Partnering Up!
In recent years, we have been looking at alternative ways of making and funding our work which has led us to some brilliant collaborations and partnerships with organisations outside of the arts sector including The Anah Project (You are here as a witness) and Off Road (Bradford Youth Service) and currently Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership on our upcoming production Still Waiting (9-10 October) as part of World Mental Health Day. Working with partners allows us to tap into expertise about social issues with professionals working in the field, be creatively inspired by the work happening in other organisations and reach new audiences through exchanging networks.
In turn, organisations not working in the arts have found it helpful to collaborate with Common Wealth to find creative alternatives to formal training for staff, to tell stories about and shine lights on social/political issues relevant to their sector, promote the work they do through telling stories and help boost their profile through public facing outcomes.
In this blog, we hear from Natasha Noor – Communications and Engagement Manager – Healthy Minds Bradford District and Craven (Hosted by Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust) about why she has chosen to partner up with Common Wealth and the process so far:
“Common Wealth have collaborated with Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership (part of NHS West Yorkshire integrated Care Board), to deliver a theatre performance on its Healthy Minds priority. The performance will be based on the three priorities – promote better lives, respect rights, and improve support – from the Healthy Minds strategy. The partnership has been able to work alongside Common Wealth on executing a brief that will highlight on the importance of considering the lived experience of people using their services, and share their feedback through the form of theatre. As Bradford gears up to be UK City of Culture in 2025, we are keen to demonstrate the evidence-based links between arts, culture and health.
We know that people with lived experience of mental health can share their stories in a variety of ways, and performing arts is one of them. The partnership wanted to use performing arts to allow people from local communities to share their experiences, as it gives people with lived experience a sense of community, healing techniques and a way to express themselves, which they wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.
Partnering up with Common Wealth has been a fantastic opportunity for the partnership, they have been able to draw in existing knowledge and experience from their previous work on mental health, which has helped develop this performance. They helped the partnership shape the brief and were able to challenge some of our decisions on the performance, which made us think differently in the delivery of the performance. The partnership has been involved at every stage of the planning and it has helped in some of our thinking in how we engage creatively with our local communities going forward.
The performance will be interactive and not your typical theatre performance, as the audience will be able to engage with performers and move between the different performers. The performance will be a truly interactive experience that has been developed by our communities for our communities, it will bring the lived experience to life in a creative and safe way while ensuring we protect individuals’ confidentiality. The performance will be a masterpiece bringing through the three priorities of the Healthy Minds strategy, and we hope other sectors (not just the NHS) can take inspiration from this theatre performance to deliver something locally.”
We have loved collaborating with Natasha and her team over the past four months. Still Waiting is being performed in Bradford 9-10 October, it’s currently sold out but if you’d like to be added to our waiting list, please contact [email protected]
If you work for an organisation outside of the arts and want to chat about how we could partner up to:
- Launch a project, strategy or charity
- Tell the story of the work you do, the communities you work with or your aims as an organisation
- Deliver some training in an exciting way
- Boost your organisations profile locally and nationally
- Engage new communities and raise awareness of your organisation
Please drop us a line on [email protected] , we can’t wait to hear from you!
