WORDS FOR THE LIVING, 2021
Live Performance | Beth Derbyshire | WERK
Words for the Living is a live performance in which an individual speaker, communicates a series of words and phrases through a megaphone in public space. The words are commemorative excerpts by loved ones for so many of the key workers who have tragically passed away from Covid 19. The poignant and celebratory recital of words is a living memorial, describing the qualities of these incredible people who lost their lives whilst saving others and is intended to pay homage to loss, whilst inspiring the living through their bravery. The performance will be filmed and presented in the digital space of Into the Parade.
Into the Parade is an online web encounter and live project that explores how arts organisation and practitioners across the Midlands are engaging civically. The digital ‘Civic Centre’ is both tangible and metaphorical concept to explore the role of cultural practice in a civic context. Into the Parade is a cultural intervention that undertakes projects that have online and real-world anchors points and has been initiated by Beth Derbyshire and developed with students from the MA Arts and Project Management course at Birmingham City University.
BETH DERBYSHIRE
Into the Parade, an arts project devised and produced by Beth Derbyshire.
Into the Parade is a project that explore how arts organisation and practitioners across Birmingham and the Midlands are engaging civically through a series of online and real-world projects. The project explores and collates how different cultural practices are playing different civic roles and what happens and is produced as a result. We have envisaged our “Civic Centre” an imagined neighbourhood of buildings and spaces that represent different parts and function of our project and one that has its own public realm.
The ‘Civic Centre’ as both tangible and metaphorical concept to explore the role of cultural practice in a civic context provides the opportunity to explore a wide range of interrelated topics. “Into the Parade’ provides students with a ‘place’ that evolves with practice development opportunities that support students to devise, commission and produce live projects. Live projects will explore the context of environmental planning reflecting wide-ranging fields of interdisciplinary research and critically ‘lived experience’ and citizenship. Online and real public engagement methodologies will be a key development strand in a post covid world and the project we develop will have online and real-world anchors points. As we enter a significantly different global arts and cultural landscape going forward post COVID this project will provide the opportunity for students to explore what their future might look like in terms of practice methodologies, the skills they will need and the impact to arts & culture funding.
Updated website to come October 2023
