Throughout any given year Mantle Community Arts undertakes many different projects in many different places - community centres, youth clubs, village halls, schools, colleges, day centres, streets and fields. We work with people of all ages and our projects embrace many different arts activities - visual arts, music, drama, writing, dance, processional work, performance and more.

Projects encompass everything from one-off workshops to week-long residencies to schemes lasting a year or longer.

In addition to this, we are also in the process of reviewing Mantle as an organisation and making plans for expanding and developing our work in the future. We aim to increase our team of staff, associate artists and resources, so that we can better work with community groups to run exciting arts projects.

Current and Recent Projects:

Activate:

Activate is a new training scheme for artists working in formal education settings. The scheme which is being launched across the East Midlands and Mantle is the county agent for Leicestershire. There are agents in each of the other East Midlands Counties and each will be selecting ten artists who will receive a training covering business skills, marketing and planning projects for schools.

The programme will run for two years and a second group of ten artists will be recruited in October 2006. Activate is funded by the European Social Fund, the Arts Council. and Creative Partnerships and is being managed by Arts Training Central.Activate is funded by the European Social Fund, the Arts Council. and Creative Partnerships and is being managed by Arts Training Central.

Coalville Public Art Project:

Coalville's’ Memorial Square is to under go a slight revamp. Mantle and Wendy Jones, N. W. Leicestershire District Council's regeneration officer, have commissioned artist Salina Somalya to create a series of decorative metal panels which depict Coalville past, present and future. The final pieces will be set in the railings in Memorial Square .

Picnic in the Park:

The run up to this years’ annual Coalville Picnic in the Park is well under way.

This year Mantle will be building a magic garden installation with flowers, butterflies and more weird and wonderful creations being made by visitors at the drop in workshops being run on the day. The District Council will be leading on the procession project this year with assistance from Mantle. The procession, which kick starts the event will be starting in Memorial Square and working its way up to Coalville Park .

Staunton Harold Play:

In September Mantle will be producing a community play for the area around Staunton Harold, Leicestershire. We will be working with experienced writer/producer partnership Julian Hanby and Andy Barrett. We are currently looking for performers, makers, local historians and groups that would like to host a drama workshop. So if you know anyone in that area tell them to contact us!

More Public Arts for Nottingham East Midlands Airport:

After the success of our recent Airport Trail Sculpture Project we have had a meeting with the airport to discuss a new public art project. The descriptive sign that accompanies the carved stepping stones is about to go up and we will be looking to create a complementary piece of work on the same site. We will be looking for an sculptor to undertake the work, working in wood this time, again with an element of workshopping with local community groups. A project brief will be avaiable soon but if you are an artist interested in the commission, feel free to email us to express an interest.

Youth Council Consultation:

Artist Paul Gent took to the streets of Coalville along with members of the Youth Council to target local youth. Their mission was to ask passers by what facilities they would like to see appear in Coalville.

A large scale mural was then created by Paul who visually depicted the responses that were generated. The painting was framed, and mounted and along with video of the days events, will be presented to local councillors by the youth council in order to influence their thoughts about the development of the town..

Coalville Winter Lantern Procession 2005/6:

The evening of February 25th saw Coalville alight for the annual Lantern procession, schools and community groups from in and around Coalville became involved with making lanterns for this years’ procession.

Artists Liz Osborne and Fiona Richardson ran a series of workshops in schools and community centres, assisted by emerging artist Katie Chillman. We also ran teachers inset sessions for three schools that wanted to produce their own lanterns. The local community were able to join in and make their own lanterns for the procession by attending one of the three ‘drop- in’ workshops held in Coalville town centre and Snibston Discovery Park .

The evening was a great success with over 400 people turning up to join in the procession which went from Snibston to Memorial Square. After picking up a giant dragon in the square, Square the procession returned to Snibston where they were greeted by fire jugglers, a bonfire and free soup and cake to reward them for all their hard work.

This years’ event was funded by Awards for All and Wilkinsons.

Jewellery for Non Jewellers:

Students on the ‘Foundation Skills for Work’ course at Ste ph enson College enjoyed two day long jewellery workshops as part of Enhancement week at the college. The workshops ran by artists Louise Evans and Sue Clews saw the students design and make a selection of jewellery using wire, beads and leather. The result was a fantastic selection of rings, bracelets and necklaces.

