Using popular art forms such as soap opera and rap, Radio Regen’s innovative Artransmit project endeavoured to boost creativity in regeneration areas of Manchester. Via workshops open to all it encouraged communities to create work that was relevant to them, which was then broadcast on their community radio stations.
Artransmit Project Manager Prue Yeoman believes that art is a right not a privilege and that coming from a disadvantaged area should not mean you are denied the right to express yourself artistically. “Many community projects are purely vocational, such as computer courses designed to get people into work. Artransmit simply gives people the chance to be creative.”
Projects at WFM included the radio play And God Created Wythenshawe, and Artalk, a collaboration between The Forum Writers group and On Yer Bike Theatre Company which culminated in a series of monologues about life in the area. Meanwhile, as part of The Chernobyl Project children from Wythenshawe collaborated with a group from Belarus, many of whom had developed cancer as a result of the 1986 disaster. Together they produced drawings, photos, video diaries and recordings which formed an art exhibition as well as a radio show.
Artransmit’s pivotal ventures for 2004 were the Beatslam MC project and two community soap operas, ALL FM‘s All For One and WFM‘s The Parkway. The place which generated Coronation Street produced an enthusiastic group of would-be soap actors. More than 100 turned out for the first meeting, from which has emerged a cast ranging from schoolchildren to pensioners. Since the middle of 2003, the volunteers met two nights a week to plan their soaps from scratch: coming up with characters, formulating a storyline and developing scripts.
As a reward for their dedication, Artransmit’s soap actors not only got the ‘buzz’ of being broadcast to their own communities but have had the opportunity to attend acting and writing masterclasses with professionals from television and theatre.
“We give people a chance to surprise themselves,” Prue concludes. “At the start, they can’t imagine themselves in a starring role in a drama but in a few months you see them buzzing with confidence.”