Rob Watson's Media Stuff

Beth Piggott is a producer with ArtReach, who has been working on the Liberty UK festival that is taking place in Leicester. Taking place across July and August, Liberty UK Leicester offers three art trails in the city centre. As a collaboration with members of the local community, the festival tells local residents stories and [...]

How we connect and build relationships with one another is an essential question for the future sustainability of both our local and our global communities. John Coster, of Leicester’s Documentary Media Centre, discusses and explains why he has established the Parallel Lives project, based here in Leicester, but with the aim of connecting people through [...]

The weather was perfect on Sunday for our visit to the Moira Furnace heritage and craft day. We chatted about the importance of valuing our heritage and making it accessible now that we are opening up from the pandemic. This was an opportunity to develop our media capture skills as part of the Y-Leicester Heritage [...]

The work of the volunteers at Evington House, has brought the gardens to life as a place of increasing biodiversity. It was lovely chatting with Helen and Geoff, and hearing about how they plan the garden so that it supports a wider-range of wildlife and looks after itself because they are increasingly recognising that not [...]

Today I had three conversations at the Hope CIC Men’s Support Drop-In Café, that takes place every other Saturday, 10.30am to 12.30pm at the Bishop Street Chapel Café in Leicester. I chatted with Tina Barton about her experience running support and development groups for women, and how the need for similar support networks for men [...]

The need for public support as we come out of the lockdown is readily apparent all around us. Men often don’t come forward to ask for help because they are unfamiliar with expressing their emotions and asking for help. Mahesh Hettiarachchi has set up Hope Against Poverty, as a community interest company in Leicester, with [...]

Today I went to visit the Braunstone Gate Community Garden, which is a volunteer-run pocket garden in the West End of Leicester. I spoke with John and Jeff about the origins of the garden, and about how they have managed during the lockdown. They told me how people can get involved, and what they feel [...]

Today I met with Kajal Nisha Patel, who runs Lightseekers, which aims to equipping each of us with tools and knowledge to better manage periods of stress. The aim is to cultivate healthier communities, which are centred around the concept of care. Kajal told me about how she has developed the idea of Lightseekers, and [...]

Earlier I went for a walk to Aylestone Meadows in Leicester and captured the sound of the birds and wind rustling through the trees. I find these walks are a good way to capture my half-developed thoughts. Today I wanted to try to articulate more of my understanding of the importance of Carl Jung, and [...]

Wandering around Leicester city centre yesterday, and seeing people return to the cafés and bars left me with mixed emotions. On the one hand I’m dealing with the anxiety of going out to public places after being at home for so long. Then there’s the pleasure that comes with seeing people enjoying one another’s company. [...]