CARE
Co-Creation Research and Development Commissions
At B arts, we are aware that bravery and fresh thinking is needed in order for us to pass through this burning doorway of the COVID-19 pandemic and to step into a new working world facing a new cultural, economic and societal future. As the pandemic continues to reshape our lives, we would like to offer our associates and artists new to us, time to contribute to our thinking, and to help us shape what we do next. That is why we developed CARE: Co-Creation Research and Development Commissions.
Round 1 Foreword
Susan Clarke, B arts Artistic Director
“The title of the programme is CARE. It could stand for something- perhaps you’ll enjoy making an acrostic out of it. It’s a loaded word these days and one that begs some questions, including; how we take care of whom, of what and do we? Care is undervalued- doing something carefully, and showing and demonstrating care has, pre-lockdown, perhaps been seen as undesirable. Care was certainly dismissed as unimportant, the domain of the dull, the unsexy, the irrelevant - whereas other ideas like “getting it done”, and its accompanying sense of urgent and of, who cares if it’s slapdash, achievement promoted as being more highly prized.
Since the enforced slowing of the pace of life, perhaps we have all had need and opportunity to take or show care, or been in need of care ourselves. We also have perhaps both needed and paid attention, that quality often accompanying care. Perhaps we have been living without due care and attention- a phrase I always mishear as undue care and attention. Taking a lead from that please, in your response, take the words in whichever direction you prefer.”
April 2020
Round 1 Commissions:
Sophia Hatfield and Gwenda Hughes working with St Dominic’s Care Home; can we make a theatre piece performed by the phone? What would that look like?
[Image Description: Poster which reads: “Care is a basic right. Everyone should be cared for and be caring towards other”. The B arts logo and the State Theatre logo are on the top right]
Martin Gooding and Ben Evans working with residents of Fegg Hayes to make street theatre based on rumour, myths, stories and live actions in local streets (at a distance)
[Image Description: Postcard titled ‘Things I Heard in Spar’, Main text reads: The sun rises over Fegg Hayes. A strangely dressed man goes doorstep to doorstep with his unusual flowers. Another endlessly searches for his best friend and beloved parrot Howard. These characters and many more like them have found themselves trapped right here in Fegg Hayes. They are created by stories that twist and turn when passed from person to person, until they stick, captured in a memory to tell aa thousand times again.]
Esther Brennan and Siobhan Mcaleer working with residents in the Salvation Army hostel in Stoke; creating a museum of objects that seems dull and their stories
[Image Description: Black and white image showing a wooden spoon with text to the right that reads “The Depository Of The Dull”. A 9-pointed yellow star is on top the spoon, and black text overlay reads “A new virtual Museum opening this lockdown!”]
Round 2 Foreword
Susan Clarke, B arts Artistic Director
“When we set out on these commissions we wanted to respond to the word CARE. What might that word mean to us all, how are we taking care of one another? If indeed we are? Before COVID-19, the word has been hijacked, on a national stage used as a weapon with which to clobber your political foe, and so, reduced in value. Suddenly, with the coming of the pandemic, we have seen thousands of beautiful acts of care carried out by families, neighbours, and community groups; simply people taking extra amounts of care of themselves and one another. And so now, what about the professional carers, those whose working life of care has overtaken the rest of their lives, shielding from family members, living at work, working extra hours on extra hours to care for the most frail. Are we listening, rather than just talking about them? And those who struggle with caring well for their own physical or mental well being, what about them?
And still people died. Friends and families separated, people afraid, hungry, alone. Who cares?
Since the earlier days of the pandemic (above) we are now somewhere else again. We are stepping through another burning doorway. Since the unlawful killing of George Floyd, and the protests sparked by this appalling act, the public awareness that real care, for everyone in our society, has been absent, with horrific consequences. That historic, current, systemic, embedded racism is one of the greatest ills of all time. We see evidence of this in the fact that black and other people of colour have died in larger numbers than white people in this pandemic. The trauma of talking about this, of witnessing this, of processing this is affecting people hugely. How do we show we care at a personal level, a community level. How can we make our caring into real change?
So, how we can travel from here to there? How do we pass through this burning doorway? What does “there” might look like. What does the path from here to there look like ? What if it’s made together by artists and non-artists?“
15th June 2020
Round 2 Commissions:
Rebecca Kremer, Gabriella Gay and Adina Lawrence, working closely with 5 black frontline workers and NHS staff. The team wanted to hear what they have experienced - during the pandemic, and over the course of their career - and to answer the question: who is caring for our carers?
[Image Description: Photograph of a black key worker, wearing blue gloves and a white apron. The hands are in a palms up, cupped shape, which appears like a heart. Words across the hands read: ‘I take little things to heart’. Photo taken by Adina Lawrence]
Rachel Ferguson, Daniel Wiggins and Harry Jukes and producer Holly Norcop created a chorus of ringing phone boxes spanning the six towns of Stoke-On-Trent, after working with isolated individuals across S-O-T,
[Image Description: Photograph of a BT phone box with a pink handle, covered in posters, tape and graffiti on an urban street, adjacent to a tree. Photo taken by Dan Wiggins, on College Road, Stoke on Trent ST4 2EE]
The Learning:
Following both rounds of the CARE commissions, we organised a learning day: an opportunity for the artists and producers from both rounds to meet, reflect and discuss what we have learned. The session was facilitated by Dan Thompson, and illustrated live by local artist James Fox Creative.
Below is a digitised version of James Fox Creative’s illustrative notes, that provides a great overview of the day.
On this learning day, we tasked the artists to reflect on their experience, and to help us write a Manifesto for Care. The artists split into three groups, and the results of these conversations are available to view below:
