© Copyright Neil Theasby*
Next week sees Street View, a new exhibit of the Cathedral Archer Project at The Winter Garden in Sheffield. Street View is a piece commissioned to be shown as part of Sheffield’s Off The Shelf Festival Of Words, and aims to give an alternative view of Sheffield’s people, buildings, and open spaces.
The Cathedral Archer Project is a service supporting the homeless in a tailor-made fashion. Instead of treating each person as though there is a one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of homelessness, the project aims to develop independence and overall confidence, as well as providing some of the most taken-for-granted basics of health and hygiene. This helps ensure that ‘homeless’ is no longer the only label such vulnerable people have to wear: they are a also valid individual, part of this society. Street View is a great project for bridging this gap.
Street View takes the simplistic approach of using disposable cameras to capture images and create art. Led by the OCA, participants in the project were able to capture an entirely different perspective of the city from that which so many of us believe to know.
One of the photographs in the exhibition. Copyright: Open College Of The Arts
The OCA was founded in 1987 by Lord Michael Young, with a view to provide creative arts education, regardless of qualifications. Street View demonstrates that same drive, and accomplishes it in a way that shows why creative arts education should be available to all those who want it, no matter their personal situation.
The Winter Garden, Sheffield via Wikimedia
The original imagery from Street View is available online here, and the exhibition at The Winter Gardens runs from Monday 26th to Saturday 31st October, between 8am and 8pm every day apart from Sunday, when the exhibition finishes at 6pm.
Take a look at the artwork of the city you think you know; you’ll be surprised at what you see.
*Photo © Copyright Neil Theasby and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
