The Media Workshop worked with the residents of Castle House, Southampton on a photo-mural for their ground floor lift lobby. Castle house is situated in the old town area and the flats have great views of the Solent.

“We have had extremely favourable input from the residents since it has been in place.

There always seems to be something we missed last time we looked and whiles away the time when waiting around,and looks so much nicer when the lift doors open than the old notice board. ”

Brian Willis - Chair
Castle House Residents Association

See also Kingsland Subway Project and Weston Towers Project

Friends of Mansel Park and Millbrook Community Association worked in partnership with The Media Workshop to deliver the Mansel Park Photo Project in June and July 2009.

Members of the local community gained instruction and hints about cameras and photography, before they took up the task of photographing the park.

After collating all the photographs, decisions and selections were made and the results were reproduced and mounted to posters, notices and postcards. These will be used to promote the use of the park, its beauty and facilities across the city.

In total 25 members of the local community were involved in the production of these pictorial records.

The project was funded with a “Grassroots” grant from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation.

In an exciting project funded by the ‘Find Your Talent’ initiative, The Media Workshop worked with young people from Romsey Youth Theatre and Forest Forge Theatre Company. The project explored the theme of youth fashion/culture past and present. The project involved a trip to the fashion exhibition ‘Dressed to Express’ in Alton and an opportunity to take part in a fashion photo-shoot, during which the young people dressed up in costumes from different decades. The photographs produced were used to design large scale banners using Photoshop, depicting the styles from these decades. The banners created the backdrop for a play, performed and devised by the youth theatre in collaboration with Forest Forge Theatre Company, which took the audience on a journey through youth culture from the fifties to the present day.

Find Your Talent is a Government initiative to give children and young people the chance to try out different cultural activities. The scheme being run in 10 pathfinder areas and offers every young person a sustained engagement of five hours a week of quality arts and culture both in and out of school, whatever their age and whatever their ability. For more information visit us at: www.findyourtalent.org

The Media Workshop worked with Albion Towers residents to produce two photo murals for their newly refurbished foyer. One mural shows the St. Mary’s area of Southampton  past and present and the other is panoramic views seen from flat windows.

The Media Workshop has started working with the residents of Castle House, Southampton on a photo-mural for their ground floor lift lobby. Castle house is situated in the old town area and the flats have great views of the Solent, so there’s bags of potential for creating a stunning mural.

See also Kingsland Subway Project and Weston Towers Project

Working with Southampton’s Junior Neighbourhood Wardens and the Central Housing Office. The project focused on positive attitudes to the environment and the local community. The finished work consists of seven photo-murals printed on tiles in the subway between St. Mary Street and Kingsland estate. Access from Johnson Street from either side. A grand opening took place on Thursday 28th August 2008 at 3pm

Building on some of the work created through the Weston Shorescapes project, we designed a series of murals for five of the Tower Blocks in International Way, Weston, Southampton. We incorporated work from children and other residents to produce images which brighten the foyer area of each block.

We designed a series of large scale murals for the tower blocks. Work done with local schools and residents was used to create a montage of images which brightened up the foyer area of each block. The digital artwork was printed onto tiles and was given a graffiti proof treatment to ensure that the murals have a long life. This project was delivered for Southampton City Council Housing. The aim was to improve the local environment and install pieces of public art, lead by the local community, that is relevant to the heritage of the area.

We enjoy working on large scale projects like the murals because it gives us a chance to work with communities to create a lasting piece of artwork which can improve the environment in which people live. We can help with everything from consultations and running workshops to develop the artwork, through to the logistics of getting work printed and, in this case, finding a tiler who was willing to take on a large scale mural! The feedback we have had from those living in the Weston Towers is that the murals brighten up an otherwise dull space, they reflect and document the memories of the residents old and new, and they are something interesting to look at whilst waiting for the lifts! Not only that but the residents feel some ownership over them as they were involved during the creation process.

This project used photography and oral history to enhance a cooking project and culminated in a book of recipe postcards which enabled women at the WEA Clovelly Centre to not only share food but to share their recipes a little further afield by sending their recipes to friends. The groups taking part were the Milan Group and the Wednesday Women’s Group and the women cooked and noted down favourite family recipes, as well as sharing cooking stories. The women also shared their recipes through the Unity 101 community radio station.

The WEA in Southampton asked us to help create a poster promoting the . Some of the women from the group suggested using objects and items that they felt most summed up Somali Culture. Many of the final objects on the final poster were kindly brought in from the women’s homes.