REFLECTING
on the Mortality Bites project
We are now at the end of our community arts residency at Seventeen Nineteen.
We're just finalising our creative output – an illustrated A-Z of creative approaches to grief that emerged from stories shared during the residency. Personal stories of death and grief that often remain hidden or unexpressed.
We want to use this blog post to reflect on the support we've received and the outcomes (some intended, some unintended) that continue to emerge from this arts commission.
We want to begin by reflecting on the mentorship we received from political cartoonist Sara Qaed. Our residency was part of Seventeen Nineteen's Emerging Community Artist scheme, and this meant that there was additional funding for a mentor for DEAD GOOD.
We were thrilled to be matched with Sara. Her mentorship added so much depth and emotional texture to our experience of the residency.
Sara's work routinely tackles the darker side of death and grief.
Through her art she visually represents genocide, massacres, violent death, and assassination. It is confronting work BUT IT IS SO IMPORTANT. Not all deaths are 'good deaths' and it's vital to remember this, especially because the grief that accompanies violent death and mass killings is complex and traumatic in the extreme.
As DEAD GOOD we do not want to shy away from these experiences of death and Sara's mentorship allowed us to tentatively explore this work, which will see us be much bolder in our use of art for advocacy and activism in the future. We particularly valued the mentoring session that took place at the Palestine Encampment at Newcastle University.
Sara provided several dedicated mentoring sessions during our community arts residency and also attended some of our creative community conversations about death, dying and grief. We talked a lot about how we care for ourselves when dealing with death on a daily basis and while supporting others with fear, grief and big emotions.
She also came up with some brilliant creative activities that we could do together. For example, we met up at The Word in South Shields with our families and spent time exploring how grief is visually communicated through picture books.
And on another occasion, we met up with our children at the Kittiwake Trust Multilingual Library in Gateshead to explore how death and grief is represented in children's books by authors and illustrators from a range of cultural backgrounds. We both learned a lot and it gave us ideas for future projects too.
Let's now have a little look at the impact of the residency on DEAD GOOD as a creative practice in the field of community death education...
What we gained from being Emerging Community Artists at Seventeen Nineteen
Deepened our community art practice in both the East End and City of Sunderland.
Developed our portfolio of socially engaged artistic practice - see previous posts here [hyperlink] and here [hyperlink].
Co-created new ways to facilitate creative conversations about death, dying and grief.
Collected evidence about the value of our work
Developed a strong connection with our mentor.
Built a strong, reciprocal partnership with the Seventeen Nineteen team of staff and volunteers.
Worked collaboratively with four organisations and their communities in Sunderland.
Developed meaningful relationships with members of the local community and visitors to Seventeen Nineteen.
Successful outcomes and outputs from the community arts residency
We engaged a 100+ people in creative conversations about death, dying and grief in Sunderland
Shared 24+ social media posts, reels and stories about the process and outcomes of the residency
Published 3 blog posts about the residency process and outcomes
Participants said that working with us was enjoyable, thought-provoking, positive and beneficial
Participants said that working with us has decreased their fear and worry around death and dying through fostering open conversations about mortality
Created a new creative resource inspired by the process and outcomes of the residency
Finally, we'd like to thank the following people and organisations for their support and encouragement throughout the community arts residency: Posy, Kim, John and Tracey from Team Seventeen Nineteen, Sara Qaed, Lily Daniels, Sunshine Cooperative, Just Let Your Soul Grow community garden, the Women's Community Boutique, Simon Green Photography, King Ink, My Sister's Kitchen, and everyone who participated in the Mortality Bites conversations and activities.
We can't wait to take everything we've learned forward into our future arts-based deathwork.