"The most enjoyable part of the course was the new ideas - the different ways of looking at things, working with 'real' artists. Working with new materials - some I hadn't seen before."
WorkshopsCommissions
Unity EnterpriseBand FCauseway

BAND F

This is a group consisting of adults from Barrhead and Neilston who have disabilities. Some of them are Barrhead Housing Association tenants from the sheltered complex on Main Street. The members of this group meet twice a week in the James McGuire Centre in Barrhead. Some members have difficulty using their hands and other members of the forum are blind or partially sighted. Many of the group are housebound and the Forum represents an opportunity to come together for friendship and entertainment.

WORKSHOPS

A series of workshops with Band F and the production of a new media artwork linked to the workshops.

Videos

Some of the workshops have been documented in video. Please click on the links below. To download the Quicktime player please click here.

Co-operation - 5MB quicktime movie
Working at Shanks - 9.5MB quicktime movie
Holiday Memories - 6MB quicktime movie

Artist, Helen McCrorie states:

“The workshops focussed on exchanging memories and thoughts inspired by local archival material and linking these to tactile activities and sound/video recordings.

We began the sessions by watching or looking at something which would stimulate imagination and memories and inspire recordings or artworks.

In one session, for example, we watched Co-op adverts from the 1940's and 50's. The funny slogans, jingles and clips of families dancing around kitchen tables brought back lost memories of home and shopping in days gone by. We then made up shopping lists of what we used to buy from the Barrhead Co-op, trying to remember old brand names and what things cost at that time. Participants enjoyed the chance to exchange and reflect on the memories which resurfaced -some sweet, some sad... and some very funny. Everyone marvelled at how much things have changed and in particular how much better off most folk are today. Some people remembered having to buy bags of broken biscuits and rotten oranges because their families had so little money then. Magical childhood memories surfaced too. One woman recalled her excitement when she was given tinned corned beef for tea which had lain at the bottom of the ocean for years- it had been recovered from a sunken merchant navy ship!

Museum objects and archival films and videos were loaned by Barrhead Museum, Barrhead Library and Scottish Screen.

Emphasis was on the experience being stimulating, fun and confidence-building and activities being flexible to individuals’ interests and needs.

A range of outcomes from the workshops, including prints, stories and fabric paintings were exhibited in the Barrhead Library.

Some of the themes and subjects explored:

  • The Co-op in Barrhead, groceries, coupons and rations
  • The Textile Industry in Barrhead/the Neilston mills
  • Working at Shanks plumbers
  • Holidays, doon the water and other places
  • Changes to Barrhead town and the surrounding areas
  • Gala Days and other community events and entertainment

Workshops activities included:

  • Viewing and handling objects from the Barrhead Museum, including cloth books, co-op coupons, printing plates, Shanks products etc.
  • Watching archival films, old adverts and local history videos
  • Storytelling & sound recording, videoing people and objects
  • Making drawings and tracings using lightboxes to aid visually impaired members
  • Making prints and postcards
  • Making rubbings & tracings of objects
  • Experimenting with fabric painting and making a banner for Band F.”

Following Helen McCrorie’s move to Hong Kong, artist, Jennie Temple, is continuing the workshops with Band F. She is interested in the ways that Helen has initiated the group to respond to aspects of their own, and of Barrhead’s history, and she proposes to continue with the underlying theme of reminiscence.

Band F workshop

Band F workshop