Culture Carousel

Culture Carousel was a multi faceted arts project committed to delivering a diverse and unique programme of workshops to schools in and around Gateshead. Six artists worked with endless enthusiasm delivering a series of workshops which looked at the importance of different cultures and their countries of origin.

The aim was to raise awareness of the world outside of our windows through exciting, engaging and fun sessions with young people. Workshops ranged from delicately spun tales of the Caribbean where participants became entangled in Anansi's spider web of storytelling, to bold discoveries of our borders and the borders of our neighbour?s continents both natural and manmade in map making workshops.

Other workshops include traditional Chinese crafts where children made lanterns and origami dragons whilst learning about the Chinese zodiac and the significance of colour and symbol in China. Closer to home were willow weaving workshops where this traditional method of craft was used to celebrate the Jewish festival of Hannukah. Each child made the star of David which they hung on a living willow arch they had made in the school grounds.

Not ones to keep our feet on the ground for too long, we made sure that everyone had a chance to try Kathak dancing, a traditional and highly expressive Indian dance which has been performed in Indian temples for centuries.

As with all of our work the Culture Carousel relied equally on the input from the artists, young people and the schools in which it took place.

And finally, a big thanks to all of the artists who carried out these workshops, thank you for your boundless imagination and energy.

Ginny Reed
Bethan Laker
Ruth Thompson
Anh Mao
Mohua Kumar

Schools to have participated in the Culture Carousel: Kelvin Grove Primary School, Corpus Christi Primary School, Brighton Avenue Primary School, St. Aidans Primary School, Windmill Hills Primary School, St. Josephs Primary School, Caedmon Primary School, Harlow Green Primary School, Dryden School, Oakfield Infants & Juniors, Kells Lane Primary School, Glynwood Primary.

Due to the success of Culture Carousel, we decided to continue this project and it is currently running in its 3rd year.