Community Development

Action Space Mobile believes that the arts have a vital role to play in community development and in directly or indirectly contributing to social cohesion.  We have over 40 years experience of working with local communities creating self-sustaining projects such as the United Villages Partnership in Barnsley and Mapplewell and Staincross Village Hall in Mapplewell.

We devise and deliver activities and events with the participants' needs in mind using the skills of our freelance artistic team.

Examples of our past arts projects: mosaic in community garden; banner making; limericks and shadow puppets; scarecrow making; felt making workshop & Arts@Heeley (workshops for children).

   Community workshop at Yorkshire Sculpture Park        Art at Heeley (workshops for children)

We work with requests from community groups, youth services and local authorities such as the tender for 'Kids can Do' from Sheffield.  We can create site-specific projects both indoor and outdoor.  We have worked in parks, libraries and community venues and have handed over projects to local volunteers to continue the activities.

We believe that arts related activities encourage independence, build confidence and help people recognise their own abilities and talents, and can ultimately change lives.  We work with children, adults and families.  We use arts based activities, including carnivals, play schemes and participatory public art.

Outcomes include: 

·         Tackling anti-social behaviour

·         Promoting social cohesion between age groups, neighbouring communities

      and social/ethnic groups

·         Providing training for local people

·         Improving the local environment creating a sense of ownership and pride

·         Planting the seeds of long-term change

 Recent Community Arts Projects 

Fusion - Girl Guides Centenary Event

 

To mark 100 years of the Girl Guides movement, Action Space Mobile was one of many groups delivering activities for the thousands of people attending the event, organised by Manchester International Arts (MIA) and held in the grounds of Harewood House, Leeds.

 

Action Space Mobile artists in character as singing farmers, showed participants how to make their own scarecrows and create rangoli decorations.
 

Heart of Barnsley Festival

 

Action Space Mobile delivered more than 30 art workshops to community groups, children's centres and schools in the Barnsley area on the festival's themes of health and fitness.  Children and adults worked together to create rangoli artworks, using healthy pulses, seeds and lentils and made processional items for use at the parade which marked the culmination of the festival. 

 

The role the arts can play in encouraging wellbeing and creating active fulfilled communities is well documented and becoming more widely acknowledged. The Heart of Barnsley festival fitted into a national agenda of arts focused preventative initiatives aimed at wellbeing through participation and engagement.