The Colours of Community in Lockleaze
Earlier this year the people of Lockleaze came together to explore a question — “Why do rainbows make me happy?” It’s a surprisingly tricky question. After all, a rainbow can mean different things to different people, and no two people will see the same rainbow.
The question would be explored through art created by the entire community. But no sooner had work began than the world changed dramatically, and the people of Lockleaze were faced with an even trickier question.
How can a community come together to create art, when it must be apart for its own safety?
“Why do rainbows make me happy” is only one of the questions being explored by the communities of Bristol and We The Curious for Project What If — the first major science centre exhibition in the UK inspired entirely by the curiosity of a city’s residents. The question was chosen by the people of Lockleaze from a number of questions posed by members of the public who have visited We the Curious.
Helping the residents of Lockleaze find a way to come together in curiosity were artist-technologist Coral Manton, community artist Olivia Altaras, and Frankie Loam of Let’s Be Frank design studio. Together they created an art installation at the heart of the community that provided Lockleaze with a socially distanced way to explore rainbows together and share their love and support with each other during a very challenging time.
All the colours of the rainbow
Two screens visible from outside The Hub displayed personal responses to the questions “Why do rainbows make me happy?” and “Do you have a message of hope for your community?” As you might expect from such a diverse community, there were a wide range of different answers.
To Holly, aged 8, a rainbow is “like a smile but upside down.” To her it represents not having to make difficult decisions. “It’s basically all the colours all into one and you don’t have anything to choose from it’s all your favourite colours.”
On the other hand, Barnaby, aged 8, is empowered by rainbows to make artistic choices. “I like the colours. My favourite is red.”
To Mini, aged 9, rainbows are beautiful despite never quite delivering on their promise. “I’ve never got to the end of one and found a pot gold, but they are still beautiful. Once I saw a rainbow right in front of me and I touched it and it was air.”
Sienna, aged 6, finds a rainbow to be its own reward. “…It has lots of colours and it makes me feel awesome.”
While individual members of the community may have had very different ideas of what a rainbow means to them, they were all united in their love and support for each other.
Nimo, aged 27 used the installation as an opportunity to remind their fellow community members to “Be safe. Don’t see friends or family and just help each other.”
Amanda, aged 46, encouraged the community to “Keep smiling, even through your mask, this will end.”
Jo, aged 23, simply said “I love everyone.”
The windows of The Hub also featured colourful messages that, like an actual rainbow, seemed different depending on from what angle you approached them. From the top of Cameron Walk the message read “Stay safe, make art!” while from the bottom of the street it read “Nice to see you!”
The people of Lockleaze also contributed to the installation by taking part in a community art club. Art challenges were shared on local Facebook groups. Community members were invited to make their own rainbow, explore what made them happy during lockdown, and discuss people in the community who have brought them joy.
The goal was to involve as many people in the community as possible and so art packs were created for anyone who may not have had easy access to the necessary resources. The packs included material such as clay, pencils, paints, tissue paper, and PVA glue. They were shared with the community in a number of ways. For example, art packs were collected by local families during Food Club at the Vench playground. Some packs were also delivered to a local care home.
The people of Lockleaze were encouraged to display their creations in their front windows. Photos of the art, as well as thoughts on rainbows and messages of support, could be submitted to a Lockleaze Rainbow website to be displayed in the windows of the Hub for the whole community to enjoy. Staff at the Hub were available to photograph the creations of anyone without access to the internet.
Reflection from Olivia
Olivia said:
Our project took place during lockdown and so having actual workshops wasn’t really an option. The art kits went some way towards capturing the sense of creative curiosity that normally happens in a workshop. The kits explored the idea of rainbows, community and hope. The workshops included making stained glass windows, dioramas and papier mache heads out of balloons and we tried to keep the materials varied and fun to play with! The kits were handed out to families during Food Club at The Vench in Lockleaze. The idea for the kits came from a project by Studio Meraki, who commissioned artists to create workshops that could be condensed into a kit with materials and instructions packaged in beautifully printed bags. These art kits were exciting, tactile and playful, and I wanted families in Lockleaze to have a version of this.
The objective was to create a digital art club as part of the installation where people could share their art work, and also to provide families with materials and activities to have fun with over lockdown. It was much harder to establish connections remotely without having met the participants, and quite a strange feeling to send packs out without knowing how they would be received. Whilst we didn’t get that many photos sent in, there was a huge sense of achievement when we heard that a child or family had enjoyed the art kit. One of my favourite moments was receiving all of the artwork from a local care home and seeing the different and creative ways that each person had interpreted the task.
I also spent time walking around Lockleaze and asking people for their responses to the question ‘why do rainbows make me happy?’ Not an easy question to answer! I enjoyed the variety of responses and the fact that I could never predict the answer that someone would give. There’s a real openness here and most people were happy to stop and talk. A few of my favourite answers were:
“I wonder what they taste like?”
“Seeing one reminds me of my gran who loved them”
“The excitement of seeing them appear in the sky”
A highlight was meeting and talking to local people who helped out on the project. Lockleaze has a strong community with a can-do approach to everything — it was great to see the amount of people out there making things happen for their neighbourhood.
The future looks bright
From November 2020, parts of the artwork are on permanent display within Project What If at We The Curious. The display is a record of the Lockleaze community coming together in the face of difficulty and uncertainty to create something that’s beautiful and full of hope.
For me, there’s nothing more reminiscent of a rainbow than that.
As Maya, aged 12, and Lena, aged 10 put it “Rainbows make me happy because they symbolise hope. In life something beautiful can be produced after pain and struggle just like after thunder and lightning and heavy rain, nature creates a rainbow.”
Project What If opens in November, tickets will be on sale shortly.
Visit www.wethecurious.org/projectwhatif for more information, and keep an eye on our social media channels for more news and updates.
