CAW: A Participative Arts Organisation
Community Arts Workshop (CAW) was established in 1999 as a 'not for profit' company dedicated to providing 'affordable and accessible arts opportunities for all'. At the start of 2011 CAW completed the process of becoming a charity and our number is 1140313. Over the years CAW has become more and more dedicated to prioritising the needs of the most disadvantaged and marginalised groups in the community.
CAW supports people to express themselves creatively and learn new skills, in a participative and informal manner, through the mediums of visual art, film, animation, digital media, photography, music and drama. Through the process of creative self expression, usually in a group setting, individuals gain in confidence and empowerment and become less isolated and socially excluded. Overall, CAW's work leads to greater physical and mental wellbeing for the individuals and groups that we work with.
CAW currently has its base in the Old Library in Avenue Road - the home of Bath Place Community Venture. CAW also uses Leamington's Old Art Gallery which provides an excellent creative setting for the delivery of many of CAW's workshops and an ideal exhibition space for the art produced by CAW's projects.
In addition to housing two soundproofed professional music studios, the Community Gallery is also the home of the ArtVenture group, a project which has been running since 2007 to support people coping with serious and enduring mental health issues. Amongst its many activities is a weekly workshop based in the Community Gallery to provide people with creative opportunity for self-expression.
Much of CAW's work is dedicated to supporting children and young people, in finding a voice, platforming and advocating their issues and helping them to develop a deeper confidence in creatively exploring and expressing their feelings, needs and hopes. The participative methodology we have developed over the last 10 years aims to put participants in control over their own creative projects.
CAW currently has three members of staff but boasts a very well developed network of freelance and volunteer artists, practitioners and facilitators across Coventry, Warwickshire and the Midlands. This offers CAW the ability to be able to carry out large and small scale arts projects across a wide range of different creative mediums.
Over the past three years, CAW has directly facilitated over 30 participative arts projects, all of which have been indicative of the participative and inclusive approach that is at the heart of CAW's methodology.
PDF posters covering all aspects of CAW's mission can be downloaded below. Note that each PDF file is around 1 Mbyte.
