Art Eat were invited by Ipswich Cultural Education Partnership to apply for Suffolk County Council Covid Cultural Recovery Fund in order to participate in Hullabaloo 22. This was a town-wide celebration of young people in Ipswich, a large project managed by Dance East, delivering creative activities by and for young people during the Spring and Summer in 2022.
From February until June we worked with extraordinary partners; Karibu African Support Group, A.C.Y.C.L.E (African Caribbean Youth Creative Learning Experience), The Kurdish Mosque, Eastern Angles Homework Club and The Hive. Amazing artists Lily Hammond, Frederico Ramos, Keith Hopewell, Nikki Goldup and Verity Slade led nine creative workshops with 97 young people, then designed large scale art and painted three murals on Ipswich Waterfront. During six days 118 people came to paint with us.
We worked in partnership with Skate Suffolk to create a paint jam with graffiti and mural artists at Stoke Bridge Skate Park, 12 large ply boards were painted during the hot sunny day. There were free skateboarding workshops and a skateboarding competition, during a 20th birthday party for the skate park. The party was attended by the current skatepark community as well as many people who were in their teens and who attended co-design workshops when the skate park was built in 2002.
Finally as a finale to these projects we were over the moon to arrange with Dulce Duca, actress, roller-skater and circus performer, a fabulous community street-performance project. Dulce Duca came to Ipswich to excite and delight everyone on wheels, skateboarders, roller-skaters and blade-skaters, wheelchair users and scooter and bike riders. For 5 days she hosted free workshops in a derelict building on Ipswich Waterfront, teaching people tricks and coaching them to a high enough standard and confidence to present a public performance on Ipswich Waterfront. One young man who took part said to us “Thank you so much to Art Eat, I’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this for so long!” It was a brilliant, funny, vibrant performance and the crowd watching loved it as much as the participants did.