Y Pwyllgor Diwylliant, y Gymraeg a Chwaraeon

Adolygiad Polisi: Cyfraniad y Celfyddydau a Chwaraeon at Adfywio Cymunedol

Adamscourt Sculpture Project

A Brief Report

Project overview A team of two experienced community artists delivered a participatory sculpture project for residents of Cardiff’s largest asylum-seeker reception centre during the school summer holiday period July/August 2003 Context This project was linked to, and took place in the period leading up to, 'A Sense of Place’ - a 4-day conference event in Cardiff from 24th - 27th November 2003, that will aim to investigate, question and shed light on concepts of 'displacement’ and 'integration’ in Europe, through the intellectual focus of the role of the arts, culture and media. The experience gained during the Adamscourt project will feed into the conference to ensure that the event is rooted in the concerns and realities facing displaced people. A documentary video report of the project will be shown to delegates. Original Aims:

• To provide a creative and recreational/educational activity for the residents of Adamscourt asylum-seeker reception centre in Cardiff, which would acknowledge their particular experiences as displaced people, and would validate and respect their individual cultural backgrounds and values.
• To teach specific arts-related skills to Adamscourt residents and at the same time to enhance their self-confidence and self-esteem.
• To improve the physical space surrounding Adamscourt by resulting in the production of a number of three-dimensional art pieces which could be permanently located in the open spaces which surround the Adamscourt building.
• To encourage Adamscourt residents to feel more positively towards their surroundings - to feel 'a sense of place’ at the centre and in wider Cardiff.
• To provide a context in which children at Adamscourt could interact creatively with their peers from the local community, generating a greater spirit of mutual tolerance and understanding.

