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Don’t Tell Stories

Newsome’s interdisciplinary research into contemporary art and culture merges the disciplines of creative writing, visual art, cultural studies and fashion. 'Don't Tell Stories’ is an interdisciplinary curatorial arts project exhibited at the award-winning Festival No.6. It involved the creation of narrative-based spaces and situations in the woods of Port Meirion, using multiple modes of interactive storytelling; from text and music to performance, fashion and art.

Newsome’s practice-based research draws on Situationist theories of authentic social life (Debord, 1967; Vaneigem, 1967) and explores the concept of "qualitative richness" (Vaneigem, 1967), providing a counterpoint to perceived modern ills such as isolation, humiliation and miscommunication (ibid.). Newsome aims to foster personal development and wellbeing by connecting audiences with their with latent creativity. Her work contributes to contemporary practice such as Maitland’s (2012) ‘Gossip from the Forest’, and Turk's (2007) 'House of Fairy Tales', and contributes to research around engaging the audience in art (Beuys, 1973; Deller, 2012) and literature (Neate, 2004).

Newsome conducted site visits to evaluate how artists might harness the transformative nature of the woodland, identifying situations and activities with potential to engage audiences, challenge norms and develop accessible and permissive spaces that foster creativity. In collaboration with artists, different contexts and practices were explored, developed and evaluated against whether they: a) took into account site properties; and b) addressed audience confidence issues. Research into self-confidence of the festival's 2012 audience found that participants frequently described themselves as “not creative”.

'Don’t Tell Stories' is part of an interdisciplinary curatorial arts project, commissioned by: The House Of Fairy Tales; Richmond Literature Festival; The Architecture Association; and artists' international exchange project, Islington Mill in Ibiza (http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/3351770). Around 1,000 people participated in the exhibition, which received positive feedback resulting in it being re-commissioned for Festival No.6 in 2014 (http://www.festivalnumber6.com/en-uk/artsculture/view/3994).