The Vision Project: how a lockdown idea to help people connect just grew and grew

By Carla Scarano D’Antonio

Two Woking Writers Circle members have played small parts in and gained insights into a Surrey-based community arts project embracing music, dance, and art, and funded by Arts Council (England). The Vision Project was born out of a creative project that began about a year and a half ago in Surrey during the winter lockdown. The aim of the project is to help people to connect to each other through music, dance and art. Its founder Emma Brewer, pictured above, who runs First Dance Studio at Heather Farm, Horsell, was one of the leaders in this project; she choreographed dance using music composed by Jim Pinchen, adapted from the song A Million Nightingales by Linda Hirschhorn. The lyrics speak to the heart and connect to the environment:

I have a million of nightingales

On the branches of my heart

Singing freedom

The Earth is alive

The words relate to our need for peace in an eco-friendly environment in harmony with nature; in this ideal space we can sing our song freely and therefore be healed.

During the pandemic, Emma organised an eight-week online challenge to connect people in the isolation of the lockdown and encourage creativity, hope and communication, which are so important for our well-being. People could choose to do a creative activity starting from the letters of the alphabet, for example A for Athletics, B for Baking, C for Crochet. More than 70 people joined the challenge and over 1,600 submissions were received. As a result Emma was nominated for the We See You Community Champion awards held by Bayfields Opticians and Audiologists. She came first both regionally and nationally!

For The Vision Project, Emma worked with two professional dancers, Diana and Dan; their show was performed at the First Dance Studios show at the Rhoda McGaw theatre in Woking. Afterwards the show opened up to more participants, not just young and professional dancers, and involved 35 people. A film of this work will be shown at the Lightbox art gallery in Woking in September 2022.

The project also included art workshops with different media, such as clay, watercolours and acrylics, and an art exhibition at the Harry Edwards Healing Sanctuary on 18 June in the Surrey Hills where all the works produced were on display. Also included there was a commissioned poem by Woking Writers Circle member Greg Freeman titled ‘This Garden’, and a picture of a cornfield at evening by Greg’s wife Gillian Freeman. A final art exhibition and dance performance will be at the Lightbox on 8 September at 6 pm.

I took part in the inspiring workshops led by Hannah Bruce, pictured below, at her studio last May. We made some paintings following the prompt of the mesmerising music from which the project started. Its revealing lyrics and soothing melody are a never-ending source of inspiration. We all created good original work, mostly free and loose abstract pieces. The dance we watched was inspiring too and it gave us more ideas for our drawings. I particularly admired Hannah Bruce’s picture that merged melody, dance and the rhythm of the piece of music in soft colours and strong marks. An impressive piece that explored the creative potential of this stimulating project. Here is the link to the video 

The Vision Project is a multimedia approach that engaged and still involves people at different levels, sparking their talents and skills with inspirational music, dancing and impressive artwork. The isolation imposed by the pandemic has been challenged in a communal vision that connects us positively to one another and to the environment.