Objectives Adamscourt contains families and individuals from many parts of the world who stay there while their cases for seeking asylum are reviewed. Some only remain there for a short time, but for others it is their home for an extended period. The project provided an opportunity for the residents of Adamscourt to be involved ina range of three-dimensional arts activities with the support of professional artists with experience in encouraging the participation of marginalised groups. This project was open to all ages and both genders, and enabled residents to work collectively to produce sculptures and mosaics work which reflected their cultural background and/or their experiences of displacement. The project also encouraged people from different cultural backgrounds to work together. Details: The two artists (Andrea Finn and Yusupha Jawara) worked at the Adamscourt centre for a period of two weeks during July/August 2003 - to coincide with the school holiday period. They spent time initially with groups of residents so as to identify their preferred topics and ways of working, and to build a sense of collaboration and confidence with the residents. This was followed by a series of very informal 'taster’ sessions, at which any Adamscourt residents could try out working with different art materials. Those who showed an interest were engaged in an intensive period of 'making’ sculptures, always stressing the participatory aims of the project and the importance of including people who may initially have seemed shy or sceptical about the process. The artists needed to be sensitive at all times to the cultural backgrounds and values of their target participants. The results were two excellent pieces of work in which many Adamscourt residents of all ages had contributed. One piece was carved from a large piece of solid oak - the other was made up of concrete pipes which were built into upright shapes and then covered with mosaic designs.The sculptures were designed with practicality in mind, and each was designed to function as an outdoor seat and table which would help to create a shared social space in the otherwise anonymous surrounding area of the residential building as well as being aesthetically pleasing in their own right. Children and young people were encouraged to collaborate on the project with other young people which they had met through school or other activities in the wider community. Because the 'sculptures’ that resulted from the project were created by the residents themselves they expressed a high level of 'ownership’ of the work and said that it had been empowering experience for them and had contributed to creating an positive and encouraging environment for them. Rationale Cardiff hosts an increasing number of asylum seekers who are often 'dispersed’ to the city very shortly after their arrival in the U.K., with little or no prior knowledge of the area or its culture. Asylum seekers are either located to private residences, or are housed in one of two larger residential units, one of which (the Adamscourt centre) is run by a private company but overseen by Cardiff County Council. Whilst children who are with families seeking asylum are absorbed relatively quickly into the local school system, the adults often experience a profound feeling of isolation and dislocation, combined with the insecurity of not knowing whether their request to be allowed to remain as residents in the U.K. will be granted. These difficulties are compounded by the traumatic experiences which they may have experienced before coming to this country. An additional pressure is the negative stereotyping of asylum-seekers in some sections of the media, and the negative attitudes expressed by some members of the host community - usually because of a combination of ignorance, misconceptions and false stereotypes to which they have been exposed. As a result, these ’guests’ to our country endure psychological distress as well as the difficulties of surviving on a very limited allowance - an experience which can be damaging for them and for their children as well. The project started from the view that shared cultural activity is an excellent way of developing the confidence of participants, and also for building bridges of understanding and tolerance with people from other cultures - including that of the host community. The process of the project was crucial in ensuring that participants gained in terms of skills and self-esteem, and the finished results enhanced the physical environment of residents at Adamscourt and of the wider community. The Artists YUSUPHA YAWARA is originally from The Gambia, but currently living in Bristol. He has worked in a variety of three-dimensional materials, but recently has been returning to his original passion of wood carving. For the Adamscourt Project he was able to locate two very large pieces of old oak at a small local timber yard in Bristol - one was the base of a tree and the other a six-foot length of trunk. Yusupha was very happy to find these pieces, as oak of this scale is becoming scarce. He initially carved both pieces to roughly the required shape with a chain-saw - the tree-base became a solid table-top, and the trunk became a bench. A number of interesting designs were proposed by participants and these were incorporated into the final design. A high proportion of the younger residents were keen to carve their names into the wood pieces, and these were incorporated into the final design. It was felt by everyone that a piece of art which emphasised so strongly the individual identities of residents was an appropriate statement to make in an social environment where all too often people can feel that they are reduced to stereotypes or statistics. ANDREA FINN now lives in Hampshire, and has worked as a teacher and an artists in a variety of setting fro more that]n forty years. She has worked on many different art forms and with many different materials, but for this project he chose to make the basic construction from concrete sewer piping, which has then anchored into the group, and covered with mosaic designs which were created by participants. Two columns were made, each of which were capped with fired clay head-pieces made by one of the young participants who showed a particular interest and aptitude in clay work) which were planted with hardy perennial plants to give the impression of hair. An oak plank was placed between the columns to act as a bench and a table was then constructed using a mosaic base and a painted plywood top. Many children (some as young as six) became involved with this part of the project, and there was a lot of pride expressed by participants in the high quality of the finished work. The idea of using the project to create attractive social sitting spaces incorporating a bench and table unit was agreed at an early stage in a discussion between by the artists and Virginia Croucher, manager at the Adamscourt Centre. It was agreed that the combination of practicality and aesthetic appeal which this option would afford would be ideal for the Adamscourt building, which consists of a rather featureless residential building surrounded by landscaped grass areas with no natural gathering or meeting places. More than forty of the Adamscourt residents took part in the project for different lengths of time - including many of the young children at the centre. The Launch Party When the sculptures were completed, an outdoor party was held at Adamscourt as a sharing and a celebration. Food was cooked on barbeques, and a table was covered with food items and refreshments which had been prepared by residents. Live music was provided by a group of Roma musicians from the Czech Republic. Many of the residents came to the party, and there was a great deal of socialising and conversation. Everyone was keen to try out the new structures to see how well they would work as sitting and social spaces - the general consensus was that they 'felt’ to sit on as good as they looked. It was felt that this social event was one of the highlights of the project, as it created a sense of community and solidarity which is difficult to achieve when people are living with the many stresses and uncertainties of being officially without any permanent right of residence Documentation The entire process of creating the sculptures was documented with photographs by Katja Stille who works with the Bridgend-based community arts organisation Valley and Vale. Normally she works in video, but it was felt that the video camera would be too intrusive and possible threatening to a community of people whose legal status is in a state of limbo and who may feel very protective about their relative anonymnity. However permission was gained from many participants to incorporate still images of themselves and their work into a short video which will include thoughts about and reactions to, the project by several participants as a soundtrack. This video was shown to delegates at the A Sense of Place conference and will be distributed to other organisations who are working with asylum-seekers. For more information please contact: Tony Deyes, British Council Wales: tony.deyes@britishcouncil.org Steve Garrett, Cultural Concerns: culturalconcerns@onetel.net.uk Katja Stiller, Valley and Vale Community Arts: katjan@ntlworld.com