Aamta Waheed
&
Dr Carole Griffiths
Title: “The Story Pole Project; Empowering Women through Interdisciplinary Visual Arts"
About TSPP:
A new creative installation project, The Story Pole Project: Reflect, Re-write, Re-claim, explores women's and girls' safety in green public spaces and what creative action can be created for the local community of Cliffe Castle Park.
TSPP is funded through Lord Mayor’s Safer Communities Fund and supported by Bradford Council Parks. The Story Pole Project: Reflect, Re-write, Re-claim intends to be the first ongoing exploration into the creative action of women’s and girls' safety in public green spaces in Yorkshire. We are in the first stages of mapping out this research and will continue to update as we progress.
The safety of public spaces is an important issue that we must address. That's why we are launching The Story Pole Project to explore how young people feel about this topic. We plan to use creative processes such as sculpture, carving, drawing, or photography to produce a physical "chapter" that will combine to form a Story Pole.
This pole will be displayed at Cliffe Castle, Keighley, to promote reflection and story sharing. By reclaiming these spaces, we can demonstrate the power of community and encourage positive change.
Exploring Women's
Self-Expression
Community Engagement
& Impact
Celebrating Women's
Voices
Meet the artists;
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Aamta has over five years of experience within the creative industry and holds a first-class BA Hons in Art Enterprise and an HND in Performance Arts (Production). Her creative practice explores relational & concept art, exploring taboo subjects surrounding Muslim and South Asian women.
She explores shame, honour & culture, investigating the long and short-term repercussions of this within herself and the women she works with through relational workshops.
Aamta's creative practice is inspired by her experiences as a British Muslim woman. Her conflict inspires her with societal issues within her South Asian community, such as gendered stereotypes, the female body, tensions between culture & religion, and the expectations of Muslim women.
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Carole Griffiths is a practicing sculptor and has been an art educator in various roles for 25 years.
She studied sculpture at Wimbledon School of Art and received her MA through Leeds Metropolitan University.
Carole’s art has been shown at a number of locations in the United Kingdom, including Canterbury, London, Bradford, Halifax, Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, and York. She is also a member of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group, which promotes their work through exhibitions addressing contemporary themes.
Carole has recently completed a PhD in Philosophy at Coventry University, based on the title Sculptural Reconfigurations of the Kitchen Utensil: A Poetic Chaos of Domesticity.
Her work depicts an open dialogue of object displacement and its uses, which feeds autobiographical depictions of her own domestic circumstances and echoes through narratives and introspective descriptions of production.
The observed domestic object sculptures emphasise the pleasures of making through a poetic reflection of both the method and the content, allowing the observer to perceive and depict the peculiar and intricate relationship between things, subjects, and words.
Meet the team;
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Cliffe Castle Parks Officer - Keighley Ward Officer
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Sharleen is a writer from Bradford who works as a freelance creative producer and project manager across Yorkshire.
She loves collaborating with communities to amplify silenced or small voices, encouraging community growth and individual empowerment through making art, which is why the Story Stole Project appealed to her.
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I was born in Pakistan but raised and educated in West Yorkshire. Family and friends often joke that even my Punjabi has a Yorkshire twang to it! I studied at Oxford specialising in Theology (BTH HONS) and have 25 years of teaching and training experience working across the education sector; FE, HE and Secondary. I have been a key player in raising awareness through innovative approaches and strategies around the themes of inclusion, integration and the Prevent (Prevention of Violent Extremism) Agenda at a local, national, and international level.
More recently I have been appointed to the role of Safety of Women and Girls (SOWG) Lead at Bradford Council. My role is strategic and focuses on working with key stakeholders to enable a comprehensive approach to the safety and well-being of women and girls within the Bradford District. This includes leading on the Bradford District SOWG Strategy and coordinating a range of initiatives within the education and community sector, aimed at preventing and addressing gender-based violence, discrimination, and inequalities.
I’m excited to be on the Story Pole Project Steering Group because this initiative not only demonstrates genuine care for the safety of women and girls but also reflects a broader dedication to nurturing a culture of innovation, learning and equality for all.
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Cliffe Castle Parks Officer - Establishing a new community learning facility within the green space at Cliffe Castle.
Meet the Steering board;
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Cliffe Castle Parks Officer - Establishing a new community learning facility within the green space at Cliffe Castle.
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Kennedy Drake (b.1999) is a Bradford-born artist, who studied Visual Arts at Bradford School of Art and has recently completed a master’s in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University. Her work is focused on inequalities and the working-class experience within the UK setting.
Using paint, print and the process of upcycling everyday textiles, her work presents a cutting critique on modern British society, including the cost-of-living crisis which is engulfing society and pushing the poorest further into financial difficulty.
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Youth Worker of Bradford Council Youth Services Keighley Central.
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Jessica Swift is a 24 year old artist who specialises in Abstract Painting and Contemporary
Sculpture. She graduated from Leeds Arts University with a degree in Fine Art in 2021. She now works at Kala Sangam as their Marketing Officer, as well as working as a freelance artist, taking part in group and solo exhibitions, and teaching painting and pottery classes at Young Masters Visual Arts School.
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Shy Burhan is a photographer and artist based in Shipley who has covered multiple topics in her work, from food poverty and food waste to body positivity in women and documenting female survivors of domestic abuse.
She specialises in bespoke, conceptual portraiture, where she celebrates the individual truths of people turning forty in the same year as her and other women of colour who work in roles where they are traditionally under-represented. These have culminated in successful ACE-funded exhibitions in the North of England.
Shy has also delivered participatory photography workshops to refugees and inner-city youths in Bradford, where she teaches them to use their smartphones to relay their authentic visual narratives.
Join the Story Pole Project Steering Group
Call out: Seeking a diverse and inclusive group for a Steering Group.
We are looking to form a ten-person steering group. The steering group will comprise ten members: five seniors (25 years of age and above) and five younger people (16-25 years of age) who are residents of the Bradford District
We are seeking people who:
Working or studying in a creative field (visual arts, performing arts, writing, music, film, fashion, dance etc)
Working within the creative sector (project leads, producers, policy-making, etc.)
Mental health professionals or students, counsellors, therapists, etc., must have experience supporting women and girls regarding issues of domestic violence, abuse and other gender-based violence.
Mental health professionals, counsellors, therapists.
Applicants must be 16+ and live in the Bradford District.
Students and unemployed people are welcome to apply.
As a steering group member, you would:
Provide input on research, design and recommendations by attending 4 x 2-hour meetings annually (8 hours total).
Meetings will take place remotely via Google Meets or in person.
This Steering Group will help shape this project and use members’ expertise and lived experience to consider wide-ranging factors and intersectionality of subjects and themes, including what is needed for women’s and girl’s safety in green public spaces and how we can address this creatively through our existing project idea of Story Pole installations.
This is a voluntary opportunity.