BeeStrongMCR
Made For Manchester
Capturing the Environment
BeeStrongMCR is a community based, non-profit organisation. Set up following the Manchester attack working with schools and young people across Greater Manchester using creativity to help combat mental health issues and help children come to terms with what happens in their city.
A self initiated brief, orginically formed with the sole purpose to spread hope, love and positivity following the tragedy.
Memorial mural, made for Manchester
The project started by creating worksheets for schools and children, allowing them to create a ‘Hive of Positivity’ by sending anyone and everyone a worker bee template design and activity pack which they could cut out and decorate with their well wishes and then add to the hives all across the city, or even make your own. They would pop-up in shop windows, classroom walls, lamp posts, front doors, even wheelie bins. This quickly grew and spread across Manchester, culminating in the crowdfunding of a Manchester memorial mural.
The project grew as a way to give children especially, but people of all ages, a way to communicate their thoughts and feelings as one. Following the success of the design packs, I started doing workshops in schools. Following a variety of workshops across Manchester, I collaborated with Argentinian based paper studio, Ikigai, to offer further activities to the design pack, bespoke origarmi of Manchester Worker Bees. These were catered to for people of all ages.
Creativity in the community
Following conversations with students, the idea came around to create something that will permanently reflect the thoughts and feelings of all of us in response to the attack. The mural was crowdfunded, drawing in money from around the world, and Manchester’s finest, Qubek came on board to help us create a truly unique piece of work.
You can read more about the mural here.
I was then approached by the Girl Guides, to help them design and create a BeeInTheCity bee, which also sits within the Monton community. I hosted a series of workshops to encourage the design lovingly created by the Girl Guides of Monton.
Located directly opposite
Playfoots Café & Bar