COMMUNITY TAKEOVER

Exploring what we can do to help our planet and our health is at the heart of a Community Takeover event at John Hansard Gallery (JHG).

Over the course of five weeks, a wide-ranging programme of activities, exhibitions, workshops and films exploring the environment, sustainability and wellbeing is taking place.

JHG is working with the University, schools, local charities, artists and community leaders for the event.

Lynne Dick, Head of Programme at JHG, said: “The Takeover offers a social and creative space for experimentation and play, where communities can come together and share in our commitment to being a welcoming and inclusive space for all. Much of what we have going on is interactive for those visiting and we hope adults and children alike take away some important messages around sustainability and personal wellbeing and the links between the two.”

ACTIVITIES AND DISPLAYS AT COMMUNITY TAKEOVER 2022

COMMUNITY INDOOR GARDEN IN PARTNERSHIP WITH YELLOW DOOR

Building on the theme of Safe Spaces and JHG’s work with the JHG Ambassadors, a group which formed in early 2020 and is made up of local people who want to network, shape projects and make a difference locally, the indoor garden will provide the opportunity for Takeover visitors to join in and plant their own flowers using reusable materials and their creative imagination.

The JHG Ambassadors devised this activity when exploring the idea of what makes a safe space in the city, including gardens.

Photograph courtesy of Nosa Malcolm

Yellow Door, a local charity which works with victims of domestic and sexual abuse, is creating a garden at its base in Southampton to be used and maintained by the people it supports, taking ideas from the Takeover garden and vice versa.

Why are broken old pots amazing? Clay, pottery, sheds, rubbish

A team of archaeologists and archaeology students from the University will be running a drop-in handling session, where visitors can find out about a unique broken pot collection from across the globe, from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period.

Transience with Suna Imre.

Artist Suna Imre’s new sculptural work will be on display, highlighting the impermanence of both nature and ourselves. Working with clay and organic material, Suna has created ceramic and raw clay sculptures that aim to elevate the beauty and fragility of the natural world. Visitors are invited to sculpt with clay and dried foliage in workshops with Suna.

Safe Spaces

This will be a colourful display of shields created by young people from three local charities: No Limits, YMCA Newtown, and Energise Me. The shields will tell the story of each young person and what safety means to them in their home city. Safe Spaces is led by local artist Tom Hall and developed in partnership with artist and skateboarder Ged Wells and Skate Southampton.

Southampton Clothes Swap

With the increase in fast fashion and clothes waste, this activity is a thought-provoking event exploring sustainable fashion. The line-up of talks, workshops, makers and clothes swaps will invite visitors to question the cycle of clothing and explore ideas for positive change.

Southampton Clothes Swap, founded by Libby Russell, is a monthly event in spaces across the city where people can bring clothes they no longer want and swap them for items they do.

FILMS

During the five weeks of Community Takeover, there will be film screenings from a variety of project partners, including:

• Co-creating a nature-themed visual art and music video to support wellbeing during COVID-19 and beyond Health Sciences researchers Cindy Brooks and Michelle Myall are working with local public contributors and creatives. Together, they have created a novel nature-themed visual art and music video resource to support wellbeing during COVID-19 and beyond.

• Making and Breaking a Line A partnership between dance artists Gabriel Galvez-Prado and Suna Imre, poet Hugh Greasley and a local over 50s support group, using movement and writing to interact with John Hansard Gallery’s recent exhibition, Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature. The group explores ideas around landscape, mental health and life itself.

• TRACE (TRAnsitioning to a Circular Economy with creative artists) is an award-winning project between University scientists, creative artists and local primary schoolchildren. It highlights ways to communicate to the public about the problems associated with e-waste. Presented in collaboration with Ian Williams, Professor of Applied Environmental Science.

• Plastic Pollution Artist Susannah Pal has been working with Professor Ian Williams to understand the impact of plastic pollution. In response, Susannah is making art that explores what impact microplastics have when they shed from textiles. This short film is an insight into her creative process.

Telephonic Youth: Thinking about phones past, present and future

Telephonic Youth is a project being driven by Dr Eve Colpus, a cultural and social historian, and Associate Professor in British and European History post-1850 at the University. The project tells the untold story of young people’s telephone cultures as phone technologies revolutionised over the 1980s and 1990s.

At the Takeover there is also a phone amnesty, where visitors can bring in old phones and turn them into art, and help save the planet by reducing e-waste. For those who don’t have an old phone handy, the Telephonic Youth team would still like to hear people’s telephone memories as part of their project.

Promise to our Planet

Children and young people are invited to explore their voices and thoughts on climate change through making a ‘promise to the planet’. Gallery 1 will house a tree created from all the promises, and the tree will grow and bloom with children’s responses as the Takeover progresses. JHG is committed to Southampton becoming a Child-Friendly City, and this display encourages young people to come along and engage in the gallery space.

Community Takeover 2022 takes place at John Hansard Gallery from Saturday 19 March to Saturday 23 April 2022.

For more information visit www.jhg.art/events/ community-takeover-2022