Back in May, the Powerhouse Portraits project was nominated for the Spirit Of Manchester awards 2024, in the category for ‘Creative Community Spirit’. The nominated group was the partnership between the three organisations which collaborated to produce and deliver the project – Moss Side Millennium Powerhouse, Segment Arts and Crossing Footprints, and in June we were notified that we’d been shortlisted.
This was an amazing project where local people created a community portrait of Moss Side at the vibrant Powerhouse community centre, through workshops in photography, writing and magazine making. Involving 45 local people using 100 film cameras through 18 workshops. We created a vibrant photography, creative writing and art exhibition. Also produced and distributed 300 copies of a 100-page full colour professional A4 publication.
Full details of the project at https://crossingfootprints.com/moss-side-powerhouse-portraits/ .
Creative Community Spirit award for Powerhouse Portraits
The awards ceremony was held on 3rd October 2024 The Sheridan in Manchester, and we were thrilled to be voted the winner of the ‘Creative Community Spirit’ award. Big thanks especially to the visionary Leo Macdonald Oulds for artistically leading and directing the project, and Kooj Chuhan for the producing and management. Credits also to Lesa Dryburgh for her amazing PR work, First Cut media with Tony Reeves for documenting, Ian Johns for his photography and workshops, and Nasima Bee for the great writing workshops (via Shirley May at Young Identity). And not forgetting our special guest at the exhibition launch, local peace activist Professor Erinma Bell MBE DL JP. Well done to all who made this happen, delivered the project and participated in it to make it such a great project – full details of the awards at https://manchestercommunitycentral.org/spirit-of-manchester/spirit-manchester-awards .
It’s worth adding that while we were thrilled to get the award which can help future work and recognition, in general awards can be a bit of a strange beast, we’re never sure if they really help or hinder – it can be either depending on where you are situated in your practice, aesthetics, ethics, politics and content. It’s also impossible to really compare vastly different practices, levels of budget, ranges of experience or age, and so on. But, they are there like it or not and sometimes can be used to support good work.
Finalist for a Manchester Culture Award
We were also a finalist for a 2024 Manchester Culture Award for POWERHOUSE PORTRAITS project. It was a bit hot on the heels of winning an award at the Spirit Of Manchester awards a few weeks earlier, the competition was stiff and we didn’t get to win the award. Powerhouse Portraits project was a fantastic process and outcome, there’s more about the project at https://crossingfootprints.com/moss-side-powerhouse-portraits/ including a project report and image gallery. Well done again to all who contributed, supported and ‘p-articipated’.
