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Help us launch a creative grief programme that celebrates the people we've lost.
Everyday is raising funds to bring a twice monthly creative wellbeing programme to grievers in Wigan and beyond - free to attend, open to all.
Grief is something most of us carry quietly. In many communities - including here in Wigan - there are no support groups that use creativity as a way of processing loss. The world often expects us to move on. Time passes, the feeling fades, we get back to work. But the people we've loved deserve more than that. They deserve to be celebrated, explored, and remembered.
These creative wellbeing sessions will support grievers at the time of need in celebrating, mourning and living alongside the person or people that are no longer physically here but continue to hold space in our lives.
That's exactly what this programme is for.
Later this year, with the generous backing of Mutti Tomatoes and its marketing agency jellybean creative solutions, we are launching our pilot creative wellbeing grief programme. It's something our creative lead and working class arts educator, Emily Calland, has been dreaming of for years.
The idea grew from Emily's own experience of losing her mum, Alicia - a woman who believed wholeheartedly in Working Class People having the same rights and access to opportunity as anyone else. A woman who loved good food, and good tomatoes in particular. A woman whose warmth and values live on, in small and beautiful ways, every single day.
“My goal, my vision for the future, is to create a creative well-being programme that supports grievers, regardless of where they are - really focussed on celebrating and exploring the person that they’ve lost. The work that I do, and the art that I make, is very much about exploring how to hold space for my Mum, led by her values. To ensure every person has access to high quality creative wellbeing sessions.”
- Emily Calland, Creative Lead & Working Class Arts Educator
Em told the story of her mum, Alicia, and how a tin of Mutti tomatoes became a small, everyday reminder of her - her love of good food, her generosity, her belief that everyone deserves the best. That story, and the conversation it sparked, is what brought Mutti Tomatoes on board as a founding partner of this programme.
The programme will be twice monthly, open to all, and free to attend. Sessions will use art-making as a way into grief - not to process it away, but to sit with it, celebrate with it, and find connection in it, using creative mediums such as screen printing, pottery, book binding, photography and textiles.
We need your help to make it sustainable.
We are raising funds to cover the cost of materials, facilitation, and keeping the space free and welcoming every month. Whether you’re a company, a community member, or someone who has known their own loss - your donation makes a difference.
No matter where you are, no matter who you’ve lost - you deserve a space to celebrate them.
Please donate, and please share.
About Everyday
Everyday is an independent community arts organisation working in Wigan and the surrounding areas. We believe that creativity and culture are a powerful force for change, and that access to the right opportunities to experience it can improve lives. We provide our community with a safe, inclusive space to access high quality creative and cultural experiences, to enable them to lead rich, fulfilling, and empowered lives. We lead fearlessly, with equitable access and Hope, Health, and Happiness in mind.
What your donation funds
Every pound raised goes directly towards running the twice monthly sessions - covering materials, facilitators, and keeping the space free and welcoming for all participants.
We’re aiming to raise £55k to run this project. We want to ensure we deliver the highest quality creative wellbeing sessions, as we truly believe that art should be for all.
The funding will support:
- 24 creative wellbeing sessions and celebratory exhibition
- High quality art materials
- Two workshop facilitators with over 10 years experience, who are themselves navigating grief through creative practice
- Paying talented local artists in line with Artist Union England rates of pay
- The cost of a certified grief counsellor
- Travel for each participant
- Refreshments for each participant
Everyone deserves a place where they can grieve openly, in a supportive and understanding environment.
£500
Funds materials for one person; for the whole 24 week programme
£115
Funds one person’s place each session
£2290
Funds a full month of the programme (2 sessions)
Organised by
Backed by
Mutti Tomatoes — founding programme partner
jellybean creative solutions — founding programme partner
Organizer
Everyday Wigan
Organizer