Workshop: BIO-TANGIBLE with Japhet Dinganga and Zoey Sibanda

This event is free and booking is required (see below).

What could a biodiverse cityscape look like when it is entangled alongside our cultures, traditions and social lives? How can we work together to reimagine our neighbourhoods?

Led by artists Japhet Dinganga and Zoey Sibanda, you are invited to join other local creatives and explore ‘What does West Bromwich mean to you?’. During a guided walk, we’ll reflect on creative prompts by Japhet and Zoey exploring who is your community and what would you like to see change. These prompts will feed into an installation that we’ll make as a collective to reimagine the town centre’s landscape.

We will begin with a slow-paced guided walk on the pavement (see more information below in ‘access’ section) from Farley Memorial Fountain on West Bromwich High Street to Dartmouth Park Pavillion in Dartmouth Park and it takes about 20 minutes.

Once we’ve arrived at Dartmouth Park Pavilion we’ll eat together, take a short break and then begin the installation making part of the workshop. Led by Japhet and Zoey, we’ll re-vision our neighbourhoods using generative prompts, art materials and gardening materials, as tools for reimagining. The art materials will be provided and will include: drawing materials; pens, paper, paint: sculptural materials, such as, found objects and air dry clay: collage materials; photographs of West Bromwich; magazines and newspapers; gardening materials: soil, flower pots and seeds.

You’re invited to bring any materials or objects that symbolise what community means to you. What you bring will form part of the installation we’re making so do, please make sure it isn’t precious! You are encouraged to be playful with what you bring.

As the workshop comes to a close, we’ll reflect as a group and Japhet and Zoey will discuss how people can get involved further in reimagining public space and direct to other resources and organisations. They will touch upon their experience in being involved with community-led initiatives that give life to disused spaces, including Bournbrook DIY Community Skate Park in Birmingham.

At the end of the workshop, you can take home what you’ve planted and a directory of resources. After the workshop, a photographic print of the installation will be posted to you.

This workshop will begin at the Farley Memorial Fountain on West Bromwich High Street, 153-159 High Street, B70 7QX. Click here for Google Maps and see below for a photograph of the memorial.

There will be a 20 minute walk on pavement to Dartmouth Park Pavillion, West Bromwich, B71 4AH and it is step free walk. See below for a map of the walking route and, if you prefer, you can join the workshop at Dartmouth Park Pavilion. Please email: [email protected] or call/text on: 07562 980384 to let us know of any access requirements.

Dartmouth Park Pavillion is a ground floor space with wheelchair, mobility scooter and pushchair access. There are disabled toilets. There will be hand sanitiser and face masks available. The venue is usually quiet and the overhead lighting is soft spot lighting. The venue is inside a park and there are quiet outdoor spaces available.

There is a car park on Lloyd Street, click here for the location. There are also three blue badge parking spaces next to Dartmouth Park Pavilion. To access these parking spaces, drive down Lloyd Street, take a right onto Salters Lane, follow the speed humped path down towards the Visitor Centre (you'll see a small car park on the right next to the bikes centre), go through the black gates and follow the path through the park up to the Dartmouth Pavilion; please drive at 5mph. The Blue Badge parking is next to the Pavilion building.

The refreshments provided will be halal. Please let us know if you have any allergies or dietary requirements, by emailing [email protected] or by calling / texting 07922 571832.

I am a multidisciplinary artist from West Bromwich. My practice is influenced by the everyday notion of being and becoming. I’m intrigued by ideas surrounding metaphysics and ontology*, as a sense of observation, and depicting the relationship between man and the material world. Found objects and materials show evidence of cultures, habits and social understanding. My work is an exploration of these indications and ideas but it is always open to audience interpretation.

*Metaphysics is part of philosophy that is about studying existence and knowledge. Metaphysics essentially attempts to establish a coherent picture of what reality ultimately is and how reality ultimately works. Ontology is a part of philosophy that studies what it means to exist.

I am a multidisciplinary artist from Coventry creating work on themes surrounding the underpinnings of anthropology* through the theological perspective, with the intention of contributing both socially and environmentally to sustainability and symbiosis in the community. Exploring the amalgamation of art and STEM for social change, my practice delves into the human experience, aiming to foster dialogue, understanding and societal progress through creative expression.

*Anthropology is the study of the origin, the behaviour and the physical, social and cultural development of humans, in both the present and the past.

This workshop is part of the public programme of the BCN (Blast Creative Network), Multistory's artist development programme that offers artists in Sandwell and the wider Black Country a free annual programme of talks, workshops and social events and is a space for mutual support and knowledge sharing. It was set up to provide artists in the local area with opportunities for critical engagement and collaboration outside of formal arts education. The BCN programme informs, and is informed by, Multistory’s wider arts programme that is co-produced with artists and communities living in Sandwell.

https://multistory.org.uk/

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Dartmouth Park, Dartmouth Park Pavilion, West Bromwich, United Kingdom