Red Rumpus rise to creative heights with local communities
Local Community Arts champions Red Rumpus have had an industrious year, working on creative community projects with different groups around the town. Projects including the Stitch Witch Repair Shop, Northampton Cabinet Arts, The ‘Big Knit’ Golden Fleece and the Bardic Picnic.
Red Rumpus’s Tamsyn Payne said “We’ve had a really busy and diverse year of creativity. Everyone needs to be able to be creative, whether that looks like, writing a poem, working as a group towards crafting something together, or just taking time out to beautifully darn a sock. In a world increasingly full of non-real things and overwhelm, making time for these things can be a life-line for isolated people, and allows local talent to flourish.
There are a ton of creatives in Northampton who want to share their skills, their passion, their art and we will carry on trying to make grass-roots opportunities for that to happen. We enjoyed some really great collaborations this year with several groups and venues, this kind of partnership working is key to making the arts more accessible to the people of Northampton. In 2027 we look forward to building on the projects we started up this year and launching some new ones!”
The work started in the Spring with the Art cabinets. You may have seen them around town, the often graffiti-tagged green boxes that populate our streets, turned into brightly coloured works of art that aim to lift the mood and distract the eye. The Cabinet Art Project is a collaboration with founder Clare Butterfield and a host of local artists. They cleaned and painted 27 City Fibre, BT and Virgin cabinets around The Mounts and Barrack Road area this year. More are planned for next year, local artists can keep an eye on social media for the open call out and locals who would like to suggest a cabinet can find the form on the Red Rumpus Facebook page. Maps to take the tour around the cabinets are available around town and as a download on the Facebook page, or you can get in touch to request one as an email.
Heading into the crazy heat we had this Summer, the “Stitch Witch” prepped their neon-pink repair cart with pliers, needles and a rainbow of mending yarn and headed out. This is a mobile repair service seen at community events and festivals this summer. They fixed many items from bumbags to crotch holes (so many crotch holes) as well as teaching new skills to members of the public who brought all sorts along to be mended. The project aims to help people restore and continue wearing the clothes and accessories they already have and to change buying habits to address the impact of fast fashion. You might find a free Stitch Witch repair kit and zine around town in the coming weeks and you can ask for ongoing help on insta and Facebook about making your own repairs.
Heading into late summer the group got their crochet hooks and sparkly yarn out for ‘The Big Knit’. This was a voluntary project to create a Golden Fleece for Duston Players’ production of the Greek tragedy ‘Medea’. Director April Pardoe said “The Golden Fleece is such a key part of the story that I wanted to have it as a key touchstone in the production, the volunteers at the community crafting sessions created a beautiful item which took centre stage each night”. A group of volunteers met weekly to make the sections of the fleece which were all painstakingly hand-stitched together by volunteer Susan Blyth and completed with a crocheted skull by Little Sausage Factory.
If you were in the grounds of Delapre on a slightly soggy Sunday in September you might have heard the waft of music and spoken word coming over the wall. And if you were brave and came through the gate into the walled garden you would have found… The Bardic Picnic! A riot of colour and creativity curated by 14th Bard Willow Johns. This is the annual hunt for the new Bard of Northampton and Ronnie Stanton won the open competition this year, becoming the 15th Bard. Red Rumpus collaborated with the Bardic Chair to organise this free, family-friendly day. Look out for events hosted by Ronnie and the previous Bards around Northants, their focus is to make spoken word available to all.
Red Rumpus are very grateful to the partner organisations, volunteers, artists and all those involved in helping these projects come to life. And to Northamptonshire Community Foundation and West Northants Council for funding to support the work. They are busy making plans for next year, if you’d like to volunteer for future projects you can join the mailing list and they will be in touch.