Field | Art Projects

Serena created an artwork drawn from a wide range of local history and presented a picture of contemporary working life through a live event and performance developed with local residents. Over a six month period, we recruited our performers, visiting every available dance workshop and performance project across the city. In the end almost 200 people were directly involved in the development of the project, including three local primary schools and over thirty volunteers dran from a wide range of backgrounds.

It is it Sovereign's credit that they recognized the value of an artwork, which despite having no permanent outcome, nevertheless achieves a legacy for the area in the longer term through the connections it has made. Lisa Denison, Sovereign’s Community Investment Director explains: "Through this commission, our desire was to leave a legacy that celebrated the dynamic of this community, linking the past, present and future together in people’s memories, rather than something more obviously tangible".

The Work as Movement Archive will go on to form part of a permanent digital archive in Bristol's MShed museum and it is Serena's hope that the event will be repeated again in some form in the future. A publication documents the initial event and is intended to act as a guide and starting point to enable such a performance to take place again in the future.