What is an archive? This was a question explored by our Create and Change group, on a visit to the archives at the The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford upon Avon at the start of last term.
Create and Change is a weekly arts and wellness group kindly supported by The Baring Foundation, taking place at Dolphin Women’s Centre every Tuesday. The group had the opportunity to explore both the archive and the collections held by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, looking at books from Shakespeare’s era, including one written by a woman for women, as well as day to day objects, maps and paintings, all kept because of how they illuminate different aspects of the world that William Shakespeare inhabited.
This trip kicked off a thought provoking term working in partnership with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust as part of their Esmee Fairbairn project. Lead artist Anam Zafar and shadow artist Sharon Boparai took the ideas and discussions had on the trip and led the group in an exploration of the theme of care reflected in the archive. Care taken in the creation of clothes and objects in the past as well as in their subsequent preservation. Care taken to preserve the world of Shakespeare. Why not ask, as one group member did, “what is the reason for this?”.
As a group set up to support the mental health and wellbeing of members of the Dolphin Women’s Centre through creative practices, care is at the centre of Create and Change’s purpose. One member says they come “For release and to feel good”. Therefore, it made natural sense to take all these questions and ideas, and apply them to self.
The resulting creative response was a repurposed hard back book, one for each group member, that was for each person somehow a reflection of their own story – their likes and dislikes, their family, their faith. Anam and Sharan developed activities that allowed the group to make choices, from how they wanted their book to be decorated, to what they wanted the key themes to be. In some cases, the act of craft itself was a means of reflection, with one woman saying it helped them to “remember [their] young school life”. Each book is unique to a group member and full of creative expression.
These full-of-life responses from the Create and Change group will be on public display in Stratford upon Avon, as part of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s ‘Hidden Women’ exhibition, from mid-March until the summer. With an average attendance of 17 women last term, there is a large body of work to explore. Do try and see them if you are able, and while you do, take time to reflect on the care that your own story deserves.
By Naomi Awre, Learning Officer
