2021 Retrospective

The People’s Palace of Possibility

The People’s Palace of Possibility is an immersive arts project presented by The Bare Project in collaboration with Heritage Doncaster and Right Up Our Street. Its story is told through the post, and through digital (mobile phones, laptops) and/or telephone interaction, whichever mode of contact you prefer.

Stories To Get Us Through

Right Up Our Street was proud to be a partner with Public Acts Doncaster for their new project Stories To Get Us Through. A new podcast series featuring stories written and performed by the people of Doncaster, inspired by real life events and created during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mask of Hope

During the pandemic, The Bentley Community Choir have not been able to meet with their choir leader Sharon Richards like usual. So, working with Sharon, we sent out two letters to members of the choir with prompts, to give them an opportunity to reflect and respond to the questions.

Social Connections | Bipolar Abdul & FLUID/ITY

As part of our Social Connections R&D Project, we worked with Bipolar Abdul and FLUID/ITY to share the work of the collective with the wider community and showcase their artistry and individual inspirations. The project aimed to support FLUID/ITY to expand into a wider community space, taking drag to new heights and reach new communities, exploring gender fluidity, gender roles and stereotypes.

Social Connections | True Tone

True Tone is a creative community focusing on Doncaster’s creatives. Doncaster, as a town, has limited opportunities for creatives compared to the major UK cities. “Through collaboration and motivation we believe that if a community was formed within Doncaster then more opportunities would arise for Doncaster’s creatives to build their portfolios, help one another uplift their businesses and motivate one another to continue to learn, develop and create.”

Moths At Work | Pif Pif Theatre

Moths on the Moon was a walk-about piece we took out to communities within Edlington, Rossington and Balby. In this unannounced piece delivered by Pif-Paf, they wanted to explore taking performance art out into the streets within areas of the community. Community feedback was one of joy, surprise that something would be delivered in such a hyper local way. And lots of sporadic dancing and laughter! 

Social Connections | Nabeela Khan

“I would like to propose a project where students would be able to create a multi textured fibre art wall hanging with meaning to its creator. Through researching what is important to them, they will gather together fabrics, yarns, garments, beads, scarfs, wools, inspired by their own cultures, families, work, religion or loves. They will then use these to weave various textures and thicknesses of knot, twist, embroider, crochet, and knit making their own personal meaningful hanging wall art.”

Social Connections | Future Leaders

The Project 'Future Leaders' is a project created to showcase & amplify artists. The aim of this project is to give artists a platform and opportunity to speak freely about their work, experiences, achievements, failures and hopes for the future. We want local artists to tell their own stories and focus specifically on underrepresented artists in the Doncaster area. The project will result in multiple short films shot and edited by URBANconceptz Ryan Harston and Produced by Rosie Clark as a digital biography for the artists who take part.

Culture Co-operative | True Tone Workshops

Culture Co-operative is a project that aims to reach and engage individuals within the community who may be experiencing loneliness, exacerbated by the pandemic and most recent period of lockdown. The projects aim is to reach individuals and create new opportunities to engage with the arts, share their work with the wider community and feel part of a more long-term community art exchange, the Culture Co-operative. 

In collaboration with True Tone, we ran a series of creative workshops for 14-30-year-olds living in Doncaster as part of our Culture Co-operative. They have been a great success and a wonderful way for young people to get creative on a Thursday evening!

Culture Co-operative | Craft Boxes for Food Banks

Strand Two of the Culture Co-operative focuses on communities who use the Foodbanks in Doncaster.

Right Up Our Street packed 400 craft boxes filled with different craft activities that were then delivered to Foodbanks across Doncaster to then be distributed to families.

Culture Co-operative | Poetry in Care Homes

We worked closely with Mick Jenkinson and the Read 2 Write group for this strand. In April we launched the first poetry anthology created by the Read 2 Write group which is a beautiful reflection of the lockdown period from the perspective of the writers. You can read View From a Locked-Down Land and learn more about it here.

The anthology was sent to Care Homes across Doncaster, along with a beautiful letter designed by Paul Ward at Evergreen Agency, asking the Care Home residents to take part in exercises if they want to be involved. The reflections and answers to the exercise were then used to create a second anthology ‘An Inside View of a Locked-Down Land’.

