“We need to learn from the past about how we could make parenthood work better today… without going backwards! We have to make something new”
Workshop participant
Across summer and autumn 2022, local artist Isobel Tarr brought together groups of local parents as part of her project It Takes a Village, grant-funded by the Keynsham Local Cultural Programme. Participants shared their personal experiences of parenting and being parents in Keynsham, touching on themes of isolation, support, wellbeing, warmth and community.
Snippets of their conversations were stitched into a hexagonal quilt, which was collaboratively produced by participants young and elder under the guidance of textile artist Sharne Tasney. The quilt is on display in the brand new Keynsham MakeSpace, before moving on to other exhibitions in the local area.
An accompanying series of short conversations was also recorded, and you can listen to these below.
I had a baby in Keynsham in December 2020. I was new to the town, I didn’t know anybody here and almost no one saw my baby until he was three months old. One of the first people to see him was an elderly resident in Keynsham Memorial Park who commented sadly: ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. I went online and found as many local mums as I could who wanted to meet regularly in the park to support each other and socialise our babies.
Our expanding quilt is a metaphor for knitting together the social fabric that once held babies and parents, and indeed all of us, more tightly in the community; It Takes a Village provides hope that we could revive and renew this social fabric.”
Isobel Tarr
- Where: Keynsham MakeSpace, 2 Riverside Square, BS31 1HF (opposite the entrance to Keynsham Leisure Centre)
- When: Opening times coming soon
