Well it’s all done, our first delivery of Culture Cycle as part of Warwick District Council’s CultureFest and it was a roaring success!

Combining culture, cycling and stained-glass window making (well, mock versions of stained-glass!), the team from Warwick Institute of Engagement supported by staff and students from a variety of subjects enabled over 300 people of all ages to take part in our activity on Saturday in Warwick and Sunday in Leamington Spa.

Culture Cycle, a participatory art project, asked people to create a stained-glass panel that showed their culture – what do they think of as culture, what does culture mean to them, what is their culture. We got a huge range of designs and topics included – Nanas to nature, sport to spaghetti, flags to feelings - we had it all!

Once completed, the panels were hung on our wheeled frame, a frame attached to the back of a bike, and with each new row of designs we took it for a spin around the park. Catching the light, the designs looked sensational, and at one point we even managed to time our bike ride with the Commonwealth Games Road race being shown on the big screen (though we were going significantly slower than them!).

And the story doesn’t end there, for these panels and for Culture Cycle. The finished panels from CultureFest, of which there must be close to 200, will hopefully be displayed in Leamington Town Hall during the renovations that take place – what else do you do with scaffolding but hang artwork from it!!

As for the Culture Cycle concept, well you can expect to see that again as part of our 2022-2023 events programme (see resonatefestival.co.uk for more information) and definitely as part of our Resonate Festival in July 2023. Plus, we met some great new community contacts while we were designing and cycling, and we’re really looking forward to seeing what we can achieve together and the differences we can make.

Of course none of our activities could be achieved without the help of our teams on campus and our communities around it, and Culture Cycle was no different – huge thanks to the International Manufacturing Centre, Transport Fleet, Estates Office, Warwick Welcomes, Department of History, Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies and Warwick District Council for helping to make Culture Cycle a truly awesome event!!