entering the everyday life of  8 sibling pairs with joy*

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At its heart [about siblings] - “[as]”- touches on the many faces of young siblings’ relationships with great interest on how this relationship is being shaped and nurtured when a child’s brother(s) or sister(s) experiences disability and/or chronic illness. 

 

In collaboration with UK-based organisations and families, [as] targets children and young people who are disabled and/or experience chronic illness aged 9 -17 and their siblings. 

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The idea behind [about siblings] is to initiate an R&D process together with a team of disabled and not disabled artists (working with music, illustration, film, textile/crafts), a philosophy practitioner, and our partner's SEND team. Everyone enters the project in different phases and together we form the creative process and engage with the siblings. This ultimately leads us to a tangible end-result, reflecting the process, the needs of the participants and our shared creative input.

 

[about siblings] invites up to 15 siblings and their families to engage with a team of multidisciplinary disabled and non- disabled artists, researchers, art and health professionals. Together they will participate in 1:1 and group interviews, focus groups and creative labs. The immediate goal of the process is to better understand -and essentially try to meet- the needs of the siblings and their immediate environment.

 

Subject to covid-19 restrictions, all activities will ideally happen with the physical presence of everyone involved in the school facilities, or virtually.

 

The outcome of the research will be documented in a short animation documentary gathering key information and learnings of how to best move forward. This will help us establish the framework for designing a year-long series of tailored weekly art sessions which will result to artistic interventions and installations in the participants’ neighbourhoods. 

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[about siblings] brings multisensory art practises and philosophy together.

 

Philosophy practitioner Maria Prodromou will facilitate 6 dialogue sessions run as a Community of Inquiry creating space for non-disabled siblings to converse into matters that matter to them. The dialogue sessions will utilise the concept of ‘superheroes’ - a role which siblings of disabled children, are often assigned to and allow time to ask questions and be heard. They will create their own bespoke journal reflecting their thoughts, lived experience & emotions, discuss common experiences, & feelings.

 

Two separate sessions will engage parents/carers.

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*Joy as an act for togetherness: 

joy helps our personal journeys (i) to be shared with others (you), and allows (us all) to co-exist

joy transforms the shared space in the neighbourhoods, the parks, the school and the city

joy shifts random and serendipitous kindness into intentional acts for togetherness

joy gets us past biases and keeps us going, individually and collectively

joy humanises everyone’s [my/your/our] ‘differences

joy turns us into thinking from our soul

joy flies at us if we let it

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Celia Ivey. illustrator & graphic designer | Bristol

Constantina Georgiou. creative practitioner & emerging community artist | Manchester & Larnaca

Foteini Galanopoulou.  access advisor & producer | London

Gina Benou. arts manager | London

Julia Panagiotou. emerging multidisciplinary artist | Market Drayton   

Maria Prodromou. philosophy practitioner | London

Ronit Meranda. filmmaker & video editor | Bristol

a Bristol-based musician tbc

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