Since creating Only Wolves and Lions we have been developing associated projects, using the form and structure of the show, but tailor the content to the context and needs of the communities we work with. Our aim being to facilitate radical sharing through communal meal making, art provocations and facilitated dialogue. We have collaborated on some brilliant projects and continue to look for opportunities to develop joyful, inclusive and tender projects, which use all that we have learnt, celebrating the temporary community.
Projects to date include:
Walk, Talk, Eat with Me (October 2015)
A performance, a meal, an experiment in temporary community. Created and performed in collaboration with young people in Blackpool with experience of homelessness.
We were commissioned by LeftCoast in Blackpool to work with the charity Street Life and a group of associated young people who were experiencing or had previously experienced homelessness. Over the course of a month, we led a series of performance workshops exploring the young people's daily experiences, memories of Blackpool, their dreams and aspirations. Food was always central to the workshops!
The final performance took place on route to and inside Blackpool’s famous Winter Gardens, as part of the first evening of ‘Banquet’ a festival of art and food curated by LeftCoast. Inspired by the structure of Only Wolves And Lions the performance took the form of a giant communal meal, with 50 audience members cooking and eating together with the participants, as they shared food, thoughts, stories and conversation.
Our Journeys (Summer 2016)
A cross artform project working with recent migrants to London, many of whom were expereincing the sharp end of our in humane immigration system.
We worked over a three month period meeting once a week to cook together, share stories, record interviews and make art collages of our experiences and relationship to home and travel. All of the outcomes of the project were then integrated into the larger performance project In Flight From Home, which was presented at WAC Arts in the summer of 2016. The use of food, cooking and eating together presented an incredible opportunity for people to informally share something from their culture.
Bath Matters (January 2015)
An evening event created in collaboration with Bath University and the ICIA, involving a facilitated meal and conversation, discussing the challenges of the increase in our aging population and how those in need can best be supported.
