FESTIVAL OF CARE
NOVEMBER 21-23, 2024
The Whitworth,
Oxford Rd, M15 6ER
Manchester
What happens when we consider care a craft or an artful practice?
Over three days in November 2024, The Care Lab hosted their first ever Festival of Care. This included practical workshops and discussions showcasing different forms of care, each with different kinds of sensory and practical skills.
During the festival, we explored some of the following questions: What are the often-unrecognised or invisible skills of healthcare workers? How can we design spaces that care for people? Can robots actually care for, or care about, humans?
We were delighted to be joined by such a diverse group of people (scholars, artists, carers, practitioners, students, activists, musicians, etc) to collectively explore how care manifests differently, beyond what is usually seen, felt, or recognised as 'care' in care work.
The Festival marked the end of the Care Aesthetics project (funded by the AHRC, University of Manchester), led by the drama department in partnership with the NHS, GMMH, Birkbeck, University of London, and The Whitworth.
The full festival programme can be consulted below.
Festival of Care: Reflections
Care ‘includes everything we do to maintain, continue, and repair our ‘world’ so that we can live in it as well as possible’
— Berenice Fisher & Joan Tronto (1993: 103)
Festival Programme
Thursday 21st
Opening night of the Festival of Care
5-8pm
Welcome from Whitworth Director Sook-Kyung Lee and introduction to the festival from James Thompson. This will be followed by a group exploration of ’stories of beautiful care’ led by artist Jenny Harris and the Care Lab team.
This is a relaxed and participatory event drawing on the ‘Beautiful Care’ project that has worked with care workers to explore their skills and insights into care as a practice. The evening ends with refreshments and nibbles.
Friday 22nd
Welcome to the Day and Workshop Selection
10-10:30am
Registration, coffee/tea & pastries, a warm welcome from the team and a chance to sign up to workshops.
What is Care Aesthetics? Breakfast Discussion
10-10:45am
A chat over coffee and pastries with the CARE AESTHETICS team about the project's driving questions, and about what we're planning for the future.
Workshop registration will also take place.
Simultaneous Workshops
10:45am-12:15pm
An exciting opportunity to learn from carers and artists involved in care work through hands-on demonstrations, practice and discussion. Choose one workshop to attend.
For those who'd rather just grab some coffee in the Hall, there’s plenty more to do: add your thoughts to an interactive art piece by Lucy Burscough, join a friendly care chat corner with Sara Cocker, or watch a short film by Breaks and Joins (London) on repair and care.
See workshop choices below
Simultaneous Workshops
11am-12:30pm
Choose one workshop from the below options.
For those who'd rather just grab some coffee in the Hall, there’s plenty more to do: add your thoughts to an interactive art piece by Lucy Burscough, join a friendly care chat corner with Sara Cocker, or watch a short film by Breaks and Joins (London) on repair and care.
James & Réka: Theatre workshops and care
How can theatre games care for participants? What do games and exercises tell us about care in creative spaces, and about what is needed for people to both enjoy the experience but also be cared for in the process?
James Thompson and Réka Polonyi are theatre practitioners and researchers working on the Care Aesthetics project. They both have experience of running theatre workshops in diverse contexts with different community groups. Join them for a fun and relaxed session of theatre games to explore what it means to care in joyful ways. No theatre experience necessary!
UoM AI Lab: Robot-led Tai Chi
In this workshop co-led by robot duo – Pepper and Nao – participants are invited to engage in some tai chi. Pepper is a carebot which has been designed to read human emotion. Nao is a small robot designed to interact with people. How might robots like Pepper and Nao care for people practically and in actuality?
Francine Hayfron: Caring with Soil
Healthy soil is the foundation of everything, from producing beautiful flowers, healthy crops and improving biodiversity, but did you know that there is a natural antidepressant in the soil? Join the Whitworth’s Cultural Park Keeper for a mood boosting Kokedama workshop. Kokedama which is Japanese for “moss ball”.
LUNCH
12:15-1pm
Free vegan and vegetarian lunch provided in the Hall
Simultaneous Workshops
1.00-2:30pm
The workshops above will be repeated, giving you the chance to attend two workshops throughout the day, or one workshop, if you choose to explore everything else that is happening in the Grand Hall.
Emily Kenway - author of ‘Who Cares: The Hidden Crisis of Caregiving’
2:45-4.00pm
Followed by Q&A
Brutal but beautiful: vital lessons from the frontline of care
Unpaid family carers do the vast majority of care in the UK. They are under-supported, under-resourced and largely invisible. Despite this hardship, carers' experiences contain vital lessons for everyone - lessons about kinship, vulnerability and strength. Author Emily Kenway will draw on her own experience as a carer as well as in-depth research to explore the brutal yet beautiful education of care and what it might mean for all of us.
Saturday 23rd
Jenny Harris & Lowri Evans: Our Long Goodbye (dementia care)
In this workshop we will explore creating art about dementia, ways you can do this and what impact it can have. Through conversation and creative writing, we will share experiences and spark new ideas whilst questioning: How do we artistically and ethically talk about Alzheimer’s? How can art improve wellbeing? Can art help people experiencing dementia to feel seen and heard?
Lucy Turner: Still Care (Midwives)
Join Whitworth Producer Lucy Turner and Bereavement Midwives from Manchester’s NHS Foundation Trust to explore how the therapeutic power of creativity has the potential to promote resilience, support emotional well-being and equip healthcare providers with skills to enhance their compassionate care.
Sophie Dixon and Fred: Artful Parenting
Autistic-child and Mother-Artist Care Practices as Creative Encounter
Imagine you are an autistic child walking to school. What are the challenges you might encounter? A motorbike whizzing past? Rain and no umbrella? New shoes which feel weird?
Fred and Sophie have invented a game to help in these tricky moments. We will recruit you as ‘red spy spotters’ in our game and also invite you to invent a game for yourselves. One which we hope will help both adult and child have fun in those moments that might otherwise challenge us.
Nightingale & Sage: A Care Walk
A curated, slow, nurturing walk around local green and quiet spaces. A site-specific route discovering the wider neighbourhood of The Whitworth Art Gallery. On our circular amble, we will ‘survey’ ideas of care; use our senses; consider the built environment; find green oases; pause and rest; do simple self-help relaxation techniques; chat using discussion prompts; and walk silently.
The route will be flat; on hard surfaces; dropped kerbs; safe crossing points; use public seating for rest stops; and will be wheelchair accessible.
Please dress for the November weather.
LUNCH
12:30-1:10pm
Free vegan and vegetarian lunch provided in the Hall
Care Café
1:15-2:30pm
A collective event around different tables to share, or just listen to, questions relating to care. We will think about what care means now and in the future.
Festival Closing Ceremony
2:45-4.00pm
Bolton Carers will perform a short piece sharing stories from their care work.
Together Dementia Support’s Song Gospel Choir will also take the stage to bid us all farewell! Refreshments and nibbles will be provided.