UPLIFT is heading down to the woods....come join us! A Wombwell Wood Takeover, 25th and 26th of April

Come and play with our team of UPLIFT artists. Rediscover this historic woodland, encounter its' beasts and beauties; both real and imagined and create art and music inspired by these wonderful woods.

On Saturday the takeover begins at 11am. We invite all to help us to build our homestead for the weekend; gathering wood for our campfire and helping to create our forest theatre in the trees.  Campfire crafts include, making charcoal for drawing and casting metal trinkets from small woodland finds.  

Throughout the day we’ll prepare our shadow theatre, building woodland instruments and telling stories inspired as the woodland is starting to spring to life following a long winter sleep.  Create your own mini shadow theatre using reclaimed boxes, shadow puppets and lighting effects.

Into the woods we go with artist James Brunt to find the perfect place for land art, while Roseanna encourages you to ‘read the woodland’, unearthing its ancient past and the secret lives of it's Beasts and Beauties.
UPLIFTERS are invited for a special soiree before the Forest Theatre Workshop from 4-6.30pm where we will prepare the scene for the evening and enjoy some fire-side snacks! 

From 6.30pm we will settle in and take warmth by the fire for a special shadow puppet theatre show, campfire songs and magical storytelling moments. This is where we will remain until the day closes at around 9pm.
Sunday is planned to be very much a family affair with our special visitor "The Bear", and fabulous interactive live Latin band, hopefully bringing the sunshine! Join us from 12 noon and bring your own picnic, the first hopefully of many this year. Be part of The National Bluebell Survey; find them and then paint them in our woodland art studio.  With more land art, informative walks, stalls and a workshop making butterfly feeders there’s many ways to connect with and learn about this stunning woodland that's right on your doorstep.

For more details about the day, directions and what you may need to pack in your rucksack, check  out the full page on the header above upliftbarnsley.blogspot.co.uk/p/uplift-wombwell-woods.html. 

You can also call the Creative Recovery office on (01226) 320147 for more details about this event and the UPLIFT programme.

We will also be sharing ideas via the blog, Facebook and Twitter leading up to the event. 

Next Date for the Diary: CREATIVITY CONNECTS US! Friday March 27th, 6.30-9pm

An UPLIFTING Year!

ART STATION - April 2014

SACHA FERRIER: WORKSHOP WITH THE ARTIST - April 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                     

As we look towards a new year we reflect on 2014 and all the colourful, creative, fabulous fun we had. Enjoy a year of UPLIFT in pictures!



BLOOM! - April 2014

 

ALTERNATIVE NITE AT THE MUSEUM - May 2014

STREET PIANO - May 2014

CURI-HISTORIES - May 2014

 



MAYORS PARADE - June 2014

OO LA LA - June 2014

 

 

 

 





UPLIFT SHINDIG - June 2014



WORSBROUGH MILL 'BUG OFF' CAMP - June 2014

WETLANDS WOLLOW - July 2014

 

FEAST - October 2014

ALTERNATIVE NITE AT EXPERIENCE BARNSLEY -October 2014





LIVE ARTS CAFE BONFIRE SPECIAL - November 2014

100 FOR 100 - October 2014

 

O CHOCOLAT! - November 2014

CREATIVE RECOVERY CHARITY LAUNCH - November 2014



LIVE ARTS CAFE 80'S NIGHT - December 2014

FESTIVE TREE DRESSING - December 2014

 

 

 

 



THE GATHERING - December 2014

Creative Recovery Charity Launch

 

It was truly an UPLIFTING 2014 made all the more special with the launch of Creative Recovery as a registered charity. As we closed the year we marked this with a presentation of the work we have achieved so far. Here’s a few snapshots from our day at the Town Hall Council Chambers.

We hear from participants what Creative Recovery has done for them and their families.

Courageous and honest. Participants speak about their own experiences with their mental health and wellbeing.

A big thanks to everyone who attended and supported the day. We leave you with the Creative Recovery Manifesto poem created and recorded by participants which opened the event.

 

We are Creative Recovery

We are the starting of lives, the opening of doors, the enveloping of wings and the soaring high

We are the letting down of guards, the acceptance of a family, a safe place to explore me

 

We are Creative Recovery

We are the lost and found

We are the knowing that there’s not just one way to be, that I matter

 

We are Creative Recovery

We are fresh ideas

We are colour and sound

We are the completion of projects and the realisation that it’s possible in your own life too

We are the building of confidence, the opening up, never feeling more alive

 

We are Creative Recovery

We are the expression of thought, and understanding the chaos inside

We are NOT dwelling on our illnesses

We are learning how to live again

 

We are Creative Recovery

We are trail blazing, filling the gap

We are the cultural shift, reimagining the future and rewriting the script

We are new perspectives, challenging the same old

We are changing the way YOU think

 

We are Creative Recovery

We are the reason to get going and keep going

The joyful charge into tomorrow,

We are anti-sorrow, lighting up the town.

We are the knowing.  The dreaming.  The belief that it’s all possible. 

Winter Warmers!

Christmas saw our current UPLIFT calendar draw to a close, and boy did the UPLIFTS come thick and fast! Here’s a roundup of all the events and activities that’s brightened up our winter.

