How Walsall Creative Factory is using art to say thanks to key workers

The Walsall Creative Factory is a collective of community arts professionals and volunteers which operates out of a former hairdressing salon on Westbourne Street.

After forming in February 2019, the Creative Factory has worked to bring the community together by running arts and crafts sessions and other activities for a range of people.

This has included a youth arts club for youth people on the autism spectrum and a diversity project bringing Muslim and Polish women together.

With 60 per cent of the membership coming from the area about Westbourne Street, it has been helped to promote community integration and inclusion through the arts.

Debra Slade helped to start the Factory with her colleagues Maxine Heyward and Ruth Radcliffe, using her 30 years of community arts experience in the borough to kick-start the programme.

The 57-year-old Community Arts Practitioner spoke about what the ethos of Creative Factory was all about.

She said: "It's about the sense of community, more than anything, as it's community arts, but the community is more important than the arts.

"The art is the thing that draws people in, by doing something that keeps you busy, keeps you mindful and stops you worrying.

"It's also something that's helping people out, whether it's cheering children up with a painting on a wall or a pack through the letterbox or people being involved in a chat group where they're all talking.

"Our shop is like a drop off point for the people to share and find a way to stay connected."

Since the lock-down restrictions began, the Creative Factory has had to adjust its programme of activities to allow for social distancing, but also keep the community connected.

While many of the communal sessions have had to be cancelled, half of the services are still being delivered remotely through social media.

This has included the setting up of online chat groups which encourage project ideas to be discussed and activity packs being delivered to homes by members of the Creative Factory.

Additionally, there have been a large number of community projects taking place, all led by members of the Creative Factory.

More than 16 ladies have helped with sewing and collection projects in the borough, including special ID vests for Manor Hospital ICU.

They also linked with Caldmore Community Garden to make hundreds of laundry bags for the Manor Hospital, Bloxwich hospital and the ambulance service.

Other projects include a heart campaign to make a stuffed heart for a window display and crocheted flowers for a fence near the Creative Factory Workshop.

There is an embroidery project bringing circle designs depicting cultural patterns together and a lino cut stamp project to be brought together into one big piece of art.

The Creative Factory is also encouraging passers-by to add to a painted Rainbow Mural as they walked to the shops or park on Westbourne Street.

Residents on the street have worked to do their own artistic tributes, including thank you banners to the NHS and hearts displayed around the street.

Deb Slade talked about the number of projects taking place and how it was helping to keep people connected during the lock-down restrictions.

She said: "Whether it's individual or doing activities that then come together as a collective, people feel connected through their chat groups or through doing a piece of art towards a bigger thing.

"They also feel that they're contributing, because there's nothing worse than being at home feeling helpless about a situation you can do very little about.

"Feeling that you're contributing to local community really helps you feel that you're helping in some way, so allowing a nurse to have a wash bag or whatever will help feel people feel cared about."

With examples of the work done by the group on display all along Westbourne Street, the pride is evident in Deb Slade of how much the Factory has achieved in the time it has been opened.

She said: "I feel very privileged to be able to pull something together, along with my colleagues.

"What I feel most privileged about is the fact that people bring ideas and we make those into a reality, so people bring ideas about ways to connect with the community themselves.

"If somebody comes and says I want to do a tea party for a particular reason, or the local Muslim ladies wanted to do an iftar fast break, we'll work to do it.

"Those activities become bigger and more inclusive to the whole community because we're able to bring that breadth and experience to what people want to do so.

"It's very inclusive and people bring a lot of themselves, so they have flowered in their own abilities."

The Creative Factory is one of Walsall for All’s Innovation Projects, a partnership programme between the Council, voluntary groups, the public and private sectors, aimed at improving social mixing and breaking down barriers to integration.

To find out more about Walsall Creative Factory and the work it is doing, go to creativefactory.org.uk