It’s our 30th Birthday – we’re celebrating and you’re invited!
DIY’s 30th Birthday is most certainly a time to celebrate! It is also a key time to reflect on our past and make plans for the future.
We are holding two very special birthday events to celebrate 30 years of creating accessible and thought-provoking theatre and educational projects.
Through three special projects we have been gathering information and exploring how we can best tell our stories creatively through film, textiles and photography.
Do you see me?
Both of our Birthday celebrations will take place during the UK’s Learning Disability Week 2024, (17th to 23rd June).
The theme for Learning Disability Week this year is “Do You See Me?”
It’s all about people with a learning disability being seen, heard and valued.”
This positive message was created by people with a learning disability to build a movement of change.
DIY Theatre’s celebration events ask “Do You See Us?”
Do you see, hear and value our history and what we’ve achieved?
Do you see hear and value where we are now and the difference we’re making?
Will you see, hear and value what we are planning for the future?
Join us to see and hear our stories.
First event – 18th June – ‘Exploring our Past, Shaping Our Futures’
Tuesday 18th June, 1 to 4 pm at the New Adelphi Theatre, University of Salford, M5 4BR.
At our first event we will be telling our stories through film: DIY Artists and Creative Leaders are working with film-maker Hilary Easter-Jones to create a film that explores the history and legacy of the company. The film includes both historical footage from our extensive archive and footage showing our current activities. It also includes interviews with DIY artists, staff members, and collaborators. For more on this project please visit 30 Years of DIY – Telling our stories though film.
We will be launching this brand new film at the ‘Exploring our Past, Shaping Our Futures’ event. The afternoon will also include live presentations by DIY members and a selection of historical films chosen by DIY Artists working with film-maker Hilary Easter-Jones.
We are very excited that this event will be opened by our patron Jenny Sealey OBE.
Jenny has been the Artistic Director of Graeae since 1997 and has a long association with DIY Theatre Company. Jenny gave the keynote speech at the A Question of Leadership Conference we organised with Curious Minds in 2018. DIY actors worked with Graeae Theatre Company at The Royal Exchange Theatre to create a strolling piece to accompany Graeae’s production of The House of Bernada Alba in 2018.
Jenny has spent a lifetime championing stories by Deaf and disabled artists. She has pioneered a new theatrical language and aesthetics of artistic access, experimenting with bilingual British Sign Language (BSL) and English, pre-recorded BSL, creative captioning, and in ear/live audio description methods. She recently took to the stage to tell her own story in ‘Self-Raising’; a blisteringly honest, laugh-out-loud one-woman show about growing up Deaf in a family with secrets.
You’re Invited! We hope you can join us to help celebrate 30 Years of DIY Theatre!
Make friends
Have fun
Make sure you come!”
Gamechangers Emerging Leaders Group
This event is now in the past, thank you if you came to help us celebrate, we had a great time.
Second event – 21st June – ‘Close Knit’
Friday 21st June 2024, 1 to 4 pm, The Angel Centre, Salford.
At our second event we will be telling our stories through textiles and photography:
Telling our stories through textiles: This event will unveil ‘Close Knit’, our brand new textile piece which represents the history and legacy of the company. Visual Artist Claire Hignett has been working with DIY Artists and participants who have printed self-portraits and illustrated their memories and their favourite moments at DIY on fabric. These elements will be brought together by Claire to create a textile piece that will be shown alongside its companion piece, the ‘Picking up the Threads’ hanging created to celebrate 20 years of DIY. For more information please visit 30yrs of DIY – Telling our stories through textiles.
Telling our stories through photography: We will also be unveiling ‘Thirty Profiles’ a photography exhibition created by Visual Artist Audrey Albert working with DIY Artists and Leaders. Audrey held a photo shoot with each member to create their individual portrait which represent their unique personality and passions. For more on this project 30yrs of DIY – Telling our stories through photography.
The afternoon will also include presentations, workshops, films and refreshments.
Come along to DIY’s Event!
Come and meet us and see what we do!
There’s gonna be photos and memories
There’re’s gonna be laughter and art
There’s gonna be films and portraits
Come along and take part!”
Gamechangers Emerging Leaders Group
This event is now in the past, thank you if you came to help us celebrate, we had a great time.
Our thanks to the funders who are supporting the projects which will help us celebrate DIY’s 30th Birthday.
Close Knit, our telling our stories through textiles project, is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund We are grateful for their support for this work.
Exploring our Past; Shaping our Futures, our Film project, events and our Thirty Profiles photography project, are funded by the Whose Art, Whose Culture Fund, managed by Salford CVS on behalf of Salford City Council; monies from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund via Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
