ARCHIVES - 2005
The beginning of December saw the finish of our project at Aycliffe Young Peoples Centre, Copelaw, Newton Aycliffe. This was a big challenge working with up to 40 young people from troubled backgrounds and with issues of challenging behaviours. Katie was taken ill half way through the project and at one stage Knowli had to be left as our sole worker alongside the centre's staff. It is a great tribute to him that he was able to hold everything together and progress the project until Fin could get back. Bill went down to film the results. The film had to be left at the centre due to the restrictions in place but we hope that they will be able to make use of it for their own purposes.
Knowli and one of the younger members of the performance band went down to Stanhope, in Durham , to put on workshops for their Christmas event. Good feed back and an invite to take the whole performance group down in 2006. Chris seems to be following on after his sister, Marianne, who was part of our tutor team in 2003-04.
November
So far we have visited 2 more schools, at Cockburnspath, about as far NE as you can go and still be in the Borders, and to oldingham, as far east as you can go without falling in the North Sea. Bill has been to Both in the past but this was the first time for Katie and Knowlie. Great kids, great commitment, and a lot of fun.
Katie and Knowlie are working with a youth group at the Argus, Selkirk, with support from Fin.
TRASH'd have just finished the shooting of a promotion video. Still at the editing stage.
October
We visited Philiphaugh and Yetholm schools before the Autumn holiday. We were able to work outside because of the great Border's weather.
Philiphaugh is in the historic town of Selkirk; Yetholm is a small village hard by the Cheviots at the end of the Pennine way. Both schools were good fun to work with. At Yetholm, being a much smaller school, we ended up working with the whole school.
TRASH'd played at the "Both Sides of the Tweed" Festival on the 8th. This again was in Selkirk. The festival is run by the immortal Hector Christie, and is mainly a folk festival, so our guys showed up in a very distinctive way, since before and after their performances there were Morris dancers. This was by way of a leaving for members now moving of to college and new lives and a welcome to new members.
This time of year has been a time of transition for our main performance group for the last 11 years. The workshop leaders did some work for Barnardos in Dundee and continued to work with the Lanark Lodge group. Bill reckons he has been working with Lanark Lodge groups for close on 4 years.
The month ended with a very local trip, just half a mile from our storage space, to Newtown Primary School. This school has a lot of space outside and since it was another mild sunny day, amazing for the 31st of October, we worked outside in the playground. We worked with one group in the morning and another in the afternoon.
It was a real nostalgia trip fro Bill as he was there in 1996 when TRASH worked with 4 school groups to do a fundraising event, filmed by the Beeb, fir "Children in Need".
September
September – We said farewell to Marianne, off to Carlisle on a year’s course. She has been a really energetic member of the team – a drummer, dancer, actress and artist-and we will miss her. It’s been a chance for everyone to unwind a bit; take holidays; try out personal projects; chill out. Emily has been out with Bill working with his special needs group. She’s been out with Jenny working with a cub group and with Fin on a school project in Duns.
Started with the Peebles Arts Festival. This was our 9th year at the festival. As has become traditional we worked with a school, this year Priorsford Primary on the Friday to produce a performance for the Saturday. This was the first time Bill had taken new staff members, Katie and Knowlie, out on the road in earnest.
The Friday was a lovely early September day, we had a good time and so did the children. The children brought family members on the Saturday to the Chambers Institute quadrangle and the school group put on a great performance. TRASH'd, for about the 4th year on the trot were also there. The quadrangle provided them with a perfect backdrop, just the right amount of echo and with the sun blazing down. They really played their socks off and got a great response.
It's such an ideal combination for any festival - the children from the area strutting their stuff, their families and other members of the public to cheer them on, and TRASH'd to cap it all with their very professional and dynamic playing.
The other important set piece of the month was the Conference at Tweed Horizons, the sustainable technology centre in the Scottish Borders. We had over 50 registrations from a wide range of organisations to listen to the presentation from our Israeli guest Emmanuel Schen' take part in workshops, and air their views in discussion groups.
July
JULY hits top gear.
This month saw the completion of the Direct Grant work with a good number of new players spread over the area with some taking an interest in helping with training and some with working on new creative ideas. Bringing in new people to the performance group has boosted numbers to ten. This has been a real help in keeping up a reasonable sized group when people have been off on holiday.
This month we started a project for Borders Voluntary Youth Work Forum. This was a roadshow taking a number of arts organisations and individual artists round the Borders working with young people on the theme “ How other people see us”. The project brought extra benefits – building up a relationship with more young people and the social organisations that work with them and creative links with other artists.
We had a couple of special days locally. At the beginning of the month we filmed the performance group on Leaderfoot Bridge, near Melrose. The effect was fantastic but stretched the zoom on the camcorder just about to breaking point in order to get close in.
The other special was the Jamfest held by our sister charity – JAM. Held up in Wooplaw woods up above Galashiels the whole event was very special, with rock bands, DJ’s and good food and drink. TRASH’d as ever held their own up against electric bands on pure wrist power.
June
By JUNE the TRASH year is really speeding up.
On top of the Direct Grant work in the Borders, and the performance group starting to get out and about, the teaching team headed off to Wear Valley in the Durham area once more, quickly followed by a weekend stint at The Oasis Centre in Dumfries. Dumfries is where we set up a performing group a while back; unfortunately they have not been able to sustain things. Periodically they invite us back to give things a boost. The interest seems to flair up when we are there but needs more support and. Probably, funding for a sustainable future. This trip gave Katie, a member of the performance group, a chance to work with the others in a workshop setting.
At the end of the month the team headed up to Fort William to help set up an ongoing project up there, complete with drums and other bits and pieces supplied by us. We got very good feed back from the event, from Eileen and the organisers from Children’s Services, and hope to keep contact going.
Poland
2005 - another TRASH adventure abroad. At the end of 2004 Magda Skiba, Director of The Gdansk branch of the Polish Association for Persons with Mental Disability (PSOUU) asked Bill to bring a group over to do a TRASH project for their big May Festival; the festival to integrate disabled and non disabled from a number of European Countries in artistic workshops and final displays and processions.
There were many happenings before the trip. In the end Bill couldn’t go, so Alan Govan, who has been on several of our trips, led the party along with Finlay and new trainee Haley McAfee. Due to another party dropping out we were able to arrange for Neil (Rusty) Russell and Justin Fong to head out a couple of days after the others.
The hospitality in Gdansk was great and the weather, after a couple of cold days, was warm and sunny, just as well as our part of the project took place on the beach. Haley did find, when bathing, the other meaning of the word “Baltic”.
Alan reports that the volunteer group over there really worked hard to learn a performance piece, making the whole event fun and rewarding. Alan and Neil took guitars with them and Justin had his violin. Fin got hold of a drum kit and Haley got herself a guitar so an impromptu band was also formed.
All five “Scots” came back tired but happy having pleased our hosts and made many friends. |