View From a Locked-Down Land

During the first lockdown in 2020, Read 2 Write, a community led group of Doncaster based poets moved their weekly Balby Library and Mexborough group meetings online, in a continued effort to create and discuss poetry and stay bonded as a group during the pandemic. Together with Read 2 Write we have worked to capture and celebrate some of their creativity. 

Along with a number of recognised guest poets, members of the group were invited to submit two poems that would go on to feature within a new printed anthology  ‘View From a Locked-Down Land’.

An Inside View From a Locked-Down Land

The printed anthology ‘A View From a Locked-Down Land’ was delivered to Care Homes across Doncaster along with questions, to give the residents an opportunity to engage with the poems and reply with their thoughts. Their written thoughts were then be passed along to our poets at Read2Write for them to write beautiful poetry inspired by the Care Home residents words.

‘An Inside View From a Locked-Down Land’ is our second poetry anthology book, featuring the collaboration of our fantastic Poets at Read2Write and the wonderful residents of the Care Homes across Doncaster.

Nabeela Khan’s Craft Course

In collaboration with the talented Nabeela Khan, and following on from Nabeela’s previous Social Connections Project, we ran a Creative Craft Course for the women of Doncaster every week from May the 19th 2021, finishing on the 14th of July 2021. Throughout the two months Nabeela has led regular sessions, teaching the women how to create several different crafts. Creative crafts such as hand stitched coin purses, watercolour painting, pin cushions, plus much more!

Make Yourself at Home

In partnership with Making Up Your Street, 11 members of the Doncaster community have been survey’d and sent a personal art kit according to how they answered the survey and what their interests are. There are a range of crafts our 11 participants have been sent, such as a mosaic tile kit, a bird house kit, a coiled fabric vessel to decorate a vase, amongst many other creative kits. (Project still in progress).

Children of the Night | Artbomb

We supported the Children of the Night team during the Art Bomb Festival.

“IT’S FRIDAY, 5PM, THE AIR IS THICK WITH CIGGY SMOKE- FILLED ANTICIPATION,THE STREETS’R TIPSY WITH POSSIBILITY, EXPECTATION...EVERYBODY’S DREAMING, BEAMING, GETTING STEAMING FOR THE NIGHT AHEAD…”1998. PAYDAY. KARISMA. THE PRODIGY. PULLING A ’10’. STAGGERING DOWN SILVER STREET. CALLING IN SICK THE NEXT DAY. THIS 10-MINUTE SOUND EXPERIENCE WILL TAKE YOU ON A WHIRLWIND TRIP BACK TO DONNY’S ROARING 90’S RAVE SCENE - GET READY FOR A NIGHT OUT FOR THE AGES.

Balby by the Sea

Balby by the Sea has been running since 2014 and we were so proud to support Balby Community Arts this year and help bring this fantastic event back to the community. This year the event took place at Flourish, on the grounds of St. Catherine’s House. We were thrilled to help welcome 924 visitors on the day and bring quality arts activity to the community of Balby. Acts throughout the day included Pif Paf Theatre, Madam Mango, Zoot, Maynard Flip Flap and Dice Enterprise, which involved circus acts, walkabout entertainment and dancing. Craft activities were also available for children to take part in on the day and craft bags were put together by artist Kate Sully to be be taken home by families to enjoy.

Rossington Window Wanderland | Day of the Dead

Window Wanderland is an award-winning, COVID-safe event that can bring joy and animation to a community just by decorating a window with bright colours or drawings.

We encouraged Rossington to get creative and make your own ‘Day of the Dead’ themed window displays, in time for sunset on the 2nd of November, ready to be admired by their community.

DN Festival of Light 2021

This year (2021) we were so pleased to welcome back the community of Doncaster back to Doncaster Minster for the DN Festival of Light. This year we featured artwork by Heinrich & Palmer, ‘The Crossing Place’. The artwork was inspired by Doncaster’s rich heritage collection and the town’s long-standing association with Natural history.

Depictions of DN

Depictions of DN started as a social media campaign, where we asked the Doncaster Community to nominate key workers or people who have gone above and beyond during the pandemic. 11 of these key workers were selected to take part in a film by James Lockey, which was accompanied by a musical score written by Hayley Youell. The score featured the South Yorkshire Police Band, The Doncaster Choral Society and the Swag/Swaglets Choir (darts).