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Archive for August, 2023

Blog: New Artist in Residence for ‘Collect to Connect’

We are excited to welcome our new artist in residence, Tay Aziz! Tay is a Bristol-based community organiser and versatile visual storyteller merging film, photography, writing, and design. She is passionate about connecting with diverse audiences through creativity and raising environmental awareness.

 

In this residency, Tay will be working with us on our new Collect to Connect project to imagine thriving future green spaces. Tay plans to find the ‘local legends’ of Knowle West and invite them to share their perspectives and dreams for the neighbourhood. She is particularly interested in how the work of these people can connect and grow together. She will be exploring this through mapping and embroidery, including experimenting with our digital embroidery machine at The Factory.

We can’t wait to see what Tay gets up to! 

Collect to Connect is all about amplifying, connecting and working together to enhance the abundance of green space, wildlife and knowledge that already exists in Knowle West. Funded by Citizen Science Initiatives selected through IMPETUS.

Email ella.chedburn@kwmc.org.uk if you’re local and want to get involved.  

Read more here

Blog: Summer Nature Celebration

To kick off our Collect to Connect project, we hosted a Summer Nature Celebration in July 2023 alongside the team at Springfield Community Allotment, Knowle West Alliance and Avon Wildlife Trust. 

We began with a walk through the Northern Slopes with Avon Wildlife Trust. Together we wandered through forests and fields, spotting local creatures and plants including some blackberries which arrived earlier than usual. After, we jumped into some activities at the Springfield Community Allotment:  

– Making superhero masks inspired by our favourite animals. 

– Viewing recent nature-inspired creations made by the community in KWMC The Factory’s ‘Make Your Mark’ project. 

– Discovering the wonders of moss with artist Hester Buck. Did you know that moss can reveal a lot about air quality? 

– Exploring the allotments as different insects (“what kind of journey does a butterfly have here?”).  

A particularly rich activity was our mapping of Knowle West’s green spaces, how we get to them and what wildlife we see there. We discovered a couple of treasured ‘wildlife corridors’ in alleys behind people’s homes and located spots where badgers cross between parks. We were also told about a few green spaces which are due to be replaced with housing. Cats were also mentioned a few times, both pets and strays which wander between different households. Other wildlife spotted included: foxes, hedgehogs, slugs, butterflies, robins, pigeons, bats and some naughty horses which often escape their paddock! 

We enjoyed a tasty lentil curry from The Park Centre and fresh salad from the allotments, then Kmt Freedom Teacher’s performance had us singing along, making animal sounds and acting as trees. 

Big thanks to the Springfield Community Allotment team and Knowle West Alliance in helping to make this event happen. 

Explore More 

You can find out more about the Northern Slopes’ events, wildlife sightings, and ways to get involved on their Facebook group and website.  

Avon Wildlife Trust have created a great online resource called My Wild City where you can download top tips for making your neighbourhood more wildlife friendly and a toolkit for making a more nature rich city. They have also added a page for the Northern Slopes where you can find an illustrated map of the Slopes plus a printable colouring sheet.  

Springfield Community Allotments are looking for volunteers and organising a seed swap. They are welcoming any residents, groups or organisations who’d like to be involved in and use the site. Head to their website here to see more. 

Our Collect to Connect project is running from Summer until Autumn 2023. If you’d like to get involved or find out more, please feel welcome to contact us: ella.chedburn@kwmc.org.uk. We would love to hear from you. 

Blog: Knowle West Fest 2023

We’re still riding the wave of excitement following the incredible success of this year’s Knowle West Fest! With an astounding turnout of over 700 visitors throughout the day, the festival truly lived up to its reputation as a highlight of our community calendar.

From engaging arts and crafts sessions that fired up everyone’s creativity to mesmerizing music performances that had toes tapping and heads nodding, the festival certainly had something for everyone.

Knowle West Fest 2023 was a true reflection of our community’s spirit. It wasn’t just a day of entertainment; it was an opportunity for neighbours to come together, share experiences, and strengthen the bonds that make our community so vibrant.

As a result of this amazing event, we were able to create a short film from the voices of the community to express how they felt the day went and what they think about their community.

Thank you to everyone who came along, all the amazing artists and makers and everyone who worked behind the scenes to make it happen!

Blog: Introducing our collaborators for ‘Garden Lab Whispers Grow’

We will be co-creating a garden lab to grow more caring relations and inclusive processes for climate action. 

We are excited to be collaborating with artist Paul Granjon and disabled interdisciplinary designer and accessibility advocate Ruth Hennell as part of our new project, ‘Garden Lab Whispers Grow’.

Ruth Hennell will bring her embodied experiences, activism and interdisciplinary design approaches, alongside connections with activists with disabilities in Bristol. Ruth is inspired by nature, folk and disability wisdom and has a passion for Knowle West’s natural spaces which have supported and restored her, as she experiences from different perspectives (led down) due to pain and mobility barriers.

Image credit: Scott Piggott.
Image description: A white young woman with brown hair stands in an allotment collecting data. 

Paul Granjon is bringing his unique approach to DIY tech, where people can join in making, thinking, and playing with sensor technology and much more. Paul will share DIY tech possibilities to inspire the co-creation of an inclusive garden lab. Participants in the Garden Lab will invent experiments and tools for exploring our connection to non human living beings.

