Artransmit
 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."
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