Cwrs Utopias Bach Course

Cwrs Utopias Bach Course is an experiment in how aspects of Utopias Bach can fit into more traditional educational settings. Lisa Hudson is running an 8 week course for Adult Learning Wales, based on Utopias Bach methodologies. One course is online and the other is in Caernarfon.

The course is a series of creative invitations to explore a personal and communal relationship to your own square mile. Using art, photography, poetry, mapping, storytelling and collaborative enquiry, we are examining our local areas through community, heritage, landscape, personal stories and by forming relationships with the more-than-human occupants. This course is being delivered a partnership with Gwynedd and Anglesey Community Learning Network’s provision. You can see how it’s going and their discoveries here

And even more news! We are planning an exhibition of works in Galeri, Caernarfon over the summer, as a lead up to a residency in 2024.

If you would like to take part in future courses, please email Lisa

Ysgol Arbrofol At Ein Coed - Tree Sense Experimental School

Mae popeth rydym yn ei wneud yn Utopias Bach yn arbrawf bach, a dydi Ysgol Dod At Ein Coed ddim yn wahanol yn hynny o beth. Rhwng 3ydd Mawrth a 27ain Mai 2023, rydym yn eich gwahodd chi – amrywiaeth hyfryd o bobl ddynol a phobl coed o bob oed, math a chefndir – i ddod yn gyfranogwyr sumbiotig mewn cyd-ymholiad gyda choed.

Byddwn yn archwilio “Sut allwn ni ddod yn ôl at ein coed trwy gydweithred coed-ddynol?” Yn defnyddio celf, ffotograffiaeth, barddoniaeth, mapio, gwneud gwisgoedd, perfformiadau, dweud straeon ac ymholiad cydweithredol, byddwn yn creu cymuned rhyng-gysylltiol fel coedwig o symudiad, synhwyrau, sain, tyfiant a chysylltiadau.

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Everything we do in Utopias Bach is a bit of an experiment, and the Tree Sense Experimental School is no different. Between 3rd March and 27th May 2023, we will invite you – a wonderful diversity of human people and tree people of all ages, types and backgrounds - to become a symbiotic participants in a co-enquiry with trees.

We will be exploring “How can we come back to our senses through human-tree collaborations?” Using art, photography, poetry, mapping, costume making, performance, storytelling and collaborative enquiry, we will create a forest-like interconnected community of movement, senses, sound, growth and connection.

Take my Hand: Art as a form of prayer; liminal spaces in sacred landscapes

The ‘betysai’ or houses of prayer in the Ministry Area of Bro Padrig on the north coast of Ynys Môn are situated in remote locations by the sea sometimes felt as ‘thin places’. The embodied experience of spirituality during Utopias Bach gatherings has prompted the desire to consider how sacred sites and landscapes offer a liminal space in which a sense of ‘otherness’ might lead to new knowledge.  It will start with a creative deliberation of such spaces and, treading lightly, explore art as a form of prayer.

Sacred spaces … are not doctrinal, but experiential. They draw us into deeper community with each other and the whole circle of creation.  Margaret Silf, 2001

This experiment is being created by Steph Shipley. If you would like to take a gentle walk with her email Steph

Cysyllte… Connecting…

Created by Ellen Davies, this experiment will hear, connect and share unheard voices in multidisciplinary workshops with arts professionals  and individuals including BAME, neurodiverse, LGBTQ+, those with poor mental health, addiction issues and trauma. With their families and supporting organisations we will creatively explore combatting social isolation, making recovery visible in the community. We will share the results as a public experience at Pontio in 2024 enabling learning and ongoing development.  

For more information contact Ellie