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At our recent Stories of Our Lives session, we talked about belonging, community and the places that help us feel part of something.
We used some resources I have been working on, which I would like to share with other community groups in the future. This Connection Kit included photographs, symbols and question cards to get us started. However, we didn’t need much stimulus before the conversation went in all sorts of rich directions.
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Windows Through the Seasons is a participatory artwork project shaped through shared reflection, creativity and connection. Local people were invited to offer thoughts, images, memories and sensory impressions connected to the seasons, contributing to a collective body of material gathered during a community event on 17th January 2026.
The project was conceived and led by me in response to a commission from Chorlton Civic Society and the Green Chorlton Hub. The contributions shared on the day will inform four final panels, created in a collage style on canvas and later reproduced onto weatherproof clear acrylic. The finished pieces will be displayed in a wooden frame at four points across the year in the community garden next to Chorlton Library, starting with Spring, revealed on Saturday 21st March at 11.30am, and then changing with each season.
Read on to see how this day of participatory creativity and connection took shape, with the wonderful ideas, energy and support of Stories of Our Lives and other key partners.
Continue reading “Windows Through the Seasons – Notes from a creative day shaped by community”Hear this blog post read aloud:
In our last Stories of Our Lives session, we turned our attention to the idea of groups – the ones we’re part of, the ones we’ve left, and the ones that have shaped us along the way. The conversation was a little shorter than usual because it was also our annual feedback session, but it was still a really rich and thoughtful exchange.
Continue reading “Groups – what they give, what they take, and what we make of them”
The Stories of Our Lives 