About Playing Out
Warwick Arts Centre’s Creative Learning Coordinator, Tara Johnston-Comerford, gives an account of our community project, Playing Out, in the run up to the Canley Parade on Saturday 10th June 2023.
Playing Out is a three-year collaborative project between Canley Residents and Warwick Arts Centre. We put on creative workshops across the community, and we deliver big-scale events in the heart of Canley, such as the pop-up cinema and our star event – The Annual Canley Parade!
We meet every month with our Steering Group of local Canley residents and organisations, to make decisions about the project to make sure it is truly community led. Playing Out is for people of all ages to come together and get Creative in Canley.
What’s Going On?
As part of Playing Out we’ve been working in three schools, three community centres and two care homes across Canley, to deliver high quality visual art, movement, music and spoken word workshops to get ready for the parade.
All workshops are free and our open, community workshops are happening weekly in the run up to the parade on Saturday afternoons. Check the timetable for details of where and how you can get involved.
We are working with a team of six artists including visual artists Jane Thakoordin, Niall Singh and Carrie Backhouse; Movement Practitioner, Frankie Robson; Spoken Word Artist, Navkiran Kaur Mann; and Samba Band Leader, Dave Barrett.
We also have a Canley historian, Dr Ruth Cherrington who has been working behind the scenes to document the project and ground it to Canley history.
Our artist team have diverse and exciting skills, they’ve been getting inspiration from our community and are now making these ideas into reality, to be paraded through the streets of Canley!
The Parade
The third annual parade will take place on Saturday 10th June, 2023. We will start at Canley Community Church at 11am and make our way through Canley, to Prior Deram Park, and the community led event, 'The Big Lunch!’
Expect flocks of birds, peacock colours, proud Canley chants, banners, people in their Sunday Best and movement & music to put your best foot forward to!
This Year's Theme
Our theme for the parade this year is Proud as a Peacock!
We are thinking about things in Canley that people are proud of. What makes it a special place to live, work and play? We’re also thinking about birds in this year’s theme, birds move, and birds work together – just like Canley folk.
Have a look at these wonderful sketches from artist, Jane Thakoordin to see what you can expect on the day:
Artist Sketches
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