Transporting people to creativity in Boston and South Holland

5 Oct 2020 04:49 PM

Transported has been providing creative escapism to help isolated people’s physical and mental wellbeing across Lincolnshire.

Arts Council funded Creative, People and Places project Transported set up CREATE-on at the start of lockdown in late March, for audiences to access projects free of charge in Boston and South Holland.

Transported commissioned four projects, set up by local artists to give people the opportunity to try different activities and techniques to connect people feeling isolated during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The projects available are:

• People can share their story in Curious Lockdown Tales, creating unique virtual storytelling using puppetry with participants suggesting the storyline
• For those with no access to the internet an opportunity to join the Craft Catalyst Club, a remote craft workshop. 
• More than a-part use stories to create a tapestry from contributions and telephone calls with residents 
• People contacted FenFrott to take delivery of their ‘art takeaway’ (complete in a pizza box) with paper and graphite to make frottage rubbings in their home and are now welcome to share their frottage art on their Facebook group

Peter Knott, Area Director, Arts Council England said:

"It’s fantastic to see the range of creative options that Transported offer local communities, allowing them to get involved in local projects and to help tackle feelings of isolation and loneliness.

“We know the positive affect that great art and culture can have on people’s mental health and wellbeing and often helps them deal with feelings of loneliness and isolation. That’s why these projects are so important and offer widespread benefit to people across Boston and South Holland.”

Nick Jones, Programme Director, Transported said:

"The Transported programme, as part of the CPP initiative is an Action research model, which means it's as much about learning what works and what's needed as it is the work we do. So we were in a good position to refocus our programme to respond to the lockdown, and to commission artists we would have been working with, to use their creativity and imagination to come up with these amazing projects. 

“We have since been successful in getting more funding for a second phase from Active Lincolnshire which has allowed the artists to develop their practice further so they can the opportunities to new communities."

Find out more here.