Conversations Over a Brew

We dedicate this series of Conversations Over A Brew to getting behind the scenes of Strong Women; a public art project highlighting the untold stories of local women, created by mosaic artist Carrie Reichardt, in collaboration with communities in St Helens and Knowsley.

Over the next four episodes we’ll explore a number of different aspects of this project. We’ll delve into local histories, hear from community members, and speak with artists and researchers about their work as part of a collective effort to make visible the histories and legacies of our Strong Women. 

In this first episode we speak with artist Carrie Reichardt and local historian Claire Rigby. The pair chat about their roles within the project as well as the importance of keeping history alive through telling stories and listening to each other… The really good stuff rarely gets recorded in books!

Conversations Over a Brew is a series of intimate recorded conversations exploring the stories of the people we make art with. 

Show notes and links

Access the transcript for this episode on the Heart of Glass website.

For this episode of Conversations Over A Brew, we spotlight Textbook; a project which reimagines the future of schools, by giving us the space to dream of alternative approaches to learning together. Artist Sarah Bailey developed Textbook in collaboration with teachers and for this conversation is joined by Danielle Lewis-Egonu, one of the teachers who helped develop Textbook. 

“It’s easy to forget that we were children” - Danielle Lewis-Egonu, Educator

At the time of recording Danielle was the deputy CEO of the Golden Thread Alliance, a Multi Academy Trust based in Kent. In July 2023, Sarah was invited by Danielle to facilitate a workshop based on Textbook for a group of Early Career Teachers from the Golden Thread Alliance schools. The following conversation reflects upon this workshop, the experience of creating Textbook, and the discourse it enables. 

Danielle is a thought leader with over two decades of experience in education. She is known for her commitment to creating supportive and inclusive school environments, where all students are valued and encouraged to reach their full potential. Danielle believes in the value of education as a tool for empowering individuals and promoting social justice. At the time of recording Danielle was the deputy CEO of the Golden Thread Alliance, and has since become the CEO for the Cygnus Academies Trust.

Sarah is an artist, educator and consultant. Her practice sits at the point where learning, community, childhood and art meet. She is a long term collaborator with Heart of Glass. In 2021 Sarah began working with a group of 10 teachers on a project that would become known as Textbook. The first stage of the project produced a pamphlet that playfully and poetically took the traditional idea of an educational text to question the values we want to place at the centre of education. It places a red pen in the hands of learners to write back.

Read more about:

Access the transcript for this episode on the Heart of Glass website.

Conversations Over a Brew is back! Join Youngsook Choi and Radha D’Souza, Frances Disley and Sean Roy Parker,  and Lucy Powell and Fiona Whelan for three special in depth episodes exploring Care and the Commons the theme for our With For About conference (2023).

In this episode we are joined by Radha D’Souza and Yougsook Choi. Radha is a writer, scholar, lawyer and social justice activist from India who now lives in London and teaches at the University of Westminster. Youngsook is a London-based artist and researcher with a PhD in human geography. Both Radha and Youngsook have research interests that converge at the intersection of climate crisis and colonialism. In the following conversation we will hear more about their individual practices and what their research can tell us about processing and understanding where we are as a world now. 

This series of Conversations Over a Brew has been supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation as part of the Speculative Futures Programme. This episode is supported by British Council Malaysia.

Download episode transcript here.

Conversations Over a Brew is back! Join Youngsook Choi and Radha D’Souza, Frances Disley and Sean Roy Parker,  and Lucy Powell and Fiona Whelan for three special in depth episodes exploring Care and the Commons the theme of our With For About conference (2023).

In this episode we hear from Dr Fiona Whelan and artist Lucy Powell. 

Both Fiona and Lucy employ the act of listening as a central tool in their work. 

Fiona’s artistic research explores systemic power relations and inequalities. Working with diverse individuals, groups and organisations over sustained periods of time, Fiona situates herself as an embedded researcher. Rather than wondering how best to ‘platform voice’ Fiona instead works with others to create context specific conditions for listening.

Lucy’s long standing focus is upon exploring human relationality to our more-than-human world. Through her work she seeks to enact a post-individualist praxis and often works in collaboration with others. Listening is employed to unpick received hierarchies or false notions of human dominance and supremacy. Through this process of unlearning, Lucy’s work invites us to consider what it means to live care-fully now. 

As practitioners, their lines of investigation may at first seem distinctly different from one another. However, as you’ll hear through their discussion, these differences often form two sides of the same coin.  

This episode of Conversations Over a Brew has been supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation as part of the Speculative Futures Programme.

Download episode transcript here.

Conversations Over a Brew is back! Join Youngsook Choi and Radha D’Souza, Frances Disley and Sean Roy Parker,  and Lucy Powell and Fiona Whelan for three special in depth episodes exploring Care and the Commons the theme for our With For About conference (2023).

In this episode, we hear from artists Frances Disley and Sean Roy Parker, both of whom led workshops that asked us to consider the ways in which we can build meaningful relationships with our more-than-human neighbours. 

The following discussion between Frances and Roy explores the common threads running through their work, as well as contemplating what it means to think of ourselves as part of a diverse community of beings, human or otherwise, and the responsibilities that come with this acknowledgement. 

This series of Conversations Over a Brew has been supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation as part of the Speculative Futures Programme.

Download the episode transcript here.

In this episode, we hear from Amina Atiq and Fox Irving about their experience of Women Working Class.

