Date
29 September - 1 October
Time
Various Times
Price
Free
Arts + Health Weekender
Co-produced with University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust, Weston Arts + Health Weekender is back with a range of fabulous creative and outdoors activities for 2023.
Happy Birthday NHS
Friday 29 until Sunday 1 October, 10:30am-4pm, The Sovereign, BS23 1HL
Across Weston Arts + Health Weekend, head to Unit 27 at The Sovereign to add your story to a community artwork co-created with Dr Rebecka Fleetwood-Smith, a healthcare researcher and textile artist whose practice explores the role of the arts, design and creativity in a person’s health and wellbeing.
The artwork is inspired by the stories expressed in birthday cards that were created by staff and patients at UBHW to celebrate the 75th anniversary. Add your voice to this installation as it evolves across the weekend. A unique opportunity to share memories and thanks.
A Tribute to Nye Bevan
This weekend sees the unveiling of a new mural in the grounds of Weston Hospital, through which acclaimed artist Stewy pays homage to Aneurin (Nye) Bevan, looking back across the Bristol Channel towards his home town in Tredegar, Wales.
Nye Bevan was born in 1897 into a mining family, left school at 13 and worked in the local colliery, before winning a scholarship to study in London. In 1929 he was elected as Labour MP for Ebbw Vale and in 1945 became Minister of Health in a new post-war government. He was instrumental in spearheading the formation of the National Health Service, which launched on 5 July 1948. For the first time ever, nurses, doctors, pharmacists, dentists and opticians were brought together as part of a single organization with free diagnosis and treatment for all.
“…no society can legitimately call itself civilized if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.” Aneurin Bevan
Be absorbed by a creative workshop
Saturday 30 September (10am-4pm), Weston Museum, Burlington Street, BS23 1PR
No booking required for this free event – just come along on the day.
Three artists from Create Together will be running workshops between 10am-4pm in the lovely courtyard space of Weston Museum. Over a cup of tea and a chat, craft natural materials such as clay, sea glass and driftwood into personal artworks to cherish, or have a go at printmaking with a coastal theme.
Also at the museum, you can meet volunteer walking leaders who run a range of groups for all abilities, supporting people to connect and lead active lifestyles in North Somerset.
Salute to the sun with yoga in the park
30 September, 10:30am-11:30am, Ellenborough Park, BS23 1XJ
No booking required for this free event – just come along on the day.
Super Wonder Shrine Showcase
30 September, 10:30am-4pm, High Street, BS23 1HA
A community celebration of song, music, poetry and performance shining out from the Super Wonder Shrine. Join us for joyful interludes with the NHS and its heartfelt stories centre stage.
Kicking off energetically at 11am with The Original Spinners, who use music, movement, creativity and play to create joyful experiences for those in hospital settings and beyond, moving on to Beth Calverley and then Bethany M Roberts, respectively the fabulous poet and musician in residence at UHBW, and finishing with a premiere performance of the new birthday commission ‘Listen In: NHS at 75’, sung by the UHBW choir.
Schedule:
10.30am Introduction
11am The Original Spinners
12pm Roland George Harrad
1pm Tamsin Elliott (UHBW Musician in Residence)
2pm Arran Glass & Hannah Pawson
3pm Beth Calverley (UHBW Poet in Residence)
3.30pm UHBW Staff Choir led by Bethany M Roberts (UHBW Musician in Residence)
WALKS
“Walking is man’s best medicine” Hippocrates
On 30 September, Weston Arts + Health Weekender teams up with Natural England on a coastal celebration of walking with the launch of the new North Somerset stretch of the King Charles III Coastal Path. The path navigates the entire coast of England, reaching an epic 2700 miles! Aiming to ‘connect people with nature’, the path will enable all to engage with the natural environment and experience the biophilic benefits that nature can bring: supporting cognitive function, physical health and psychological well-being.
Saturday 30 September, Weston seafront
BIRD WALK. 9am-10:30am. Chris Sperring MBE has presented a wide variety of Wildlife programmes on BBC Radio 4 and TV, including 4 years of live webcams on Autumnwatch. His soaring knowledge of birds will lend a whole new perspective to your understanding and enjoyment of Weston’s coastline. Meet outside the Bay Cafe at Tropicana BOOK HERE!
POETRY AND MUSIC WALK – Coasting Along: 11am-1pm. A collective adventure through poetry & song. Lace up your walking boots, pack a notebook, and explore the freshly-opened coastal path as you discover new pathways through your voice. You’ll be guided by Beth Calverley and Bethany M Roberts, Poet & Musician in Residence at University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust. Weston Beach. Meet at the foot of the Grand Pier BOOK HERE!
