Arts

Mark Riley is an experienced arts and community development practitioner.  He has spent the last 11 years working with schools and community groups in areas such as:

 

 

Projects

 

Community Jigsaw, BCEN.  August-October 2003.

 

B:CEN, Birmingham’s community empowerme

 

nt network, invited me to work with them at summer events in 2003 in Kings Norton, Moseley and Cotteridge, all in Birmingham, to put together a community jigsaw.  The project aimed to promote community networking across Birmingham’s constituencies.  Local people were asked to contribute their own jigsaw piece, and wrote about what they felt were the qualities that made their neighbourhood home.  These comments were put next to their photograph and placed into a giant puzzle for everyone to see.  Everyone enjoyed taking part, young or old, and spotted people they know already up.  A selection of the pieces are being displayed, showing the similarities between how different people in very different areas feel about where they live.  A selection of the pieces were put on display on specially made jigsaw boards.

 

 

 

Festival of Lights, St Pauls Development Trust.  November 2003.

 

I was commissioned by St Pauls Community Trust in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, to put on a lantern procession on November 30th 2003.  I worked with 8 core groups on making different lanterns, mainly groups which worked with young people.  I also worked in partnership with Mark Robertson, a percussion artist, who led the procession with a troop of drummers from a local Secondary School.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Fuse Festival & Chase Wakes Festival, Lichfield July/Aug 2004

 

As part of the arts tent organised by Lichfield Borough Council, I ran a drop-in mask making session based on the story of the Ninky Nanky.  This is a Gambian story about the spirit of the River Gambia that protects the river and the surrounding land.  Participants made masks and could draw on a graffiti wall what they thought the Ninky Nanky looked like….

 

Big Draw 2004, Stafford & Lichfield

 

Stafford.  This event tied in with an exhibition of paintings by patients at the hospital that Van Gogh spent some time at.  Participants could either draw a portrait in the style of Van Gogh, or contribute to a large drawing based on a Van Gogh self-portrait.

 

 

Lichfield.  This was a drop in workshop asking participants to contribute to a big book on shopping.  Taking place in the shopping centre, it provided an over-view of shopping habits and wish-lists of the people of Lichfield, by getting each participant responded to one of five questions.  The responses were drawn with some words of explanation where needed.

 

 

Milstream Project. Celebration Events, Summer/Autumn 2004

 

The Milstream Project is the conservation and management project for the River Cole, Birmingham, including Sarehole Mill, famous for its Tolkein links.  Four events were organised with Black Environment Network, called Celebration of Birds, Water, Plants and Trees.

 

For the first two events Mark worked with storyteller Katrice Horseley, creating murals with participants based on the stories that Katrice was telling.  For the Celebration of Plants Mark created a huge willow and tissue flower, and for the Celebration of Trees a tree was dressed with the Green Man.

 

  

 

 

Sensory Collages, Surestart South West Birmingham.  Feb 2005

 

A drop-in session for families.  Hardboard squares were covered with fabric, and then other materials were stuck on to create patterns made up of colour and textures

 

 

About me, Sibz Group Workshops. Surestart SW Birmingham, March 2005

 

Three sessions based around the individuals in the Sibz group.  The activities included mini-me sculptures made from tissue paper and willow, painted fabric banners and personal symbols sealed in resin blocks.

                            

 

 

 

Copper Willow Sculpture, St Pauls Community Trust.  April 2005

 

 

This sculpture was in the grounds of a church where an after school scheme and playscheme was held.  It incorporated copper pipes and bicycle wheels.  More copper piping was used to help create the dragonfly.

                 

 

                                   

                       

 

Age Concern, Collage Boards, Jul-Aug 2005

 

Six afternoons were spent with users of the Milan Asian Elderly Day Centre creating collages on wood.  The process involved tissue paper, photos of the users, making paper and using paper pulp. Three boards were made in all.

  

 

 

Shire Country Park Playscheme & Celebration Events, Aug/Oct 2005

 

The playscheme workshop took place at Moseley Bog local nature reserve, and used natural materials to explore image-making.  The other events were community drop in events, celebrating plants and trees.  In the first case we created tissue paper collages of different flowers on large Perspex sheets, and in the second event we used mud to stick natural materials to decorate tree trunks.

 

Big Draw 2005

 

Lichfield – The Rough Guide to Lichfield

 

A huge map on the floor of the town shopping centre, where locals added places of significance- homes, shops etc. The map grew organically and had coloured paper, wood blocks and bottle tops collaged onto it.

 

Worcestershire – Bishops Wood

 

Working with Worcester Resource Exchange, we got participants to develop an enchanted forest using willow and scrap materials.  Large banners made from cardboard, mud, leaves and natural paints were also hung as a background.

 

 

 

                         

 

 

 

Tree Dressing, Cripplegate Park, Worcester.  Dec 2005/6/7

 

Each December since 2005, supporting the Friends of Cripplegate Park tree dressing event, workshops were run at a local nursery, schools, an elderly residential home and on the actual event itself.  These workshops created dressings out of mainly scrap materials.

 

 

 

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