CREATIVE PROJECTS IN OLDHAM
Thanks to various funders, we have been able to establish a number of local creative community projects in Oldham.
Local Projects
AROUND THE FIRE
Around the Fire – Storytelling Across Cultures began in October 2021 as a means of bringing cultures together to share traditional and creative stories. We have now moved to a permanent venue, the award-winning Fox & Pine in the centre of Oldham. The event takes place 6-8pm on the third Thursday of each month.
When we speak about storytelling, we include any form of storytelling from the retelling of traditional stories, original poetry, or short stories, music, scripts or evn visual art. It’s up to you what you would like to share with us. We want participants to feel comfortable telling their own stories and each month we have a theme and prompts to encourage less confident participants to join in.
We always welcome local creative writers to join us as guests. Email geli@worldcommunitycic.org for further details.
We are planning to also start creative writing workshops for beginners of all ages and stages at our beautiful new training room at 1853 Studios & Gallery in Westwood.
DANCE GLOBAL
This project was originally set up in 2022, thanks to funding from Sports England via the Get Oldham Moving initiative. Professional dance teachers from a range of diverse cultures taught party routines to community dancers of all ages and backgrounds. Our youngest dancer was two years old and our oldest 97 years young! We covered dance styles such as Jamaican Dance Hall, Afrobeats, Hip Hop, Mexican Mambo, Bollywood, Bhangra,Jazz and Funk.
In 2023, we received Arts Council Project Funding to rebrand our classes as Dance Global Kids and ran 10 sessions. This was followed by a training course for community dance leaders, Dance Global: The Flash Mob.
To discuss how this highly successful project could with your community or at your event, email geli@worldcommunitycic.org, or call us on 07816 648 288.
OLDHAM GLOBAL CREATIVE COMMUNITY
If you’d like to join our local diverse artist networking group in Oldham, contact us via geli@worldcommunitycic.org. The group was set up during the COVID pandemic to reduce isolation amongst local creatives and to maximise on local opportunities. Many of our local funded projects originated from discussions initiated by our network.
We meet one to one and at regular networking events and often attend local exhibitions and other activities together. We want to make Oldham a vibrant creative hub so that creatives don’t need to always travel to Manchester or further afield to find paid work. Come and join us!
Local Artists
GELI BERG
Geli Berg is an environmental-poet, singer songwriter, broadcaster, actress, DJ, creative writer and visual artist.
The founder of Lingua Franca World Community CIC (LFWC), Geli has been writing poetry since aged eight when she won a prize from the Manchester Evening News with a poem about the countryside. Her interest in diverse cultures due to a family heritage from indigenous Latin America, Norway and the Celtic nations.
In 2005 she turned to song-writing and proceeded to pen a number of songs in her chosen genres of world music and jazz. Two of her recent songs were performed on video as part of LFWC’s Sounding the Siren’s project.
Geli runs a number of workshops including The Inner Artist, for people finding their own creative practice, Storytelling for Good – for social enterprises using storytelling to raise their visibility and Musical Memories – a workshop aimed at older people and/or dementia sufferers.
CHANTELLE TINDALL
Chantelle Tindall is a current affairs writer, stylist and influencer of all things lifestyle and fashion, originally from the Niger Delta in Nigeria, and now living in Shaw near Oldham. She describes her creative style ideas as original, with elegance and a twist of fun!
Chantelle established her fashion business in Lagos, where she was the go-to designer for socialites and celebrities. As such, she was invited to write a column for City People Fashion Magazine, a Nigerian-based newspaper. Here in the UK, she was appointed North-West Editor of the Trumpet Media Group; an established London-based media company which celebrates African communities in the Diaspora. She describes herself as a self-taught storyteller – on paper and through fashion!
You can find Chantelle’s work in the Trumpet Media Northwest newspaper, Chanty’s Fashion and Lifestyle – her column on City People Fashion and Beauty Online and on her Instagram channels: C.plays_dressup and Chantys_banter_audio
ANYA MIKOLADJCZYK
Anya is a Polish-born writer, sculptor and educationalist.
A trained teacher and social worker, she originally came to the UK to look for temporary work and stayed, working as a teacher with the local Polish community, whilst developing her artistic practice, including working with Global Arts Manchester Creative Network.
Anya grew up in Koskian, a small town in West Poland where her father was a sculptor. It was here that she picked up some of his skills as a teenager. Anya’s father’s themes were religious, whereas her own creative practice revolves around the themes of older women, female body confidence, the spiritual connections between women and nature and human rights for women and highly sensitive people.
Anya is available for work on educational and creative projects and collaborations.