Creating Connection: The first projects helping people feel less lonely in All Together Now
- Bristol Beacon News
- Community Programme
From comedy and community radio to singing, storytelling and more, we’re really excited to introduce the brilliant artists and creative projects that are kicking off the first phase of All Together Now, a brand-new programme in the West of England using creativity to address loneliness.
Chosen by local Creative Councils, each project has been shaped by the communities it’s designed for, with a shared aim: to create opportunities for people to meet, make, have fun and build new connections.
The All Together Now fund opens again for Round 2 on Mon 28 September. This is open to artists delivering projects in the communities of Stockwood (Bristol), Charfield (South Gloucestershire), Somer Valley (Bath & North East Somerset), and the Mendip Villages (North Somerset), and with older people from the global majority, and disabled young people.
Meet the first round of artists and dicsover their exciting creative projects below.
Image above: The first cohort of funded artists within the All Together Now programme, pictured alongside project producers
Storytelling & Art with My Neighbour’s Story
Have you ever wondered about someone else’s story, or wished other people knew yours? Would you like to learn how to uncover others’ hidden stories or anecdotes and tell them engagingly, connecting readers or listeners to their experience? This series of three two-hour workshops will show participants how to gently interview, select and then tell each other’s stories in well-structured, resonant ways, using whatever medium feels best. We’ll then hold a performance, print a pamphlet, or even start an ongoing story chain in the local press. Participants will be supported throughout by documentary producer, story consultant and trainer, Stephanie Wessell.
Stories are the best way of connecting people…they connect us emotionally…we can understand each other better, feel more connected and less alone…only arts and culture can do that in a really emotional way…”
Stephanie Wessell
Pottery with Come Together and Make
Come Together and Make is a welcoming community pottery project bringing people together across Banwell and Winscombe through shared creativity. Led by ceramic artists Claire Gutsell and Sonya Wilkins, the project will offer 16 pottery sessions where participants can explore clay, learn new skills and enjoy making alongside others in a relaxed, supportive environment. With conversation, tea and cake forming part of the experience, the sessions aim to encourage new friendships and strengthen local connections. Participants will be encouraged to shape activities, share local knowledge and discover ways to continue making and meeting beyond the funded programme.
We want to use clay as a conduit to allow people to share, to connect, to unravel and to increase their wellbeing.”
Sonya, Come Together & Make
Collective Singing with Grief Choir
Grief Choir is a safe, supportive and uplifting space for people living with grief to come together and sing. Beginning in January 2027, this free, weekly community singing group will offer a warm, welcoming space for anyone in the Mendip villages who is navigating grief and loss of any kind. No singing experience needed. Gentle, simple harmony songs taught by ear. All are welcome. Weekly daytime sessions held in familiar local venues. Grief Choir uses the power of singing together to help reduce isolation and build connection in communities where grief can be invisible and loneliness deeply felt.
By naming the fact that everyone there is experiencing grief of some kind and is there to sing, it skips the point of having to speak about something that is really difficult to put into words”
Jannah, Grief Choir
Textiles with The Mendip Makers
Mendip Makers is a series of 12 relaxed, welcoming textile workshops taking place in spring 2027 across three village hubs: Banwell, Churchill and Langford, and Winscombe and Sandford. Each hub will host four weekly sessions where participants will create their own stitched postcards inspired by local places, memories, photographs, maps, colours and well-loved fabrics. No sewing experience is needed and all materials are provided, although participants are very welcome to bring along a special piece of fabric to include if they wish. The focus is on creativity, making together and providing a warm and friendly space for conversation and connection.
Collage is a gentle opener for making conversations and connections”
Clare, The Mendip Makers
Arts, Crafts and Music with Stockwood’s Favourite Things
Stockwood’s Favourite Things will create an intergenerational snapshot of what the Stockwood community loves most. Taking the tune ‘Favourite Things’ as an over arching theme, primary school children and older residents will connect through insights into each other’s lives and loves. A series of school workshops, and art and craft sessions in the library for older residents, will result in a diverse array of artwork. The project will end by bringing all participants together at Stockwood Library, for a celebratory display of the artwork created and a live performance of ‘Favourite Things’ by members of the Dovetail Orchestra.
Loneliness is getting worse and human connection is really important…people sitting down and making something together gives them a sense of connection…”
Karen, Stockwood’s Favourite Things
Nature-inspired crafting with ActiveBeing
ActiveBeing improves the mental health and wellbeing of women through nature, creativity and connection. They deliver creative health programmes, nature-based activities and training opportunities that help women build confidence, reduce isolation and strengthen their connection to their communities. The CreativeBeing programme in Stockwood aims to bring women together through accessible, nature-inspired creative workshops. They create safe, welcoming spaces where women can connect, develop creative skills and experience culture in ways that feel accessible and relevant to them.
Creativity is that tool to get people through the door, build up connection, they build up confidence, and then can hopefully continue in their own space, and that long lasting sense of connection and creativity can continue.”
Jodie, ActiveBeing
Radio & Production with Noods Levels
TREAD: Voices Together is a 10-week intergenerational community-made media project in Stockwood, bringing older residents and young people together through radio, podcasting, DJing and music production. Participants will co-create podcasts, interviews and local stories celebrating Stockwood’s people, places and organisations, while building confidence, creative skills and stronger community connections. Working with trusted local partners, including Young Bristol, the project will be free and accessible, culminating in a public listening event and community heritage exhibition that celebrates local voices, memories and creativity.
We aim to get two generations cross-pollinating, having a lot of fun, potentially just reducing loneliness through the median of radio…”
Izzy, Noods Radio
Standup Comedy with Black Laughs Matter (Comedy on Referral)
Black Laughs Matter explores ideas and experiences about being part of the Bristol Global Majority community through stand-up comedy. Participants use their histories and stories relating to racism, racial tension and allyship to write stand-up comedy sets. The course concludes with a showcase of participants’ stand-up pieces and 8 animated films using the participants recorded voices, bringing their comedy to life. Comedy on Referral, Bristol’s award-winning therapeutic comedy project, will be delivering the project, joined by professional comedians, world class animators and writers to show how there is maximum hilarity in the Global Majority.
Come here and look at the funny things of being who you are…what is your story? By telling your story, you connect with other people…People will make loads of friends…”
Angie, Black Laughs Matter
Walks, Workshops, Meals and Outings with Super Culture
Belonging Through Culture is a year round creative programme working with older people from Global Majority communities across North Somerset, with a particular focus on Weston Super Mare. We will bring people together through community walks, creative workshops, shared meals, cultural visits and activities shaped by the people taking part. The aim is to build relationships, reduce loneliness and create a stronger sense of belonging. We want people not only to take part in local culture and festivals, but to bring their own ideas, stories, skills and experiences and help shape the cultural life of North Somerset.
The project is to support and gain a community of people who really haven’t had a voice in delivering culture in this area and allowing them to create…”
Cara, Super Culture
Music & Movement with Our Music Club, Easton
Our Music Club provides music sessions for adults living with dementia and their families or supporters, and is delivered in collaboration with Bristol Dementia Wellbeing Service. Sessions use music to improve quality of life of participants by making music together. Supported by three professional musicians, sessions provide a joyful and connective opportunity for people to be together in the present.
Creativity goes beyond rational or logical thought. Loneliness is an emotion, it’s a feeling, it’s an experience, it is not a situation … so because the arts go into your feeling body and into your singing voice, and not into your thinking brain, we can use the arts to bring people together in a way that other interventions might not.”
Giulia Bianchini, Bristol Beacon
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