Arts Project 2021-2022
Our exciting new arts project started with a fantastic launch assembly. Eight artists introduced themselves to the children and school leaders read extracts from their favourite poems. We were delighted to welcome some of our Trustees. The principal of our partner school Tinsley Meadows and the leader of the project, Rommi Smith, were also interviewed on Radio Sheffield. Click here to listen to the interview.
On the Launch Day children were treated to taster sessions with some of the artists who will be working with us throughout the year; after school staff attended a song-writing training workshop. The staff learnt lots of new skills which will help them with their future teaching.
Launch Day
The theme of our art project is: celebrating who our children are and where they come from. It is a year-long project involving all classes working with different artists on a variety of projects which will result in the creation of a music / spoken word album, a film of the project and a published book of children’s work.
One of the main aims of the project is that staff are upskilled for the forthcoming years and that children experience opportunities that they will never forget. Watch this page to see how the project develops and to learn about the outstanding provision our children will be experiencing.
Meet the Artists
Rommi Smith
is our Project Lead artist and an award-winning writer. The first Poet-in-Residence for British Parliament and the first twenty-first century Writer-in-Residence for Keats House – she is also a three-time BBC Writer in Residence.
Ndrika Anyika
is a British-Nigerian director of photography from Sheffield. Her work focuses on film and documentation, collaborative art, identity, race, and class and all the ways these labels can intersect.
Ndrika will be recording a documentary of the whole project.
Thandanani (Thanda) Gumede
is a singer-songwriter from Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and is based in the U.K. He is a vocalist who specialises in an eclectic blend of singing styles heavily influenced by his dual Zulu/Xhosa heritage with Western music.
Joe Kriss
is a poet/spoken word artist/rapper based in Sheffield, who runs spoken word events in the city. He is the director of literature organisation ‘Wordlife’. He has performed widely across the UK, including venues such as the Tate Modern, The Crucible Theatre and the National Media Museum.
Lladel Bryant
is a professional actor and entrepreneur based in Leeds. His screen credits include DCI Banks; Intergalactic for Sky One and the TV series Green Fingers.
Warda Yassin
is Sheffield’s poet laureate. Warda Yassin is a British-born Somali poet based in Sheffield. She was a winner of the 2018 New Poets Prize. Her work has been published in The North, Oxford Poetry and anthologised in Verse Matters (Valley Press), Anthology X (Smith l Doorstep).
Verity Watts
is an artist & broadcaster for Bettersongs Productions, with over 10 years’ experience in both broadcasting and business.
Stella Litras
is a musical director, composer, lyricist, vocalist, keyboard player and percussionist.
Hafsah Aneela Bashir
is a Manchester-based poet, playwright, storyteller and performer and winner of the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship 2019. She is passionate about championing voices outside the mainstream, challenging the gatekeepers of knowledge and increasing diverse representation within the arts.
Dave Evans
is songwriter, band leader and a freelance composer.
The Album
Every child has been awarded a copy of the album.
The Anthology
Every child has contributed to the Anthology of poems. We are awaiting a publication date. More news to follows.