Image Credit: Anna Tuhey
Image Description A white man shows three young schoolboys how to use a machine which is throwing paper across the classroom.

Through recent KWMC facilitated projects around Springfield Community Allotments there is already an active and engaged group, including disabled creatives, who are keen to extend conversations and ideas around how to make green spaces and nature related work more accessible. The active allotment steering group, led by the local community, will also be involved from the outset ensuring relevance and grounding in the place.

We are so excited to begin this work, exploring how co-designing through a variety of perspectives can enhance the ecology and accessibility of a green space and create models of inclusive collaborative knowledge sharing, learning and making that could be adapted to any community green space with a climate action agenda.

Garden Lab Whispers Grow is funded by Bristol + Bath Creative R+D Grounding Technologies and supported by Impetus.

Image Credit: Scott Piggott
Image Description: People and families are gathered in small groups stood up and sat down around a grassy field on a sunny day. There is bunting which lines the field and houses behind the hedgeline.

Work Experience 2023

Last month we had the opportunity to run two weeks of work experience with our funders Bristol City Council Strategic Partnership. This partnership of ARUP Arcadis and Mott MacDonald, aids the delivery of new infrastructure, homes and regeneration across the city of Bristol. 

We are very lucky to have such an engaged partnership with our funders, who opened their doors to the young people and worked with them through live briefs in engineering, project managing, finance and more. 

During the visit to Mott MacDonald young people helped design new developments for a secondary school in Bristol. Each team were assigned a role for example: project manager, designer, finance officer and worked on the brief.

At Arcadis, young people learnt about the developments taking place in Castle Park and helped brainstorm new developments for the project. 

Young people worked with ARUP to assess upcoming flood risks to the city and design flood defences around Bristol’s harbour, working within the real budget of the live project, considering social value, budget and environmental issues.

Our work wasn’t done with those visits as throughout the week young people also went on a photography expedition around the harbour, made mixed media projects at KWMC and took part in digital fabrication learning at a Maker City Making days at The Factory. 

Photographer Kirsty Mackay works with the Creative Hub cohort

Photographer, activist, educator and filmmaker Kirsty Mackay has been working with our Creative Hub group, teaching them point-and-shoot film cameras to capture the world from their perspective.

The young people’s photographs are in our main studio at the moment and Kirsty will be exhibiting these images as part of a larger body of work about the cost of living crisis.

Knowle West Media Centre is seeking to appoint a Treasurer.

We are looking for an individual with experience working in finance to join our Board of Trustees as our Treasurer. The Treasurer will support KWMC’s Head of Finance and CEO in key financial areas and report the organisation’s financial health to the Board.

Think you might be interested?

Then take a look at the Treasurer role description and our Welcome to KWMC.

We are always looking for individuals with a range of experiences and from a range of backgrounds who would like to use their expertise to support our projects and activities.

Trustees are champions of KWMC and help to guide and develop the organisation.  The Board is not expected to be involved in the day-to-day running of KWMC – this is the job of the staff team – however, we expect the Board to provide strategic guidance and support for the wider programme of KWMC.

We have been based in Knowle West for over 20 years and are committed to supporting our local community, and we particularly welcome interest from local residents in becoming trustees.

We are also interested in hearing from people who have business and manufacturing experience or a background in fundraising, legal or people management.

Main responsibilities of a trustee

–   advise on and help to develop KWMC strategy
–   support KWMC’s ambition to deliver a programme that has impact and longevity
–   ensure compliance with governing documents
–   attend quarterly evening trustees’ meetings held at KWMC
–   ensure accountability
–   ensure compliance with the law
–   maintain proper fiscal oversight, working with the honorary treasurer
–   help with fundraising where appropriate (e.g. attend events or make introductions)
–   respect and support the role of staff
–   maintain effective board performance (including new trustee recruitment)
–   promote the organisation to target stakeholders

Time requirement

Trustees are expected to attend quarterly Board meetings of approximately 2 hours. These are held in Bristol but with facilities for joining remotely. We would also call on Trustees to help us with specific issues, where they have the skills and time to assist. We are conscious of time constraints and would only call on you as necessary. We would also ask that you put some time into promoting KWMC to funders and other networks.

Remuneration

Knowle West Media Centre is a not-for-profit organisation and our Trustees are not paid. However, if financial considerations are a barrier to your participation we would like to discuss how we can remove them.

Critical Friends

As well as the Board of Trustees we are keen to expand our network of Critical Friends. A Critical Friend is an expert in their field who can provide an independent view of KWMC, our programmes, projects or processes, and who will prompt and support us with honest reflection and appraisal (or reappraisal). A Critical Friend could ask provocative questions, provide additional data, evidence or lessons from elsewhere that offer a different perspective, or critique processes and/or reports. Critical Friends are only called on as and when we require advice and do not attend Board meetings.

Application process

If you’d like to find out more and arrange a time to have an informal chat about the role then please drop an email to Bethan Park, Head of Finance at bethan.park@kwmc.org.uk

Contact Us

Knowle West Media Centre
Leinster Avenue
Knowle West
Bristol
BS4 1NL
+44 (0) 117 903 0444
enquiries@kwmc.org.uk

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