Filwood in Motion was a year long public art residency on Filwood Broadway in Knowle West, Bristol.
Throughout 2025, resident artists Linzy Na Nakorn and Rachael Clerke worked with local people to create artworks, workshops, podcasts and events that celebrated and amplified the voices of people living, working, playing and studying on and around the Broadway. Below are just a few past highlights…
Filwood in Motion was commissioned and produced by Knowle West Media Centre and the Bristol City Council Arts Development Team as part of the council’s Transforming Filwood Broadway Project funded by UK government.
Launch
Like many in the community, we were shocked and saddened by the loss of Re:Work in October 2024 – both as a fellow founder of Knowle West Alliance and as a vital organisation that was grown in and by the community.
We were honoured to be able to temporarily open an old Re:Work office for community use again over Spring/Summer 2025 for the Filwood in Motion residency. Rachael, Linzy and Jazz Loveys (KWMC Producer) renovated the space to create a temporary home for creativity and community connection directly on the Broadway.
They held their Grand Opening on 3rd April 2025, which was also the launch of their Thursday Club which continued throughout 2025, providing a free family-friendly drop-in space for people to chat and create together.
May Day Parade
On 1st May, a lively parade took over Filwood Broadway, featuring costumes, decor and community banners created in Rachael and Linzy’s after-school Thursday Club drop-ins!
Newspaper
A one-off ‘Filwood Times’ newspaper was launched at a Community Junket event on 29th May 2025. It included eating junket desserts and sharing reports on Knowle West TV (a rich archive of locally-made film material first broadcast in the 1970s!). The newspaper was filled with local submissions, both fact and fiction, including articles, short stories, poems, histories, images, artworks, illustrations, and memories of the area.
“It was a wild and fun event and the newspaper was a hit delivered in record time – thanks to the amazing work of Jakub Vronsky & Jemimah Sutton who laid it out over a weekend, and the News Hound printers who turned the whole thing around in 36 hours. Alice Freedman, aka Flick, was our excellent reporter on the ground, Eshiva Wright our matchless Knowle West TV host, Jazz Loveys KWMC producer and junket pudding saver extraordinaire. We heard from our special correspondents Chloe (fashion), Dan (culture), Brody (current affairs), Ruth (advice) & Jim (history)… Felt proud of the turnout, the turnaround, and people of Filwood Broadway who are really, really up for it.” -Rachael Clerke via Instagram
“We had an excellent time with the esteemed people of the Knowle West press and Filwood Times local news teams. Was a joy to celebrate and pay homage to the local legacy of people lead media in Knowle West.” – Linzy Na Nakorn via Instagram
Black Bark Films have made a brilliant film of the event below…
Image Credits: Diego Maeso
Filwood on Broadway
Another highlight of the Filwood in Motion project: a collaborative event on 9th August 2025, with local residents, children, businesses and artists putting on a show and dinner out on the street!
Having discovered a time-machine* in the back of the Filwood in Motion shop space (Unit 8), Linzy and Rachael made a show celebrating the history of Filwood Broadway, in collaboration with a group of young people through a two-day Summer School, Filwood Chase History Society, musicians Jack Drewry and Ellian Showering, plus performers Danny Prosser, Eshiva Wright and Alice Freedman.
With thanks to Christ The King Primary School, the creative team based themselves out of the school hall, using the space to workshop and devise sound, set and movement for the participatory show.
For the team, it felt really exciting and important that this show, celebrating the Broadway, took place out on The Broadway, taking up space and collaborating with residents, businesses and those playing and working in the area at a time when the street is being taken down and put back together.
The show was a live time-travelling history tour of Filwood Broadway, featuring Jurassic Era, the Romans at Inns Court, the entrance of Cnoll (now Knowle) into the Domesday Book, the 1930s building of the street, the battle of Melvin Square that chased Oswal Mosely out of town, the art-deco swimming pool and the cinema.
Curious about the future, the show also travelled to the year 3035, where Knowle West has become famous for the OlympiEgg Games, held annually as an inter-planetary sporting event.
Landing back in 2025, the community then sat down to eat down the street, with food from friends on the Broadway including The May Fair, Sandwich Stop and Pizza Plus! Menus were illustrated by Wild West Tattoo. All gratefully supported with funds from Knowle West Alliance.
*time machine may not be real
From providing rehearsal space, to creative writing, sharing histories of the Broadway, making props, sewing costumes, turning up to rehearsals, putting out plates, cooking, running a pop-up bar and volunteering time – Filwood on Broadway really was a fully collaborative all-singing and all-dancing event!
A film capturing the day is coming soon…
Podcast
Listen back to the residency podcast ‘Writ Large’, a series of five recorded chats between people living, working, studying and playing in and around Filwood Broadway. To announce each episode, an excerpt was pasted large on a hoarding on the Broadway!
Listen to every episode for free via Soundcloud, or search Writ Large Knowle West Media Centre on Spotify.
Photographer credit for image above and the launch event: Ibi Feher. Photographer credit for all other images on this page: Diego Maeso.
Join us! Filwood in Motion Finale on 18th December 2025
Come and explore short films, podcasts and photos from the playful, theatrical events that have brought Filwood Broadway to life over the past year – including The Community Junket and Filwood on Broadway!
There will be delicious free snacks and cakes from The Broadway and a family-friendly activity. We’ll also reveal the design for a new community artwork for the Filwood Community Centre hoardings, created with contributions from Filwood in Motion Thursday Club participants and artist Dani Hale.
Anyone who’s curious to see what we’ve been up to is welcome – whether you’ve attended lots or none of our previous sessions.
Check out the Filwood in Motion website here to see more. Join KWMC’s monthly newsletter to be first to hear about similar events.
Funding
Filwood in Motion was commissioned and produced by Knowle West Media Centre and the Bristol City Council Arts Development Team as part of the council’s Transforming Filwood Broadway Project funded by UK government. Read more about the transformation of Filwood Broadway here.