Transforming and Activating Places

In this post, TAP student Takaaki describes how they developed a new perspective on what home means to them, through leading workshops with Migration Matters Festival . Our Journey Here, by TAP student Takaaki Higa As an international student from Okinawa, Japan, I'm sometimes asked the question: "where are you from?". Typically, I reply "Japan" as it is the easiest answer to avoid having to explain further. But at the same time, I feel like I am oversimplifying my home and the stories interwoven with it.  Okinawa is the southernmost prefecture in Japan, of which Japan has 47. It used to be under the control of the US from after WWII until 1972, so even though I was born in the late 1990s, the stories I heard from my parents and grandparents were totally different from what I learned at school about "Japanese history". This is because textbooks speak of Japan in the 1950s to 70s as going through a great ‘Economic Miracle’ but Okinawa was almost wholly ...

Image 1: A woman stands next to an art installation, displayed in a window. The installation description is displayed on the wall on the left side of the image. In this post, TAP student Poppy reflects on their time at Hepworth Wakefield and their understanding of knowledge exchange and what it means to listen to others. Before TAP I knew many things. How important our green spaces are for our planet's future. How I want to use my creativity in everything I do. How I want to have an impact on people, be able to express the importance of climate change, and get people to engage with these issues. I also knew that I had a lot to say. However, before TAP I didn't know how to utilise these things, how to take my knowledge and experience and apply them in real life, or how to convince people that these things matter. With this internship, I learned about the importance of knowledge exchange and how much value those things I had to say could hold. My internship involved a sound and ...

Read below about TAP student, Anne's wonderful experience working with Hillsborough Together , which is an organisation funded by Sheffield City Council aimed at supporting High Street Recovery and focusing specifically on aiding Independent High Street Businesses. In a degree that is constantly surrounded by numbers, facts and figures, it is very hard to imagine how I can contribute to the community in a transformative way. Through the TAP program, I gained insight on how I could exchange my knowledge with the surrounding community in a way that would help make a difference to the people and the space and where people felt like they had a strong connection with place. TAP workshops provided me with an insight into an appreciation for the arts, heritage and culture that may not cross our minds every day and which really help us to understand how society has evolved and learn about each other and the struggles people encounter so that we can better the communities we are immersed in...

Image 1: Young Carer Creative Makers Huddersfield group photo holding poems written during a workshop Read below of Ruby’s experience at LUNG Theatre , where they explored the relationship between place and verbatim theatre! The Transforming and Activating places scheme is undeniably essential within the artistic sector of Sheffield, able to provide incredibly important organisations with the means to grow and collaborate with students that are passionate about their core concepts and aims. This process could not have been better, being partnered with LUNG theatre has been a delightful experience, and I have made friends and connections that will never fade.  The LUNG team are a beautifully intertwined artistic web of incredible people, all of which perpetuate the concept of ‘Placemaking’ in all of the work that they do. Even in an online zoom meeting, the places we used during the summer had to be activated for a multitude of reasons. One of the main ways we did this during the in...

In this post TAP student, Caitlin reflects on creativity and teamwork during their time at Typeset . Caitlin also composed a fantastic poem exploring themes of colour and place, which you can read at the end of this post! For my placement, I was working at Typeset- a non-profit bookshop and co-working space run by a team of neurodivergent artists. The diversity of the directors was a really great thing to see as although they all work in the creative sector, it was interesting to see how they approach art differently and how they define art and its place as well as how they make art unique to them and their values. It was also really insightful to hear about the varied ways in which they became artists. Me and my fellow intern, Jess, were given essentially complete freedom over what our project would be which was incredibly freeing but also somewhat scary. I suppose as a result of my age, in my previous jobs I had not really been given much control over anything before but rather been ...

Image 1: Poster from Migration Matters Festival introducing Mya with an image and text describing their story. Mya Badhan offers an insightful glance into their internship, creating a workshop celebrating diversity with Migration Matters Festival. Over the Summer I interned at Sheffield’s Migration Matters Festival with Aki, a fellow TAP intern. During our internship we helped facilitate the running of the festival and organised and produced our own storytelling event, ‘Our Journey Here’, where we interviewed a wide range of people and asked them about their heritage and migratory journey as well as providing henna and samosas. I am very grateful I got to participate in the festival as I believe wholeheartedly in what it stands for. I wrote this poem as a way to capture the different skills and qualities that I have developed during my internship.  M- Mindfulness This concept was an integral part of the process, being self-aware was important in cultivating a safe and supportive ...