 

The Live arts Cafe went retro with an all 80’s inspired evening! It was neon galore with fluorescent doodling and live visuals created by Creative Recovery artists. Never ones to shy away from fancy dress, the leg warmers came out and participants danced the night away to 80’s classics, playing video games and enjoying a sausage, cheese and pineapple cocktail stick!

As we approached the festive period, UPLIFTERS got together in preparation for our Christmas event, the Gathering. The Resound gang provided a sing-along soundtrack as participants made lanterns which would light up the Town and beautifully decorate our magical venue.  Then on the notoriously named ‘Mad Friday’ we had our alternative nite out as we gathered together for a soul warming, reflective, creative sharing UPLIFT style. Our flash mob of lantern holders made their way through the town centre to gather around the street piano where we joyfully sang our hearts out to Christmas carols! The parade made its way to St. Mary’s Church where we continued our festive celebrations with music from Resound, open mic session, poetry readings, pizza and dancing!

 

The festivities culminated in a weekend of festive tree dressing and camp cardboard! It was festive fun for all the family as Mums, Dads, Grandparents and children got to work with Creative Recovery artists to create something beautiful for the Christmas trees on site at Barnsley favourites, Cannon Hall, Elsecar Heritage Centre and Worsbrough Mill, followed by carols around the tree.  Camp cardboard offered a slightly different take with a cardboard takeover in the Cannon Hall ballroom! Den building on a huge scale with a festive twist and buckets of imagination! With tunnels, grotto and lights a plenty!

O Chocolat!

What better way to cheer ourselves up on a cold grey Monday morning than with a sneaky peak at the beautiful creations to come out of our "O Chocolat!" event?

Our friends at Sara's Flowers and Tea's played host to our recent chocolate tasting and poetry UPLIFT and what a sweet treat it was! UPLIFTERS were in chocolate heaven as the sumptuous milk and dark delights inspired words and poems.

21 Ways to think about Chocolate

1. 
Sick and guilty, but it doesn’t last long.
After the first bite, those feelings have gone.

2.
Walking in a wood of chocolate trees,
Floating through chocolate leaves.

3.
Jonny Depp covered in chocolate – lick him clean!

4.
Eat it, when you see it.
Dairy Milk, soft as silk.

5.
Jolene  Jolene, I’ve just had some chocolate and I’ve turned green
I wish I‘d never touched that Cadbury’s Flake, Jolene

6.   
It’s a smoky French cafe on a rainy evening
With red wine and candle light

7.
When I think of white chocolate
I think of Beyonce
            
8.
Happy if it’s the right kind, money well spent
on dark chocolate, seventy per cent.
 
9.
Or  even stronger, eighty one per cent,
solid heaven.
 
10.
It makes me happy. Anytime, it’s a blessing.
I’m a driving instructor, and it’s perfect between lessons.
 
11.
When I get to work, with a coffee...
When I get home, with a coffee...
 
12.
Usually fat but happy of heart
I can’t stop eating it when I start.
 
13.
A nice cow eating grass.
 
14.
A dodecahedron.
 
15.
Swimming in a chocolate sea,
Bitter, creamy, heavenly, happy.

16.
I stand and wait for someone to eat
My thick smooth cover,
I lie on the tray for something to happen.
I wait and everyone eats me.
People are my best friend,
And I’m a chocolate treat.

17.
Take a double choc chip muffin, remove the top, push some nice dark chocolate inside, put the lid back on, insert into the microwave for 15 seconds.  If you want, put some cream on. Eat with pleasure.
 
18.
Steal into the pantry at 2 am and get a long-handled spoon, and have a dollop of choc and hazelnut spread and eat in the dark.

19.
Milk chocolate biscuits crumbled onto ice-cream with maple syrup on top.

20.
Digestives and honey layered on top of each other in a sandwich like manner.

21.
I used to eat chocolate when I was sad but I do not do this anymore.

The Great Outdoors

Not to be put off by the turning weather, it's been a cracking couple of weeks of UPLIFTS as we've wrapped up warm and embraced the beautiful outdoors. 

UPLIFTERS got a close up of the nature that inhabits RSPB Old Moor with a photography walk around the beautiful surroundings. With moth chasing, swan seeing and wild flower photography UPLIFTERS enjoyed an afternoon at one with nature.

"Photographing nature, looking closer at detail, viewing things differently."
 

For our next UPLIFT we had to look a little further afield - to the galaxy and beyond! As we took a trip to Hoober Observatory to go Stargazing with the Mexborough & Swinton Astronomical Society. The knowledge and passion of the astronomers was infectious and the unusual setting made for a unique and adventurous UPLIFT and a new and different experience for all!

"I've never been to a place like this before and didn't even know it existed. It was fascinating!"

"Space is big. So hugely mindbogglingly big that Earth can appear isolated within our Universe. But a visit to the Observatory reminded me that one should not have to feel isolated here on Earth."


Then it was the turn of the Live Arts Café to host their Bonfire Special!  The evening was a mix of  traditional favourites with pie and peas and toffee apples with the some UPLIFT creative flair thrown in for good measure. UPLIFTERS created an installation of light words to decorate the garden and there was seasonal cheer with songs around the bonfire!