Blast! Festival of Photography, Walks & Talks
Co-organising Blast! Festival of Photography, Talks and Walks (2019) is one of my proudest achievements. Over
six weeks, we presented 36 exhibitions and 42 events in non-traditional arts spaces such as markets, shops,
parks, High Streets and a town hall and attracted 47, 370 visitors. Highlights video here.
I worked with community groups and artists such as Dawinder Bansal, Laura Pannack and Jon Tonks to curate their work through exhibitions and installations and organised an engaging public programme of events and activity that would resonate with a local, national and international audience.
Stakeholders included: Arts Council, Midlands Metro, University of Wolverhampton, Flatpack Festival, Centrala, Grain.
The impact of this participatory festival was huge; 69% of visitors said it improved their perceptions of Sandwell; we set up Blast! Creative Network to develop/support local artists; it further embedded Multistory into the community and the relationships built informed future projects and programmes and showed power and possibility of community engaged programmes embedded in place. Overview and evaluation report can be found here. Festival website here.
Highlights include curating an event called a ‘Fun Day on the Tibby’ attended by 300 people that showcased work produced with photographer Laura Pannack and young people through a large-scale screening and magazine gifted to participants.
