Changing Stories 2024 is our flagship NHS England funded prison programme. Changing Stories 2024 is a two year programme of week long residencies that run throughout the year the NW region’s prisons. It builds upon the foundations of Changing Stories, our Arts Council England Lottery Funded project that concluded in 2020.
Changing Stories is built around the idea that we all have stories that we like to share; stories that define who we are. Changing Stories draws on these stories, and encourages participants to take control of them, share them and change them.
Changing Stories residencies develop participants’ theatre improvisation and devising skills, creative writing skills, acting skills, and visual arts skills; they learn to paint, draw, act, play instruments, compose original music, write lyrics and perform live together as an ensemble. The project is designed to equip participants with the language of the creative arts so that they can legitimately speak about the life experiences that define who they are.
Changing Stories 2024
Our creative prison programme.
“We age not by years, but by stories.”
Maza-Dohta
“Thank you for a brilliant time from the bottom of my heart. It’s been one of the best experiences of my life. Very memorable. Thank you very much.”
Changing Stories is a practical articulation of TiPP’s mission to provide opportunities for some of the country’s most disadvantaged groups to benefit from high quality participatory arts. You can get an idea about the project by watching this short video.
Changing Stories: Epilogue was a symposium in HMP Thorn Cross. The symposium showcased some of the work that had been made, demonstrated our working methods and provided attendees with an opportunity to gain first-hand experience of participation in a creative arts workshop.
“Without doubt the best conference I’ve ever attended!! I love the work and the belief in the reality that ‘we are all artists’”
Music Workshop, HMP Lancaster Farms. Image by Paul Gent.
Delegates watched a short performance written with the men of HMP Lancaster Farms, listened to music performed by men from HMP Thorn Cross and then moved on to participate in a series of short workshops, where (amongst other things) they learned how to play the ukulele, drew a self-portrait and composed a poem. One delegate said “This was amazing.I got a chance to talk to residents here and the play made my cry! Many thanks to everyone involved!” There is a short video detailing the conference below.
Visual Arts Workshop, HMP Lancaster Farms. Image by Paul Gent.
“[TiPP] have been brilliant this week and have worked with some difficult men who would not normally mix together. Key people watched their performance today and were very impressed with the performance itself and also what the men said afterwards regarding reducing violence. ”
