Blog by Frances Williams, Participant Observer

How do you recount or reflect on an art project, conducted over zoom, without just pressing the record button? In this blog - the first of three others planned across this year and next - I will attempt this tricky, potentially pointless task. Previously, working as a curator for a London University, I tried to document the reflections of nurses and doctors on the topic of utopia by way of a booklet and exhibition made in 2015. ‘How do imperfect people embody utopian ideals?’ we had asked, responding to this large question by creating a Secret Society for Imperfect Nurses.

Mae Seran Dolma, awdur Preswyl Utopias Bach wedi cychwyn ar brosiect i ysgrifennu cyfres o straeon byrion yn seiliedig ar sgyrsiau gyda cyfranogwyr a phartneriaid Utopias Bach.

Seran Dolma, Author in Residence at Utopias Bach, has embarked on a project to write a series of short stories based on conversations with participants and partners of Utopias Bach.

Llawer o bethau'n digwydd y mis hwn! Cymerwch gip - bydd croeso cynnes i bawb yn ein digwyddiadau, ac mae cyfleoedd i gael cyllid i gychwyn eich arbrofion Utopias Bach eich hun

Lots of things going on this month! Take a look - there’ll be warm welcome to all at our events, and there’s opportunities for funding to start up your own Utopias Bach experiments

Mis ‘ma, edrychwn ar sut y gallai Utopias Bach ein helpu ni ail-ymgysylltu â'n gilydd a'r byd, yn y gymuned ... a'r gefnogaeth sydd ar gael ar gyfer cymryd rhan, cynnal digwyddiadau, dogfennu a dysgu

This month, we look at how Utopias Bach might help us to re-engage with each other and the world, in community... and support available for taking part, hosting events, documenting and learning

Mewn hen iard nwyddau yn ymyl y traciau trên ar gyrion Bangor, mae byd newydd yn dod i fodolaeth. Mae gweiriau a blodau gwyllt yn gwthio’u ffordd trwy’r concrit, gwylanod yn nythu ar y tô, ac mae artistiaid wedi ymgartrefu yn y gweithdai. Mae’r lle yn flêr, ond mae’n flerwch ffyniannus, llawn dychymyg. Mae pethau yn tyfu yma, allan o bob rheolaeth. Darnau o fetel sgrap yn esblygu’n anghenfilod, teiars yn troi’n dorchau o babis duon, llechi yn arfwisg i amddiffyn corff merch. Mae pethau’n ansefydlog, yn y broses o droi’n rhywbeth arall, yn llawn potensial. ….

Mis ‘ma, this month: news of Arts Council Wales funding, work in schools, Utopias Bach Penrhyndeudraeth a’r cylch, Utopias Bach on facebook and instagram, and Metamorffosis, our very first Utopias Bach mini-festival 21 - 27 June…

Gan Seran Dolma, Ysgrifennwr Preswyl

Os wyt ti’n poeni am bethau mawr, ond yn teimlo’n fach, ni ‘di dy bobl di. Os ydi pethau fel morgrug a mwsogl yn bwysig i ti, dyma’r lle i ti. Os wyt ti’n rhyfeddu at brydferthwch y dafnau gwlith a’r wyrth ymhlyg ymhob egin, ond yn methu gwneud synnwyr o’r newyddion, tyrd i mewn…

Cyfleoedd cyffrous!

Our news and invitations this month includes invitations to take part in both ‘real world’ and online Utopias Bach events,
our new website, and lots of new little ‘experiments’ (others might call them projects) that are growing up from North Wales to Malawi!

An artistic response to an overwhelming situation

Utopias/no places...whatever I might think about them, I am often planning them, or daydreaming about them, one way or another. I thought it might be useful to have some ideas at the ready, to start discussions, to avoid beginning in a void. So I dug into my swirl of un-realised ideas, kept somewhere at the lower back of my head, sometimes leaking into my body, and rising to the surface when stimulated by Samina and Lindsey's mini-utopia idea back in summer 2020, now materialising as Utopias Bach…

It seems a bit surreal, imagining that we might be able to gather at some point in the next few months.

And if we can (an possibly even if we can’t), we have an opportunity to take part in the Metamorffosis Festival, in Bangor/Porthaethwy 21-27 June.This festival will follow on from the Surrealist Saffaru we put on last year, successfully hosted within COVID-19 regulations.
There are three things we are inviting you (and all interested, of all ages!) to create with us (as well as coming to the event itself of course)…

Our news and invitations this month includes an invitation from Julie Upmeyer at Plas Bodfa, to join a beautiful new Utopias Bach project, inspired by lockdown, possible within its constraints. Engage in a process, not an art work, that is to last a long time. The process will be observed and used as a point of connection to others in the project as well as to Plas Bodfa itself…