AN AMBITIOUS project which will explore the histories of the women of St Helens has received funding of almost £500,000.
The Heart of Glass is set to be granted £487,500 following a successful Ambition for Excellence application to Arts Council England.
The award is part of a nationwide programme aimed at supporting ambition, talent and excellence.
And it will see the launch of a new contemporary collaborative arts project produced with communities of women from across the borough.
Working with partners ANU Productions and contemporary art organisation idle women, genealogy, historical research and more unconventional methods to explore the personal everyday histories of the women of St Helens which will become the basis for a new set of productions in 2018.
Through the project, Heart of Glass aims to establish St Helens as an excellence centre for collaborative arts practice and develop pioneering digital ways to involve people in the project.
A spokesman for Heart of Glass said: "We are delighted to be working with our partners on this significant project over the coming years.
"What we are proposing will be a bombastic collaborative arts project, something that breaks new ground, and is a first nationally.
"Working with women across the borough of St Helens, and creating a new set of productions in the year that the town celebrates its 150th birthday will be a dramatic moment to present stories that have been untold, and realise St Helens as a fertile ground for ambitious collaborative arts projects that reflect the politics of our times."
Councillor Jeanie Bell, St Helens Council cabinet member for public health and wellbeing, added: "That this project is raising the aspirations of women and girls in St Helens through involvement in arts and culture is truly inspiring.
"From a public health perspective, aspiration is an issue we’re now focusing more upon, as it’s key to the differences we’re seeing in local women’s health and wellbeing. I can’t wait to see more women engage with Heart of Glass."
www.heartofglass.org.uk
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