relations and inequalities. Working with diverse individuals, groups and organisations over sustained periods of time, Fiona situates herself as an embedded researcher. Rather than wondering how best to ‘platform voice’ Fiona instead works with others to create context specific conditions for listening.

Lucy’s long standing focus is upon exploring human relationality to our more-than-human world. Through her work she seeks to enact a post-individualist praxis and often works in collaboration with others. Listening is employed to unpick received hierarchies or false notions of human dominance and supremacy. Through this process of unlearning, Lucy’s work invites us to consider what it means to live care-fully now. 

As practitioners, their lines of investigation may at first seem distinctly different from one another. However, as you’ll hear through their discussion, these differences often form two sides of the same coin.  

Conversations Over a Brew is back! Join Youngsook Choi and Radha D’Souza, Frances Disley and Sean Roy Parker,  and Lucy Powell and Fiona Whelan for three special in depth episodes exploring Care and the Commons the theme for our With For About conference (2023).

In this episode, we hear from artists Frances Disley and Sean Roy Parker, both of whom led workshops that asked us to consider the ways in which we can build meaningful relationships with our more-than-human neighbours. 

The following discussion between Frances and Roy explores the common threads running through their work, as well as contemplating what it means to think of ourselves as part of a diverse community of beings, human or otherwise, and the responsibilities that come with this acknowledgement. 

In this episode, we hear from Amina Atiq and Fox Irving about their experience of Women Working Class.

----------

Amina is a Yemini-Scouse poet and performance artist whose work explores the identity and experience of the Yemini diaspora living in Liverpool. Amina is also an award-winning community activist and anti-racism campaigner and they are a current Humboldt Residency Fellow.

Fox is a Queer, Working-Class artist, and through their work they investigate how art can be used as a tool of empowerment by their own marginalised communities. They ask: what keeps people in place, what affords fluidity, and what kinds of assembly can be transformative?

Amina and Fox met during Women Working Class North West - a working group led by Fox for Women artists and producers from Working Class or Benefit Class backgrounds in the North West. Amina was one of the artists who took part.

LINKS/RESOURCES:

In this episode Angela Samata meets with Mark Storor to chat about his recent work with Heart of Glass and why creativity is an essential part of an authentic human experience.

--------------

In this episode we hear from Lou Chapelle and Hugh Wareing. The pair met on a beautiful summer's day last year to reflect upon their work together as part of the You Make Me Feel Good project, which Lou developed in response to the isolating effects of lockdown.

-------------------

Lou is a cross-disciplinary artist who works in collaboration with people and communities to explore human connection and reinvent our sense of belonging. You Make Me Feel Good invited members of U3A St Helens (University Of The Third Age) and residents of Heald Farm Court to revisit their happy memories of togetherness, friendship and love through dance, poetry and drawing. The process of sharing these memories with one another through creativity rejuvenated old experiences, recasting them as seeds from which new connections could grow.

Hugh is the chair of U3A St Helens and contributed a whole bunch of wonderful thoughts, memories and drawings to You Make Me Feel Good and Lou gathered them all, along with everyone else's, to make a beautiful e-zine which you can download for free via our website.

Enjoy this episode with a brew and a couple of biscuits.

—

LINKS/RESOURCES

For our third episode of season two, we hear from Amy Pennington and Pippa Sterk.

Amy is an artist whose work is founded upon collaboration with others. They use humour to connect human experiences and socio-political issues.

--------------------

For the second episode in our new series of Conversations Over A  Brew, we hear from Grace Collins and Kerry Morrison. Grace and Kerry first met during The Faculty North, an artist development programme produced by Heart of Glass and In-Situ. Grace was a participant on TFN programme, and Kerry was a facilitator.

In this conversation, the pair muse over the difficulties of developing and exploring social arts practice in socially distanced times.

---

Grace is an artist and writer who researches how people work together. They’re currently a member of School of the Damned, Coordinator of Short Supply, Associate to With-you and Writer in Residence at Heart of Glass.

Kerry is an social-environmental artist and one of the founding members of In Situ, an embedded arts organisation in Pendle, Lancashire.

TFN  took place during the first half of 2021, and provided 31 people with the opportunity to explore their ideas and discuss experience in a collaborative setting. Considering the political, the social, the economic and the environmental with a care-full approach, this programme employed arts-based methods of learning and exploration.

As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting communities of learning within socially engaged art, we have made recordings of TFN’s panel discussions available to watch on our website. These recordings form part of a TFN resource pack which also includes reading lists, this podcast episode, and reflective piece written by Grace.

LINKS/RESOURCES

An insightful chat (recorded over a brew) between artist Andy Field and Scarlett, a school girl from St Helens. The pair reflect on working together and wonder if children have super powers for imagining the future.

--

Covid-19, care, commoning and making work with communities - an intimate chat (recorded over a brew) between artists Kate Hodgson and Deirdre Nelson.

---

Kate is a regular Heart of Glass collaborator, a St Helens based artist who works across the North West. Currently she is working with us on a zine project with young women in Parr (St Helens, UK) called PARRTY! Deirdre is a textile artist whose work 'embodies a quiet activism' in the words of Craftspace director and Heart of Glass collaborator Deirdre Figueiredo.

The artists discuss working together as mentor and mentee, through the Crafting the Commons Network. We also get to hear lots about the commons and commoning in the context of making art. For those of you not familiar with the term, you might say commoning is about using the power of social cooperation to get things done and bring us together.

---

LINKS / RESOURCES

Season 1, Episode 3 - Claire and Sheila on Art and Care

An intimate chat (recorded over a brew) between artists Claire Weetman and Sheila Ghelani, both long term Heart of Glass collaborators.

---

In their warm conversation the artists explore the parallels between their work and what it means to be an artist working in a community setting. They discuss the challenges and setbacks of working through a pandemic and whether art and its ‘weird magic’ can or should change the world.

Before they chatted, Sheila and Claire mailed out packages to each other. Both artists used care packages as a way to connect with the groups during the pandemic. We listen as they unwrap their packages and talk about the objects inside - how they chose them, their symbolism and meaning and their hopes for how they might offer a moment of care and reflection to the individuals who received them.

(Shout out to the amazing volunteers and organisations who supported them through the process including St Helens Carers Centre and Refugee Women Connect)

---

LINKS / RESOURCES

In our second HoGcast episode, the focus is on art and work, explored through a really fascinating conversation between artist Michelle Browne and St Helens resident Gary Conley.

---

Gary is an ex miner and a bit of an all around local legend and good egg here in St Helens, and Michelle is an interdisciplinary artist who we've had the good fortune of working with over the last number of years.

Gary and Michelle have been working together on an upcoming project titled World of Work, which is a new cooperative game, an exploration of labour histories and futures, where the aim is to achieve a collective win.

This podcast was recorded in early 2020, before the COVID-19 restrictions took effect, and so was recorded in person in St Helens. Over a brew!

---

LINKS / RESOURCES

Our first 20 minute episode focuses on art and mental health. It features a fascinating conversation between artist / activist the vacuum cleaner (James Leadbitter) and Fox Irving, mental health nurse and artist (not necessarily in that order).

---

Fox and James worked together on the Madlove Take Over, our arts festival which took place in November 2019.

This podcast was recorded in late 2019 and so was recorded in person in St Helens (HoGcasts are typically recorded in St Helens, over a brew but that may change in months to come).

So much goes into the making of a new artwork, that you might not ever get to see or experience. So these conversations are a window into the process of making work.

This podcast is about the power of listening and conversation, and how making art can bring us together and create change.

---

LINKS / RESOURCES