----------

Amina is a Yemini-Scouse poet and performance artist whose work explores the identity and experience of the Yemini diaspora living in Liverpool. Amina is also an award-winning community activist and anti-racism campaigner and they are a current Humboldt Residency Fellow.

Fox is a Queer, Working-Class artist, and through their work they investigate how art can be used as a tool of empowerment by their own marginalised communities. They ask: what keeps people in place, what affords fluidity, and what kinds of assembly can be transformative?

Amina and Fox met during Women Working Class North West - a working group led by Fox for Women artists and producers from Working Class or Benefit Class backgrounds in the North West. Amina was one of the artists who took part.

LINKS/RESOURCES:

Read more and download the episode transcript ⁠here⁠.

---

Conversations Over a Brew is a podcast series from St Helens based arts organisation Heart of Glass, consisting of intimate recorded conversations exploring the stories of the people we make art with.

www.heartofglass.org.uk 

In this episode Caroline Smith meets up with Sandy Grierson for a brew and a chat about their experience of making Running On Fumes together. Through their warm conversation, the pair explore the context that the Running On Fumes film occupies and the transformative effect of making art together.

----------

Sandy is a young person living and studying in St Helens, and firmly believes that it is through creative and imaginative action that a future filled with hope and possibility for her home town will emerge.

As a filmmaker with a background rooted in collaborative and social arts practice, Caroline worked with Sandy and her friends from St Helens College to explore the character of St Helens and what its future could look like.

(Shout out to the amazing St Helens Archive Service who allowed the Running of Fumes crew to explore their treasure trove of old photos and documents)

LINKS/RESOURCES:

Read more and download the episode transcript ⁠here⁠.

In this episode Angela Samata meets with Mark Storor to chat about his recent work with Heart of Glass and why creativity is an essential part of an authentic human experience.

--------------

Mark is an artist who specialises in platforming the voices of those we all too rarely choose to hear. He usually works over several years to create extraordinarily beautiful and uplifting work in which community participants and professionals work side by side in genuine partnership. Mark is currently working with Heart of Glass on a twelve year project called Baa Baa Baric, Have you any pull? and over the past four years of this work he’s been focused on The Suicide Chronicles, which seeks to develop a collective and creative language for the complex experience of suicide.

Angela Samata is a mental health campaigner working in the fields of suicide prevention and postvention. She is a consultant on the Suicide Chronicles project and has also contributed to this project as a participant.

—

LINKS/RESOURCES

LIFELINES

Read more and download the episode transcript ⁠here⁠.

—

Conversations Over a Brew is a podcast series from St Helens based arts organisation Heart of Glass, consisting of intimate recorded conversations exploring the stories of the people we make art with.

www.heartofglass.org.uk 

In this episode we hear from Lou Chapelle and Hugh Wareing. The pair met on a beautiful summer's day last year to reflect upon their work together as part of the You Make Me Feel Good project, which Lou developed in response to the isolating effects of lockdown.

-------------------

Lou is a cross-disciplinary artist who works in collaboration with people and communities to explore human connection and reinvent our sense of belonging. You Make Me Feel Good invited members of U3A St Helens (University Of The Third Age) and residents of Heald Farm Court to revisit their happy memories of togetherness, friendship and love through dance, poetry and drawing. The process of sharing these memories with one another through creativity rejuvenated old experiences, recasting them as seeds from which new connections could grow.

Hugh is the chair of U3A St Helens and contributed a whole bunch of wonderful thoughts, memories and drawings to You Make Me Feel Good and Lou gathered them all, along with everyone else's, to make a beautiful e-zine which you can download for free via our website.

Enjoy this episode with a brew and a couple of biscuits.

—

LINKS/RESOURCES

Read more and download the episode transcript ⁠here⁠.

—

Conversations Over a Brew is a podcast series from St Helens based arts organisation Heart of Glass, consisting of intimate recorded conversations exploring the stories of the people we make art with.

www.heartofglass.org.uk 

For our third episode of season two, we hear from Amy Pennington and Pippa Sterk.

Amy is an artist whose work is founded upon collaboration with others. They use humour to connect human experiences and socio-political issues.

--------------------

Last year, Heart Of Glass commissioned Amy to create Queer Treatment, an online workshop to explore queer identity and representation within our media culture. This workshop went on to inspire an animated film of the same name.

Pippa is a writer and researcher who is currently preparing their PhD research on LGBT+ experiences in Higher Education.

Amy and Pippa met through the Queer Treatment workshop; Pippa as a participant and Amy as a facilitator, and during this conversation the pair reflect on Queer Treatment and what it meant to them.

We also commissioned Pippa to write a reflective piece of writing based on their experience of participating in the Queer Treatment workshop you can read this piece by clicking the link below.

--

LINKS/RESOURCES

Queer Treatment: https://www.heartofglass.org.uk/project-and-events/events/queer-treatment-a-new-animated-film-by-artist-amy-pennington

Reflections On Queer Treatment by Pippa Sterk: https://www.heartofglass.org.uk/thoughts-and-news/thought/queer-treatment

Amy's website: http://amypennington.co.uk

Pippa's website: https://pippasterk.contently.com

Read more and download the episode transcript ⁠here⁠.

--

Conversations Over a Brew is a podcast series from St Helens based arts organisation Heart of Glass, consisting of intimate recorded conversations exploring the stories of the people we make art with.

www.heartofglass.org.uk