The project was funded by Mantle Youth Work budget.

East Midlands Airport Sculpture Project, Summer 2005.

We are working with the airport to commission a sculpture for their perimeter airport trail which is an area of new planting which stretches all the way around the airport. Castle Donington sculptor Graham Mitcheson will be producing the piece, based on stepping stones. The stones will have carved images derived from ideas created during workshops in local schools.

A Selection of Past Projects:

Coalville Winter Lantern Procession, 2004/5

From November 2004 until January 2005 Mantle ran lantern making workshops with schools and community groups. We also took over a local shop and ran drop in workshops on Saturdays in the town centre.
The project culminated in a lantern procession through the streets of Coalville on January 22^nd 2005 . The procession ended at Snibston Discovery Park where there was a performance by students of King Edward VII school, involving, music, drama, dance and puppetry, based on a local legend from Griffydam. There was also a fire sculpture and a firework display.
Lead Lantern Artists were Fiona Richardson and Liz Osborne, supported by Claire Bull.
Mantle provided three trainee participatory artist placements on the project which were undertaken by Helen Joyce, Steve Smith and Bronwen Barradell.
The performance was created by Juliet Forster (Drama), Jenny Edwards (Dance) and Mitch Oldham (Music). Stage designers Elsa Bua and Xanthe Moore created costumes, props and a huge puppet griffin. Fireworks and fire sculpture were provided by paBoom. The project was funded by Arts Council England, The Local Network Fund for Children and Young People, Awards for All, North West Leicestershire District Council and Mantle Community Arts Youth Work budget.

Click here to watch video clips of the procession and the final performance.

Hinckley Youth Mental Health Day, 23 September 2004

This took place at Hollycroft Park, Hinckley, and was designed to raise awareness of mental health issues amongst children and young people. The day consisted of a large number of short workshops, each based on an aspect of mental health awareness. Approximately 300 children from a range of local schools attended during the day and they were able to select a number of the workshops to attend in the course of their visit. Mantle engaged Yvette de Sylva and Zoe Childerley to provide two of these workshops. 

	Summer Procession/Picnic in the Park, June 2004 As in previous years, Mantle worked in partnership with North West Leicestershire District Council to organise a summer procession through the streets of Coalville to open the annual Picnic in the Park event on 27 June 2004 . Artists Nadya Monfrinoli and Sarah Palmer worked with pupils of local schools to create colourful masks based on a ‘Noah’s Ark ’ theme which the children wore in the procession. The artists also ran a drop-in arts workshop throughout the afternoon of the Picnic. Funding was provided by The Local Network Fund for Children and Young People, North West Leicestershire District Council and Mantle Community Arts Youth Work budget.  Moira Canal Festival, April – May 2004 Mantle were invited by the Ashby Canal Trust to organise arts activities and a public event for the annual Moira Canal Festival which took place on 15 and 16 May 2004 . Artists Yvette de Sylva and Zoe Childerley worked with children from Measham CE Primary School and St Charles Catholic Primary School , Measham to create roses and castles – two of the elements which figure strongly in traditional canal art. Dozens of items were created and they were displayed all over the site throughout the festival weekend. In addition Jenny Edwards worked with pupils of Moira Infants School to produce a dance piece based on water, boats and canals which was performed at the festival. This project was funded by Moira Canal Festival and Mantle Community Arts Youth Work budget.
Warren Hills Workshop, 23 March 2004 Mantle ran a drop-in arts workshop for parents and children at the opening of the new Nursery Unit at Warren Hills Primary School , Coalville. Donisthorpe Recycling Mural, September 2003 – March 2004 This was a partnership project with Leicestershire County Council Youth Mobile and Donisthorpe Primary School . Artist Clare Bull worked with six different classes at the school to produce a large interactive mural from recycled materials (plastics, packaging, obsolete products, old farm machinery, etc). Each class based their contribution to the mural on a different theme – Maps, Mirrors, Sound, Water, Sand and Movement. As well as creating an exciting and entertaining piece of art work the project engendered an awareness of creative recycling throughout the school. This project was funded by Leicestershire County Council Youth Mobile Project, Donisthorpe Primary School and Mantle Community Arts Youth Work budget.