My Work Experience with B arts
Maria Conlon looks back at her week on an independently organised work experience placement with B arts and shares her reflections.
Author - Maria Conlon - 1 August 2022
Fixing the Blue Girl, Image by Dan Higgs, B arts Studio Artist and Maker.
Image Description: A close up image of a puppet’s face. The puppet is a grey woman, with blue eyelashes and eye brows, gold eyes.
I completed a work placement with B-Arts last week. It was a week where I could meet and work with the team, engage in exciting ongoing projects, and dive into the wonderful world of B-Arts.
When I first visited No.72, I was astonished to discover the creative world behind those walls. From baking to building, B-Arts offers every form of creation that you could imagine. And not only this, but their works are imbued with significant themes of social change and environmental protection, an aspect of B-Arts that really attracted me to the organisation. I was very excited to spend the week in this world of creative and progressive thinking.
The main project being worked on during my placement week at B-Arts was the preparation for The Queen’s Baton Relay in Hanley Park. The Queen’s Baton is passing through Stoke-on-Trent in preparation for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this year. To celebrate, B-Arts is parading “The Blue Girl” through the park, with a group of roaming performers, a live illustration, and drummers from Art Brazil.
“The Blue Girl” needed some retouching before the event, and it was fascinating to watch her being brought to live. She is a gigantic puppet dressed in a shiny blue material that shimmers beneath the sun, like the surface of the sea. Interestingly, I was informed that the purpose of the colour blue was to break gender stereotypes of girls wearing pink and boys wearing blue. This is in-line with B-Arts’ constant striving for social equality and change. “The Blue Girl” is moved by multiple puppeteers, such as one on each arm, and one by the head. Her movements are swift and graceful as she waves at the crowd, turns her head, and blinks down at us.
Other activities towards The Queen’s Baton Relay consisted of a performers’ workshop, where we worked towards devising our characters for the parade. It was a lovely chance to meet and work together with talented performers in Stoke. The brief for our roaming performer group was that we were a reserve sports team with two referees. However, none of our characters were allowed to come from a sports background, which ultimately led to some hilarious character ideas. One, for example, was a cleaner who had been forced to partake, and now uses her cleaning equipment as sports equipment. Another, was a former swimming champion who has now forgotten how to swim. My own character was a lunchtime supervisor who thought that her ability to blow a whistle at misbehaving schoolchildren meant she was fully qualified as a sports referee, and was desperate to prove this to her superior (the other referee). It was a hilariously fun workshop.
The next day was the dress rehearsal, where the full team got together to practise the parade up and down the road behind No.72, attracting onlookers to take many photos of the spectacular “Blue Girl.” It was great to practise altogether and I was very excited for the real event, where we would be able to interact with the community.
However, when Monday 18th arrived, a heatwave smothered the UK, with temperatures rising to 38 degrees Celsius. Unfortunately, the event had to be cancelled due to this, as it posed a danger to all involved. I do agree that parading in such heat was not exactly tempting! Hopefully, the event is being rescheduled, so I encourage everyone to come along and join the celebrations!
Ultimately, my week at B-Arts was filled with fun, fascination, and friendliness. The team was warm and welcoming and forever filled with incredible ideas. I love what B-Arts do, and I love their positive impact on the community in Stoke-on-Trent. B-Arts is well-worth visiting, and the doors of No.72 are always open for many wonderful community events. Get involved and join the fun!
Maria Conlon
Image of the Blue Girl on the rescheduled event day. Unfortunately Maria was not able to join on this day, but Maria’s hard work during her placement contributed to fixing the blue girl and making the costumes for the performers.
Image Description: A large puppet of a blue girl waves her hands in the air in the park, against a backdrop of trees. By the puppet’s feet, there is a group of people. Some are dressed in white sports wear, one is dressed in a referee outfit, and others are dressed in blue. Two people are holding drums.