Last week saw the culmination performance of our project ‘Roots to Music’. For this project we worked with The Architecture School for Children (TASC) and The Whitworth Art Gallery in order to create art and music with four primary school classes across Moss Side, Hulme and Levenshulme.

All schools started the project with an Exploration Day at The Whitworth Park and Gallery to learn about the history of their local park, focusing on the old bandstand that was taken down during the twentieth century.

Dan Wheatley and Catherine Clements from TASC then visited the four classes where they created artwork of the old bandstand, as well as wrote postcards about days in the park and what they would have done if they were in the band in that era.

Then, Camerata composer and theatre maker Anna Jewitt and flautists Amina Cunningham and Aine Molines visited the four classes, and supported the young people’s creation of four songs about the park and the bandstand.

On the performance day last week, the young people performed their songs inside a structure created by TASC covered with the children’s artwork. This created their very own bandstand inside Gallery 3 of The Whitworth Gallery which overlooked the park. Parents, guardians and relatives relaxed in deckchairs as they watched the young people perform, as bands would have in the bandstand.

This project was made possible by funding from The Heritage Lottery Fund.