SOFA SESSIONS

The Sofa Sessions was a community outreach project based on the themes of Home and Hinterland. One of our lead artist Siwan Llynor devised the idea of taking a sofa out into the street and using it to sit down with people and gather their stories. Our other lead artist Martin Daws developed the idea of a poetry take away run from the sofa, where participants were welcomed by the team and asked if they would like to participate in a creative writing activity that would explore their concept of Adra/Home. This pitch proved to be a very effective engagement device.

The sofa, two chairs, foot stool and standard lamp provided an excellent visual spectacle to attract attention to our work - crucially the set was both a spectacle and welcoming to people. When the set caught someone’s eye our initial pitch was “Croeso adra / Welcome home” - we found many people were happy to accept our invitation and to join us for a chat, share stories and in some creative writing.

 Buddug Roberts, a poet and MA creative writing student from Bangor University worked closely with our artists on the sofa and wrote a number of Welsh language poems in response to people’s thoughts. Musicians Henry Horrel, Angharad Owen, Ed Holden and Owen Maclean also collaborated with us creating songs and music with people on the sofa. These activities were based on the Pontio site, in Bangor City centre, Bangor University Main Arts building, Maesgeirchen estate and Bethesda hight street.

The Sofa Sessions also worked with specific community groups in the Bangor and Bethesda area as we took the sofa into their community meeting places. Students from Bangor University assisted creatively within these sessions. Films and sound tracks were created with Maes G - Showzone, Crawia Neuadd Ogwen and O Res i Res knitting group.