Athena

A celebration of womanhood. A reawakening of inner wisdom, connection to nature and a journey to empowerment.

a multi-art form collaboration

CURRENTLY IN RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Photography by MICHAEL tansley thomas

Here’s a link to introductory notes for Athena, which are for visually impaired audience members and anyone else who might like a bit of inside information about the show!

Who was Athena?

Athena was an ancient Greek Goddess associated with wisdom, war and art. The Patron Goddess of heroic endeavour. An international symbol of wisdom, the arts and knowledge, she is often associated with justice. Athena knows who she is, what she wants and she isn’t afraid to stand up for what she believes in.

“Wild Woman”

Drawing on research into female-centred mythology, deities, matriarchal communities, powerful women from global history as well as modern-day, real-life stories from girls and women of all ages, we’ll explore the concept of the “wild woman”. We’ll also look at how women are embedded in nature - shaped and transformed by the seasons, the moon and the earth.

We want to provide space for women to share their believes, injustices and lived experiences, and encourage an open dialogue through which we can discover new meanings, connections and knowledge about gender, representation, identity and social justice.

An artist Co-Lab

We want to explore a new way of working. Here at RedBobble, we’re continually inspired by other art forms and so for this project, we’re forming an artist co-lab. A small group of interdisciplinary artists will come together to research, develop and create what we hope will be a highly visual live performance. Incorporating new writing, devised theatre, photography, videography and 3D sculpture, we want to see what happens when we bring together a group of creatives to build the conception of a show collaboratively. We want to test the boundaries of live performance art and take some risks! We don’t yet know what we’ll end up with, but that’s the exciting part.

Communities

RedBobble are community engagement & creative wellbeing specialists with over 12 years experience of working in areas of low arts engagement across Yorkshire and the North West.

For ATHENA, we engaged with local communities in areas of low arts engagement to deliver Female Empowerment Workshops and co-produce the themes and content for ATHENA 2022. We partnered with some brilliant groups, across 4 towns and cities. In Oldham we worked with Mahdlo Youth Zone Full Circle, Women’s Chai Project in Doncaster we worked with Changing Lives, Heywood Luncheon Club in Rochdale and in Leeds we worked with Hollin Lane Allotments.

This body of work laid the foundation for ATHENA 2022 and provided valuable insights for our future development for ATHENA 2024. Through co-creation and research, we discovered that older women feel marginalized, unheard, and discriminated against, leading us to focus on their experiences for the next phase of development. for ATHENA 2024. Our aim is to uplift, empower, and amplify the voices of older women, ensuring they are represented, heard, and seen in our creative endeavors and within culture. will We build on our existing strong community partnerships while also establishing new, sustainable connections.

Thank you

A huge thank you to Arts Council England for supporting this project and a huge thank you to all artists, participants, partner organisation staff and volunteers, we couldn’t have done it without you. We’re also grateful for the continual support we had from Oldham Coliseum and Touchstones Museum Rochdale. 

We’re always on the look out for support, such as corporate sponsorship to support the continual overhead costs of running RedBobble Arts. If you’re interested we’d love to hear from you.