Motherline: an event from Mothers who Make

Join us to celebrate new work from over 50 women in the community alongside professional artists all responding to the theme of our Motherlines. Expect an array of imaginative, moving and creative responses from visual arts to live performance and workshops that mark the end of our 10 month ACE funded project. The Motherline celebration will joyfully share the experiences, art work and performances?created within a community of 20 women who have been meeting over 10 months to explore creativity, collaboration and connection whilst responding to the word Motherline. Each session the group have been guided by industry practitioners to play, explore and experiment as a means to later express what resonated with them in the different art forms.?The lead practitioners are Alice Robinson from The Performers' Playground and Jolene?Sheehan from Joy Ethic CIC and the guest practitioners have been Musician Becky Wilkie,?Visual artist Lynda Sterling and Playwright Linda Brogan. In addition to the community group we have commissioned mother artists from our network and beyond to showcase extracts of new work in their art forms during this event. Overall the artists have responded to this universal theme of Motherline from many different perspectives; some are mothers, others not; some are addressing the global decline in birth rate, others the dual caring responsibilities that comes from having ageing parents at the same time as young children; some artists are sharing responses from their neighbourhoods and communities. There will also be creative workshops for you to sign up to on the day including dance, art and creative discussion. The abundance of creative responses is incredibly inspiring and moving and we cannot wait to share it with audiences. ? Motherline's Key Themes This project and celebration event has been exploring the theme of our Motherlines and?what they provoke in different artists from the community and arts profession.?The title was intentionally broad and has meant that each person has brought themselves?to it in a rich, diverse and authentic way. The theme is provocative and emotive and has?therefore been left open for participants to engage with it with space, time and support in?particular within the community group. We have placed emphasis on creativity as a tool to explore a huge topic that can for?some feel complicated and for all very personal. As practitioners and community collaborators we have encouraged a playful and exploratory approach to work and never focused on outcome but instead invested in the process. The outcome is wonderfully ambitious.?It has been a fabulous challenge for some of us to work creatively and to set aside the inner critic who might say you can?t draw, or sing or write and it has been a wonderful challenge to meet this voice with a playful approach as much as possible. Participants have found it a boost to mental health, self esteem and confidence.