NEWS: South Bank Matters - Community celebrations and Togetherness in Teeside
We always find it inspiring when we get out and about to see social action projects we have helped through our support programmes (latterly Nurturing Grassroots), and to see them benefit people and communities in some of the poorest neighbourhoods. None more so than our co-founder director's visit to the Saabat Creativity Community Garden. We supported them with their community consultations, which underpinned their successful bid to the National Lottery to set up the community garden to bring their local community together - all in the spirit of creative health, inclusion and wellbeing. More recently, we have guided them in scaling up their community activities and they have now submitted a three year grant to the Reaching Communities programme, and we are continuing to provide further guidance for an application to the Arts Council so that they can hire community artists and create a large-scale wall mural.
It’s a truly outstanding community arts and development project in the heart of South Bank in Redcar - just outside Middlesbrough.
‘Community is about doing life together’
Through our Steps to Togetherness project, and to celebrate their many recent achievements - including connecting people through the use of nature and the creative arts - we supported a recent weekend of community celebrations designed to mark their first 10 years of local impact. The two days of outdoor painting, litter picking and music was a delight to witness, featuring singing from the local choir, the South Bank brass band playing rousing tunes and of course, all in the warm spirit of smiles, helloes and chatting - plus some delicious, healthy home-made food prepared by local artist and champion, David McArthur.
‘Our community reaches out to each other during difficult times and the community celebration in our beautiful gallery is a great tonic for the loneliness and isolation many experience locally’
Music, art-making and a simple space for people to gather which feels warm and welcoming, and where people can explore some therapeutic gardening and a chat over a cuppa. It’s all run by some inspired creatives - led by former Iraqi refugee and artist, Azad Mohammed - who several years ago established the Saabat Gallery as a social enterprise.
‘Art must have a social purpose’
Azad is passionate about his local community and art. He thinks artists should be useful and that there must be a purpose to their artistic endeavours and practice.
‘As artists, they need to engage with the community, and the gallery should act to respond to the needs of the community, draw attention to the what people need help and support with. This is why I set up the gallery in South Bank, to make art, and encourage artists to have and show their social purpose'
Local artists have dedicated workshop areas and mount exhibitions, showcasing local talent and encouraging a strong sense of shared local identity and pride in what remains a socially deprived locality. We were able to purchase some wonderful art works at very reasonable rates! As artist John explains:
‘Community spirit is brilliant here, everyone is completely friendly - the door is always open for anyone that wants to come in, to chat, to sit, maybe to learn and if they want join in. It is here for people.'
Saabat is constantly innovating and its approach is firmly grassroots based. At its centre is creative health and that of a wonderful ‘everyday creativity’, reflecting the cultural practices of different and diverse communities. This helps to instil a sense of local ownership of a creative initiative, reduce stigma, improve knowledge and awareness - and crucially to build social capital, organisational connections and promote health.
Talking to local people over the weekend, our co-founder director, Mark Ereira-Guyer found out first-hand that creativity is required by them as not an additional extra, but as something intrinsically important for local Teeside identity, being well and staying well.
