OUR #UNBOXED22 COMMUNITY Tour
We were over the moon to be be awarded ten travel grants to take 15 members of ten communities across the UK to see #Unboxed2022’s - SeeMonster in Weston Super-Mare over a two week period straddling October/November.
We had limited places on our minibus so it was first come first served, subject to a few considerations.
We were particularly pleased to hear from young people who are not in education (some home educated), employment or training at the moment as well as other, older members of the community with an interest in art and culture who might not normally get the chance to travel to see things like this.
Our second week was half term in Wales so were delighted o take a few families who might not otherwise be able to make this trip.
The trip was completely free, and meals/refreshments provided free of charge too.
BILLY’S IDEA
A world first, SeeMonster was a Big, Bold and Ambitious project which probably explains why it was three months late being delivered.
It represents an investment of public funds of over £10m and was initially only due to be open to the public for 6 weeks, though this was recently extended to 8 weeks.
Everyone we took to see SeeMonster loved it and was saddened it was to be cut up and not kept up.
“It breaks may heart to think they’re going to cut SeeMonster up after spending so much money and only being open to the public for a few weeks” said Billy. “I’ll never forget the sight of all those steam locos that were sent to be cut up at the scrap yard at Barry Island.
Billy was a fireman on the steam locos of the Great Western Railway and used to work on the line to Barry Island.
“SeeMonster is incredible and so inspiring for all our kids. I can’t wait to see what my great grand children think of it! And if they’ll help me save it. Who knows maybe it could be set up at Barry Island one day”.
See Billy’s film here.
SAVE SEEMONSTER
Most people who visit SeeMonster, both on our trips and people we have chatted to on our visits have loved SeeMonster and are heartbroken to hear it is being scrapped after just a few weeks,despite being months late opneing and reportedly going massively overbudget.
We’ve launched petition to parliament to save it.
WHAT IS UNBOXED2022?
This £120m government funded project set out to champion and showcase UK creativity and innovation, primarity through the country’s STEAM strengths (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) both to promote the UK globally and connect us locally.
It had a global audience target of 66million.
To quote its director Martin Green (London 2012 ceremonies, Hull 2017, Commonwealth games 2023) it set out to deliver ten “big, bold and ambitious” projects.
Click here for more info on them
STEAM Co. AND #UNBOXED2022
We’ve been interested in and excited about #Unboxed2022 since we were briefed on it by the then culture minister Jeremy Wright in 2018, but in the end they were after ten big £10m or so projects, which we did pitch for but our interest lies more in grassroots creativity within schools into and with the communities they serve.
The film below shows how we responded over the last four years and our ambitions for our #Ignite22 year.
We’ve been to see and/or run pop-ups at a few of the #Unboxed2022 events:
About Us
Dream Machine
Galwad22
We’ll update some photos and a few films of this later