Listening as artistic practice.

The Place

A community storytelling project developed with ACTS, creating opportunities for people to share lived experience with care and respect.

Beginning with Attention

A core part of the project involved listening to participants’ stories. I approached these conversations not simply as a way of gathering information, but as moments of connection and trust.

My role was to listen attentively, reflect back what I heard, and ensure each person felt seen and respected in how their story was represented.

What I Noticed

Listening revealed not only individual stories but recurring themes of identity, resilience and belonging.

For many participants, the process of telling their story (and being listened to without judgement) became an opportunity to reflect, notice patterns, and gain new insights into their own lives and experiences.

I became interested in how careful listening can itself become a creative act.

Making

From these conversations, I created a series of artistic responses, allowing different aspects of the stories to find their own form.

Some became drawings and visual compositions; others found expression through poetry, songwriting, photography, objects and graphic responses.

These weren’t illustrations of people’s experiences, but creative translations in response to the themes, emotions and textures of the stories themselves.

The process was about care and accountability: holding the human reality of the project while also meeting the practical needs of reporting and evaluation.

Moments of Capture

The stories found expression through:

Drawings • Poetry • Songs • Photography • Objects • Visual responses • Story documentation • Participant reflections • Visual identity • Website section

“It felt great to be able to talk about myself with just the aiming of getting to know me better. It refreshes, in my mind and heart, who I am and where I come from.”

Mariana

What I’m Taking from This Place

This project deepened my understanding of listening as a creative practice. Being listened to with care can create space for people to recognise aspects of their own experience that might otherwise remain unnoticed.

It left me with a continuing curiosity about the relationship between attention, story and human connection, and about how creative practice might help us see ourselves and one another differently.

The Conversation Continues

Although the project had a defined timeframe, the questions it raised remain part of my ongoing enquiry.

The stories, conversations and artistic responses continue to inform my understanding of how we relate to ourselves and each other… as individuals, communities and cultures.

Reimagining a place through creativity and hope.

The Place

Bridge of Hope grew from a residency in Saltney Ferry, where a local bridge had become associated with crisis and loss. Working alongside The Old Chapel Café and local residents, I explored how creativity might reshape our relationship with that place.

What I Noticed

Rather than defining the bridge by its difficult history, I found stories of resilience, hope and connection already present within the community. The bridge gradually became a symbol of transition, recovery and shared ownership.

My Response

Through photography, songwriting, participatory image-making and conversation, I processed my own experience of the bridge. The people, stories and creativity I encountered became woven into an evolving artistic response, resulting in a collective expression rooted in that place.

What Was Created

Collaborative artwork • Community bunting • Original song • Photography • Participatory workshops • Public exhibition • Collective archive

Song to offer lyrics for What do you hope for over the Bridge of Hope?

Exploring encouragement, belonging and human worth.

The Place

Developed with The Light College, local residents, and Holy Trinity Blacon.

Beginning with Attention

Through conversations with participants, we became aware of how often people spoke about encouragement, relationships and the need to feel valued, and the specific language they used.

I became interested in whether an artwork could create an experience of affirmation rather than simply represent the idea.

Making

We explored different possibilities, including a film and a street mural. Through discussion and making, the installation gradually emerged as the form that felt most appropriate.

The wooden tiles became small physical voices of encouragement, carrying messages gathered from the community and inviting people to encounter them as they walked through the space.

What Emerged

The Walk of Affirmation became both an artwork and an experience: a space where people could encounter words of encouragement and feel, even briefly, seen, valued and affirmed.

Moments of Capture

Walk of Affirmation installation • Community participation • Public exhibition

The tiles carried messages such as “I am enough”, “Well done!”, “You’re amazing” and “Thanks for being you”.