ART WALK: 1pm-3pm. A visual art collaborative experience led by renowned artists Claire Hall and Susannah Crook. Walking the length of Sand Bay beach, participants will be invited to take part in mindful activities exploring the sense of sound, sight and touch. Using materials collected from the beach walk and natural pigments, each person will create individual and group art works on paper. The process of mark making, using found materials and working in collaboration will encourage a sense of playfulness and togetherness. Sand Bay. BOOK HERE!
FORAGING WALK: 3:30pm-5pm. Join Anna Southwell and Josh Mousley from Loves Café, and members of Global Kitchen (a cooking collective formed by the refugee and asylum seeker community) on a seafront walk foraging for edible ingredients and discovering our culinary coastline. We will be foraging for sea beet, sea radish and sea buckthorn in the wetlands area between the Uphill entrance to the beach and the boat yard, plus enjoying some tasters. BOOK HERE!
CROSSINGS
Sunday 1 October, 12pm-5pm (Bookings coming soon)
Whilst at the Marine Lake, you’ll be able to listen to a new story commission for Luke Jerram’s ‘Crossings’ (more here) produced by Julian May to pay tribute to the interlinking journeys of Windrush and NHS, both reaching a milestone 75 this year.
Making a splash at Weston’s Marine Lake on Sunday 1 October is:
SW!M 75
Co-produced by Super Culture and Diverse City
This October, we will be combining two of Weston’s greatest assets: our beautiful marine lake, and the amazing staff of our incredible hospital, to create a one time performance in celebration of the NHS’s 75th birthday. Artists Claire Hodgson and Deborah Paige will be collecting the stories and perspectives of those who work in our local NHS Services. These voices will then be shared as part of a live performance at the Marine Lake. Sunday 1 October, 2 pm.
SW!M 75 brings together local Weston people, in a performance that amplifies the voices of our NHS workers and celebrates all that our bodies can do both in and out of the water.
This will be a true celebration of our community and everyone is welcome to join the performance as an audience member or performer. There will be weekly early evening rehearsals throughout September. Our cast will be drawn from Weston’s newly established Super Synchro group, alongside NHS workers and anyone else who is keen to take the plunge. We welcome D/deaf, disabled and non disabled performers equally.
Our NHS
The soundtrack for SW!M 75 will incorporate elements from a new audio commission, produced by Deborah Paige, weaving together the real life experiences of people working in the NHS, to whom we offer a profound thank you.
Listen to the whole soundscape online or in the RNLI building on Sunday 1 October.
How to get involved:
Rehearsals:
Monday 11 September, 6pm-8pm
Monday 18 September, 6pm-8pm
Monday 25 September, 6pm-8pm
Saturday 30 September, 1:30pm-4pm
Performance (Marine Lake, Weston) ;
Sunday 1 October, 2pm
We welcome D/deaf, disabled and non-disabled performers equally, in or out of the water.
Don’t worry if you can’t make all of the sessions – this is intended to be a fun, friendly and accessible experience, and any level of participation is warmly welcomed.
Please email becky@superculture.org.uk with any queries. Otherwise just turn up to a Monday session at 6pm.
Credits
SW!M75
A Co production between Super Culture and Diverse City
SW!M was originally created in Swanage in a collaboration between Mowlem Theatre and
Diverse City for the 2022 Jubilee celebrations.
Co-Directed by Claire Hodgson and Deborah Paige
Choreographed by Claire Hodgson
Audio Created by Deborah Paige
Sound by Harry Bassett
Supported by National Grid’s Community Matters Fund.
Settle down with some theatre:
The Cabaret of Opportunity by Open Door
Sunday 1 October, 5pm, at Front Room Theatre, BS23 1FF
Book HERE
What happens when the world is your oyster?
What happens when life finally gives you the good fortune you so desire? Take a seat for the Cabaret of Opportunity and you’ll be sure to find out!
Super Culture’s Adult Drama collective, Open Door, celebrate the 75th anniversary of the NHS in an uplifting new show that comes from the heart of Weston’s South Ward and explores how creativity, aspiration and the right opportunities can boost wellbeing.
Expect singing, plot twists, murder mysteries, art exhibitions and more in a dynamic narrative that takes its inspiration from personal experiences & reminiscences and looks at how opportunities – an access to them or lack of them – can shape the course of a life.
This performance is part of Theatre Forum, an initiative funded by The People’s Health Trust that shines a light on the social issues that different communities face on a day-to-day basis.
