Freewheeling

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Birds of a Feather

Migration: Courage, Possibility and the Quest for Freedom

An art and music partnership project between Cowley Road Works and Freewheeling, which seeks to embrace all the people of the world who venture forth in search of opportunity and sanctuary.

The history of our planet is made up of human and animal migration. We all have an opportunity to learn from people who come from a different place or have diverse life experiences. And while we are all unique, we are more alike than we are different. Everyone wants and deserves to be happy, peaceful, safe and free.

Taking a bird as a symbol of migration, artist Nicola Donovan will lead textile workshops to create a colourful flock of birds that will sparkle in Oxford’s city centre for the Winter Light Festival and represent the beauty and creativity of the many groups that we welcome into the diverse community of our city

Winter Light Festival 16 – 18 November 2018

Celebratory festival performances of world music and singing will also take place in Bonn Square on Saturday 17th November at 8pm.

This universal flock will then migrate to Cowley Road’s Church of St. Mary & St. John for CRW’s mid-winter community celebration on Sunday 16^th December.

For more information: Miff Crockford, Project Director miffcrockford@hotmail.com

Freewheeling

Our Freewheeling project was launched with a showing of the film Wadjda at the Ultimate Picture Palace.

Supported by the Arts Council, the Freewheeling project is about creating a dialogue through art to address issues of freedoms and difference, objectification, identity, ending violence against women and girls, positive body image, resilience & the role of the bike as a vehicle for freedom and social change

Einstein said “A human being is a part of the whole universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

The project has been split into two phases the run up to Carnival on 2 July 2017 and September 2017 – Carnival 2018

Lead Artist Nicola Donovan
Project Management Miff Crockford

For over five decades, the artist Judy Chicago has remained steadfast in her commitment to the power of art as a vehicle for intellectual transformation and social change and to women’s right to engage in the highest level of art production. As a result, she has become a symbol for people everywhere, known and respected as an artist, writer, teacher, feminist and humanist whose work and life are models for an enlarged definition of art, an expanded role for the artist, and women’s right to freedom of expression.

“Instead of leaving feeling like it was ‘nice’, visitors should be challenged by artworks to think about a story, object or location in a new way. The most successful projects seem to be those that can be understood by their audiences with small steps, which encourage us to take a different perspective or offer a playful twist on the familiar rather than a single large leap into the unknown.”

Katie Stoddart, Curator.

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