Cameras Capture Co-operative Art

It seems a rose tinted memory now, picture the sense, June,  a balmy day blows blossom onto the bustling streets of Rochdale.  An animated crowd gather in eager anticipation, then wham, bam, yes you can!  The people of Rochdale come together to create an amazing piece of public art to celebrate Co-operatives Fortnight.

Those of you who regularly follow the blog you may remember reading about this exciting event back in June, you may have even picked up a pastel and taken part yourself, but to those of you who missed out on this fun filled afternoon don’t panic!  I can now exclusively show the film (created by Peace Effects Media) made to celebrate the co-operative collection of participators who took part in the event.

So dim your light, grab your pop-corn and share in our Co-operaitve Fortnight event by watching 60 seconds of show stopping art creation.  Enjoy!

*HUGE thanks go to Peace Effects Media for creating the film and the pupils and staff at Alice Ingham Primary School for giving permission for the film to be used on the blog.

Wonderful Ways to Work Together.

Up and down the country, in and out of the streets the beginning of July buzzed with communities working together in the name of Co-operation.  To kick start the very first Co-operative’s Fortnight the country celebrated the success of common partnership through open studios, band nights, quirky videos, and yes, you guessed it, mass participation Art.Works. 

Eager to participate in this national first Art.Works created the most artistic of afternoons slap bang in the middle of the birth place of Co-operation, Rochdale town Centre.  Together with the town’s folk of Rochdale we created a giant mural of the Rochdale Pioneer’s shop that would make co-operative hero Robert Owen proud!

On a blustery Monday afternoon Art.Works worked with fellow co-operators ‘Peace Effects Media’ to create a live art pastel picture and vibrant video.  We spread the co-operative message, (working together we can do so much more) and soon had a helpful crowd of passersby, shoppers and a whole assembly of school children ready to pitch in and pastel their town centre all the colours of the proverbial rainbow.

Without the good will of Rochdale’s finest residents we would not have achieved such a colourful creation, as one participant put it: ‘it’s good doing it like this innit? Get more out of it when we all pitch in’.  I couldn’t have put it better myself!

So huge thanks to the kids, the teachers, the grannies, the shoppers, the Falinge massive, the crew, them all.  Big up Peace Effects Media’ who are editing their awesome footage as I type (look out for the special blog post and feature on their finished product) and respect to Lindzi and John at Co-operative’s UK and David from the Co-operative Group for their help and expertise.