THE NEXT DAWN, THE NEXT SPRING

This project is a call to women who are childless not by choice to join with others in a filmed event at Treyarnon Bay, near Padstow, where a group of women will sing into the dusk and with the dawn.

To find out more about the event and being involved please sign up to the first gathering workshop on Sat 11 Mar at 14.00 at The Exchange. This is the first workshop leading up to the event, which will be hosted by artist Melanie Stidolph with Yvonne John from Gateway Women. The second workshop will be with Claire Ingleheart, choir leader on Sat 25 Mar at 14.00, also at The Exchange. 

The filming will take place at Treyarnon Bay over two days in mid-April.

The workshops are a chance to come together in relation to being childless not by choice in recognition of what can be an isolating experience. The project provides an opportunity to meet other people with connected experience, whatever point you are at in your story, and to influence the performance and video – to bring your voice to the work. There is no requirement to be a singer, or performer, the piece is about taking our place in the landscape, standing alongside each other.

We are looking for 10 participants to take part in the filmed event.

If you are unable to attend either of the workshop dates please contact the artist at [email protected] as there is potential to join on the day of filming.

Melanie Stidolph is featured in the current exhibition We Are Floating in Space. Her work is influenced by her experience of infertility and childlessness.  The exhibition includes Endless Reproduction, a photo book about trying to get pregnant, featured on The Guardian website here

The exhibition also includes extracts from the ongoing photo series Last Summer, which pictures families on the beach, through this work, and the film project, Stidolph is approaching a subject she finds hard to view through a shared love – rockpools and the sea.

More info:

• Melanie Stidolph – www.melaniestidolph.com 
• Yvonne John – https://findingmyplanb.com/ 
  Yvonne is a British author and activist for the Childless women of colour. She is a public speaker who has appeared on numerous radio and television programmes, including BBC Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’.  She is known as the leading voice for the women of colour’s experience around infertility, as well as creating an inclusive space for black women and women of colour to openly talk about their childless journey. Yvonne s a World Childless Week Ambassador and a graduate of Gateway Women’s Plan B Mentorship programme. Gateway Women is a support group for women who are childless by circumstance.
• Claire Ingleheart – http://www.ingleheartsingers.co.uk/
  Claire is a composer, musical director, multi-instrumentalist, choir director and workshop leader. She has over 25 years experience working in theatre, composing for short films, playing in bands and developing community music. She has worked with Wild Works Theatre, Michael Sheen, The National Theatre, Simon Birch Dance, Nottingham Television Workshop, and all female, local shanty group, Femmes de la Mer with whom she went on national tour with Ben Howard, and recently featured in ‘Rick Stein’s Cornwall’ (Series 3, Episode 2). Claire also leads two community choirs, The Suitcase Singers and The Ingleheart Singers. Claire is passionate about collaborating with and responding to community, and using her compositions and soundscapes to enhance story and narrative.
• Support – https://gateway-women.com/ and https://lighthousewomen.org/ and World Childless Week are support and network organisations for women who are childless not by choice.

 

Sign up for the first workshop on Sat 11 Mar 

SIgn up for the second workshop on Sat 25 Mar

 

This production is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and with the support of Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange.