We had a brilliant event on Thursday 24 November as part of the Being Human Festival which was organised by RIAH – Research Institute for Arts and Humanities at Swansea. During the festival over 250 events took place over 45 towns and cities across the UK and was led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. The programme of events was themed around ‘Hope and Fear’. Our workshop took place at The Waterfront Museum in Swansea in the Ocean room which is where we will be holding our exhibition in 2018!
Participants in our workshop included staff and pupils from Pen Y Bryn School, staff from the Resource Centre, service users, family members and friends of Longfields. Also there were Sara Beer from Disability Arts Cymru and Ben Ewart Dean who was part of the Changing the Focus, film project.
Most people had brought in photographs of themselves which spanned several years and using these images they worked with Ben in putting together stories of their lives. The room was a hive of activity with Sara taking small groups in drama workshops.
There were some old photographs of Longfields and it was great to reminisce looking at these photographs. Using the theme of the Being Human festival, the parents fears back in the early 1950s were that their children would not get the chance to go to school. Through their action – they campaigned to let people know that their children were being excluded from education – they hoped to bring about a change that would give their children an education.
This is the link to some of the photographs from the Being Human festival at Swansea and you can scroll to our workshop ‘Attitudes and Aspirations’ and see some pictures there.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/swanseauniversity/sets/72157675161771342
Thank you everyone who took part so enthusiastically and thank you to Being Human Festival and RIAH for giving us the opportunity!
