Jo Wingate AKA Founder And Director Of Sensoria Festival
#Cmuse
Photos by Joe Horner. See the full set of photos on Flickr.
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Jo Wingate AKA Founder And Director Of Sensoria Festival
Dive in movies at 1930s lidos, projections on some of Sheffield’s most loved historical buildings, exhibitions from the city’s favourite artists…it must be Sensoria Festival time again.
Jo Wingate AKA Sensoria Fest Founder and Director is up early with Sheffield’s creatives for the first event on the festival’s 2019 programme and the first talk of the new #cmsheffield season.We’re gathered at Kommune, a food hall/bar/gallery/book shop in Sheffield’s old Co-Operative building, to hear how the city’s festival of music, film and digital has grown in 27 years.From a small idea inspired by the city – the festival’s name comes from a track from Sheffield band Cabaret Voltaire – Sensoria has become an internationally renowned event with a programme packed with arts, digital, music, film, exhibitions and more.Since the beginning, Sensoria has been infused into Sheffield. Famed for bringing events to some of the city’s most loved, yet often forgotten, venues, Sensoria has brought together the city’s favourite artists with some of its most iconic buildings in the three decades it’s been running.One landmark to get the Sensoria treatment is the Abbeydale Picture House. Each year, films are shown in the 1920s cinema, as part of the festival. But it’s not just the Picture House that has become a cinema during Sensoria. The festival has shown films at Hathersage Pool, with specialist underwater cameras fitted especially for Sensoria. City centre car parks have also played host to film screenings, with vintage cars helping to set the scene.For 2019, Sensoria’s theme is Myths and Legends. Highlights include an exhibition of portraits by Sheffield photographer Chris Saunders. A fitting theme for #cmmuse, Chris has photographed many a Sheffielder, including previous #cmsheffield speaker Magid Magid, the city’s former Lord Mayor.There are still many places still to get the Sensoria treatment, with the city’s storm drain ‘The Megatron’ on Jo’s wish list. We’ll see what happens in 2020!Words by Molly McGreevy.
Jo Wingate AKA Director and Founder of Sensoria Fest
Jo Wingate founded Sensoria Festival of Music and Film in 2008. link The Sheffield-based event quickly became renowned for presenting unique, imaginative experiences, often in unusual venues.
Sensoria is synonymous with outdoor cinema, having hosted numerous Drive-In (and Dive-In) movies, plus cinema in settings from working law courts to disused airfields or woodland clearings. The festival has also helped musicians realise their own original ideas including presenting headphone gigs in railways stations and shop windows, radio dramas broadcast in cafes, crazy art golf and music with live art. Guests have included Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley, DJ Stingray, Laurie Anderson, Nitin Sawhney, Bill Drummond, John Grant, JLin, Christopher Eccleston, Julien Temple and many more.
Jo has also previously worked in independent cinema and galleries and been involved in over 25 festivals such as Shots in the Dark Crime and Thriller Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest and Fantastic Cinema.
We are delighted to be kicking off Sensoria Fest this year with this rare personal insight to the background and build-up of the festival. As the global theme this month is #CMmuse Jo is going to talk about what inspires her including her home city and how the festival taps into and celebrates Sheffield’s talent - and its changing landscape. Sensoria fest will then run from 27th September to 5th October. Be sure to check out the lineup and get yourself along. link
We are gathering at Kommune link. Bringing together some of the most acclaimed, independent kitchens, an artisanal bakery and speciality coffee, craft brewers and design-led retailers, Kommune is a social all-day dining experience housed in a unique urban space, right at the heart of Sheffield’s old city centre. We will be coffee fuelled and pastries powered by Tamper and Depot located at Kommune.
See you there for our brand new season! #CMmuse
September is MUSE
Whether you’re a mathematician tinkering with complex equations or a musician pairing discordant notes together, searching for inspiration can often send you in circles. The longer you sit and wait for an epiphany to strike, the harder it gets to make progress. What if you could get unstuck by turning to your muse? Your muse comes from the deepest parts of your imagination and guides you to new ideas. It invites you to bring your dreams to life using the raw materials found in your daily life. Artist and director Oroma Elewa once said, “I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.” * The next time you want to draw out your muse, stimulate your imagination in a different context. Leave your desk, take a walk outside, read something different, observe the ordinary, or try your hand at a new recipe. Chances are your muse will come out to play. Our Dubai chapter chose this month’s exploration of and Shahul Hameed illustrated the theme. Presented around the world by our Global Partner, Mailchimp.
July is End “The secret about ‘the end’ is that it actually contains countless possibilities.” Our Rio de Janeiro chapter chose this month’s exploration of End and Isadora Zeferino illustrated the theme.
“What did you really want to be when you grow up?”
Angga Kara AKA Men Up North asks CreativeMornings Sheffield, who are gathered at Sheffield Institute of Arts for June’s #CMWonder.
“A footballer. A brain surgeon. A doctor.”
For this month’s speaker, being in Space Jam was his childhood dream. Born in Indonesia, Angga first moved to Sheffield in 1997. His first thoughts on the UK?
“It’s freezing!”
After a rocky start in which he was bullied at school, Angga and his family moved from a mainly white area to an area full of different cultures and languages. He started dancing and playing basketball, something that kept him on the straight and narrow when those around him were falling into gangs and a life of crime.
“Let’s start a hip hop theatre company”
As well as the hip hop theatre company - Angga penned a show exploring the relationship between father and son which premiered at Sheffield’s Crucible and went on to tour the UK - Angga worked on a number of other projects.
Breakin’ Point came from Angga’s love for t-shirts and screen printing, the project used fashion as a form of creative and emotional expression for marginalised young men. Working with #CMRestart speaker Geo Law, Angga took their t-shirts to artists from across the world, including Annie Mac, Disclosure and Wu Tang Clan.
“I kept pushing and pushing because I thought ‘this is what I wanted”
Though he was working on lots of projects, travelling the world and meeting loads of new people Angga felt his mask beginning to crack, he was self-sabotaging. Determined to turn things around, Angga set off on a journey of healing. He used therapy, mindfulness, meditation, alternative medcines, exercise and more to help himself make a change.
“I knew there would be men like me who wanted to support other men"
Angga retrained as an Executive Coach, and after losing three friends to suicide, set up Men Up North. Angga wanted to provide men with a space to talk, discuss their lives and the issues they face.
Men Up North’s focus is men’s mental health and suicide prevention.
So far the group has hosted regular group coaching, started a health and nature walking group, organised a symposium of Masculinity at Sheffield Hallam University and even taken over a barbershop to reach more men.
Men Up North.
June is WONDER
Our sense of wonder is the code for tapping into our most creative selves. It enables us to expand our horizons and encounter parallel universes that haven’t been explored yet. According to the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” By drawing us out of our typical patterns, wonderment reconnects us with our ability to marvel at new and beautiful things. We all have the capacity for wonder; but why do we lose sight of it? As our lives get busier, we tend to streamline our schedules and relationships to become more efficient. We want to know what will happen and when it will happen. But extraordinary things occur if we make room for the unexpected. When we leave space in our plans, we create magical conditions for our imagination and thoughts to collide with one another. And it is from these sparks that our best ideas are born. Our Copenhagen chapter chose this month’s exploration of Wonder and Rune Fisker illustrated the theme.
