Tyne and Wear: Radio Chopwell

The challenge 

Building on extensive community consultation and working in partnership with local organisations and creative producers create high quality arts experience for residents of Chopwell, Gateshead where social isolation, mental health and self-esteem problems are acutely felt, especially in older residents over 60. 

Lead voice, nature, music sound workshops that encourage people to engage with the natural world on their doorstep and talk about their lives – past and present. Evidence proves listening to natural sounds has a positive impact on health and well-being.  

Create a trial programme of arts activity and social events that can be repeated or iterated in future, supports community cohesion and addresses social isolation, bringing together different generations of residents. 

The solution

Funded by Well Newcastle Gateshead Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) Communities team worked with independent producers Wild Museum and Methodist Home Association (MHA) and delivered:  

Four (Voice, Music, Nature) workshops with 16 older residents of Chopwell and 2 MHA volunteers. 

Workshops explored: 

• spoken word recordings, nature sound, deep listening, language and historical dialects 

• teaching participants how to record environmental sounds using digital recorders, participants loaned digital recorders to take home and make recordings. 

• live broadcast sound walks with sound artist Tim Shaw

• mobility was a huge problem for some participants and Tim using wireless technology and wireless headphones broadcast a live sound walk around the village for participants to listen too

• contemporary and archive music. 

• music was played in sessions and residents were invited to make Top Tens and share stories about their selection. Residents also brought music into sessions on CD and Vinyl. 

• throughout sessions material was created with participants for a planned radio broadcast. This included spoken word, nature sounds, playlists of music, interviews and their own recordings. 

One seven hour celebratory all-day Radio event in-person and online 

• Radio Chopwell was broadcast and hosted in Chopwell community micropub The Red House. Broadcasting online and live to the world the sound, stories, interviews and music collected throughout the project.  

• Residents and customers were interviewed live across the day presenting poems, live singing and personal stories. The event was broadcast live on Star & Shadow Radio, a DIY cooperative based in Newcastle upon Tyne. 

The impact

Twelve MHA Residents and two volunteers were supported to attend the Radio Chopwell event. None of these residents had been to the Red House before. Most of these stayed for two and a half hours, in some cases five hours. 

Radio Chopwell was attended by over 75 Chopwell residents, age range 10 to 91 years old.

The online live broadcast had nearly 300 live listeners across the day, from all over the world. 

Other impact: 

• Participants are confident and engaged in the world around. The growing confidence of participants was evidenced by 16 of them choosing to participate and maintain engagement throughout across the project. In addition, 5 participants were interested in learning digital audio skills and recording sounds at home. 

• None of the older residents who attended the radio event had been to the Red House before due to a lack of confidence in attending or a feeling it was not relevant to them. Some of these residents have stated they experience social isolation in their day to day lives, according to MHA. All those who attended enjoyed it, met new members of the community and would be prepared to return. 

• There was evidence across all activity strands of the participants independently identifying creative methods to collect and share sound. All 16 MHA residents creatively interpreted music and historic recordings of nature and language. At the Radio Chopwell all-day event over 40 residents shared records, musical selections, interviews, and songs and poems were performed live on air. 

• Hannah Rowan, Deputy Manager for MHA, stated the fact 35 per cent of their residents self-identify as having memory loss and that the sessions around musical memories were particularly powerful for them to remember, share memories, and interpret the music of their lives. 

How is the new approach being sustained?

The new community venue The Bank, Chopwell and MHA are meeting in June to plan ongoing activity exploring intergenerational social events and sound collection/radio activity with Wild Museum. Part of this meeting will be to explore funding opportunities to scale up and extend activity from Radio Chopwell. 

All sounds collected through the project will be published on Bandcamp, Soundcloud and Star and Shadow radio and on (with accompanying project and historical information) the Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums website. 

The Red House is planning events to support ongoing community engagement with socially isolated older residents. 

Lessons learned

Based on ongoing evaluation of the workshop programme, there were a number of iterations we needed to make to the project. 

Scaling back a proposed plan for designing activity for those who experience dementia (and their carers) in consultation with subject specialists. However, despite the fact MHA reported 35 per cent of residents self-identify as having memory loss, MHA were unable to identify participants for this bespoke activity. 

“I really have started to listen more to everything. When I sit at home now, I just pay more attention” 

- Participant

Ill-health of some MHA residents resulted in one cancelled group recording session. We had planned to record environmental and social sounds with Ronald aged 97 and Olive aged 88, but both left the project due to ill health and hospitalisation (thankfully both are now recovered/recovering). 

Contact

Michael McHugh – Assistant Communities Officer, Tyne and Wear Archives & Museums

Email: [email protected] 

John Coburn Wild Museum

Email: [email protected]