Deaf Culture Day (15th May 2010)
Deaf Culture Day poster
James March
Event organised by RAD
The Our Space project, funded by Community and University Partnership Project, had a final event to bring together all of the successes of the project. This event is led by RAD and under the excellent organisation skills of Simon Hesselberg and Gavin Lilley.
The Deaf Culture Day was hosted at Hamilton Lodge School on 15th May 2010 and will include a range of artistic, historical and practical activities that promote the lives of Deaf people. It is a place to celebrate what it means to be Deaf and be proud of their successes.
The day opened at 10am and continued until 4pm. A total of 300 people came from Sussex and the South East, twice the expected numbers. Although the hall was too small and required a little crowd control, the numbers is evidence in itself that there is a need for a community-led culture event.
Poster competition
The journey started with a poster competition, the winning student, James March from Hamilton Lodge School, saw his watercolour become the symbol of the Deaf Culture day and the Sussex Deaf History website. The painting was created by photocopying handshapes repeatedly across the page (f handshape for pebbles; 5 handshape for water and the sky) and then painted in as a water colour. The painting resembles the Deaf community and our close affinity with the pebbled coastline.
The poster
The March painting was converted into a poster which can be downloaded from this page (see below), which is in a pdf format.
Programme
The Our Space project developed two workshops in Eastbourne and Brighton and Hove City, which became pilots for the expected Deaf Culture day.
Simon Hesselberg, the event organiser on behalf of RAD, said:
"the aim of the day is to promote and encourage Deaf people to display their hidden talents and become role models for both the Deaf and hearing communities."
The activities include:
- Launch of a blue plaque commemorating the Brighton Institution on Eastern Road by the historian, Geoffrey Eagling
- National launch of the Sussex Deaf History website by the Deaf Studies Convenor, John Walker.
- Activities for children by Parveen Dunlin and Nadia Nadarajah.
- Card making for 11+ and adults by Tulja Hallikainen and Tatjana Kapoor.
- Parkour artist, Al-amin Dambam
- Literary author, Mark Radford
- Painter and photographer, Daniel Griffiths
- Graphic designer, Lee Kemp
- Actor, Daniel Sands
- Poet, Kabir Kapoor
- Historian and author, Bryan Whalley
- Personal trainer, Saul Addison
- Watercolour painter and author, Hamish Rosie
- The products from the partners of the See Yourself project guided by Robert Kirkwood
- British Deaf History Society represented by Peter Jackson
- And students artwork and Deaf Studies at Hamilton Lodge School
The final programme can be downloaded from the link at the end of the page.
Reaction
Although a formal evaluation was included in the event, there has been a recent flurry of text messages with congratulations for the day:
“Good to see some faces I never expected to and others were not there! So glad it was a success!”
“My pleasure to encourage to develop children learning. Wow, a strong deaf culture show better than other organisations in the same area. We enjoyed it very much!”
“What a fantastic day, I loved it and I remember just now much."
"I enjoy working with Deaf people. It was great and I am so glad that you asked me with work there.”
“Nice to see old faces and friends!”
“Yes I did enjoy myself and lovely to see everybody!!”
“Congratulations on highly successful day!”
“Sure it was a good and successful day. Thanks to all who were involved. “
“I just wanted to say a big thank you to you guys. I think we have hit something big today!”
“Well done with your all hard work!”
“Enjoyed it very much, so glad to see such a big crowd, that what Deaf needs and carry on the good work!”
“Had a lovely time, and my father did the same, thank you for asking us. There was a really good turn out, all your hard work has paid off!”
"Yes it was really great and I will write on the website, www.sussexdeafhistory.org.uk soon. Well done all of you!”
“Well done Simon and Gavin, excellent news to hear about your successful day!”
"It was as I have not stopped talking and signing about it. Congratulations again to you and Gavin for all y our work. But I am sure that the greater complement is the fact that so many people came and remained throughout the day. It was a privilege to be a part of other historical events!”
“Really happy to be of use and help, what an amazing feature of organisation. Well done."
“All of you, congratulations for making today a really successful day for everyone and they all enjoyed themselves. Lovely to see old and new faces here!”
"Big thanks to you, Gavin and Simon for organising the deaf cultural day and all the works too. I did enjoyed it and glad I was there.... first one in sussex deaf history and right place too! Great!. Like to have it again next year - big one & more exhibitions too."
More photos and film to follow.