Omnibus Theatre, first week, London, UK
Amazing to see the room full of people, the dolls were so so excited, they are having great fun with this incredible experience.
Vicky, Jen, Caroline, Amelia, Emily, Esmonde, Raj, Gethin, Maryam, Sia, Thelma, Louise and Nelson, together we made 14 dolls.
One of the makers decided to have his doll he named Brian with him to watch the show. When he came back he played with Brian and put him to sleep.
‘Brian is having his dreams now.’
‘Dreams and a Heart – a therapeutically friendly + socially inclusive concept – great fun! Thank you Regina.’
‘Thank you for making this. I love the pictures that look like the spine.’
‘Such a beautiful and thoughtful project. It’s so important to take a moment each day and this allows you to do that. Thank you!’
‘How lovely to create something full of love with others around, chatting and laughing. Thank you Regina.’
‘One of the most magical experiences of my life. I feel blessed to connect to Regina and have the chance to work on manifesting my future partner. Much love and gratitude.’
‘Regina gave me a space to breathe today.’
We love so much to be at Omnibus, thank you everyone!
Omnibus Theatre 30th Oct, London, UK
Next day on Tuesday, I went through all the dolls to hold them safely together and fix small details to make them look beautiful. I worked 10 to 10pm.
I started to frame the pictures and hang them up on the wall underneath the dolls.
It was great to mount the exhibition at Omnibus sharing the room with people having meetings or working on their own, everybody really helpful and friendly.
We are very grateful to generous Marie who opened the space for us, she works non stop to make this building a lovely community space, she is amazing!
Omnibus Theatre, London, UK
Last Monday I travelled for the first time with 700 excited dolls on the tube.
We were received at Omnibus Theatre by their lovely godmother Sarah.
Sarah had the genial idea to hang them up with brackets which have holes on them so we could pass the ribbons to hold them all up on the wall firm and safe. We worked 10 to 10pm, almost no break.
Their weight created a beautiful regular movement on the lines, like waves, we didn’t expect it, so beautiful!
We left a gap to add more dolls we’ll make together on the workshops during the exhibition.
I was last person to leave the building, went home and slept well even knowing they were so far in a public space, but I was there next day as soon as they opened the building, they also slept very well.
Thank you so much dearest godmother, we made it!
Omnibus Theatre November 2018, London UK
Dreams and a Heart: The Exhibition!
Dreams and a Heart is having an exhibition! Come and view the first community of 700 dolls, and make your own to add to this ongoing participatory artwork. With nearly 2000 dolls created so far, this exhibition is a celebration of all the work by Regina and her workshop participants over the last 7 years.
If you’d like to make dolls to add to the community, join Regina every Tuesday – Friday evening from 5-9pm. No doll-making only on Weds 7, Thurs 8 and Friday 9.
On Saturdays doll-making is at different times:
Saturday 3 November, doll-making 10am-5pm
Saturday 10 November, doll-making 2-10pm
Saturday 17 November, doll-making 2-10pm
If you have a group you’d like to bring, Regina can be available on several afternoons during the exhibition. Please message us here if you’d like to arrange a group visit.
There’s no need to book – just turn up. All welcome! Please check for last minutes changes or updates on our social media pages.
The dolls are on display whenever the Common Room is open. Regular opening hours are 10-6pm Monday – Saturday. The Common Room is also open in the evenings for audiences to shows, and live music events in the Common Room itself, so we recommend you check out what else is on and make the most of your visit to this wonderful venue.
We’re also very excited that Omnibus is celebrating its 5th birthday on Saturday November 10th with an open house from 2pm, so if you’d like to join the party, that would be a particularly good time to come along.
Omnibus is wheelchair-accessible. If you have any other queries about the venue, please see the Omnibus website.
https://www.facebook.com/dreamsandaheart
Donation of 12 pillows!
Wow, we received a donation of 12 pillows!
I washed all pillowcases. I can sew around 100 dolls with them. I always put the dreams to breath under the sun.
There are different kinds of dreams. Some of them look like popcorn – they suddenly come up like an insight.
This lovely lady Angela is the generous soul who gave us these pillows and lovely Jessica put them away at Jacksons Lane.
We now have enough dreams for the next months, thank you!
The Arts Centre, Hounslow, London UK
Yesterday I went to another amazing D&D event, at this time at The Arts Centre in Hounslow London to work on ‘Theatre versus Poverty Porn – What can we do to make sure our work is helpful to those in crisis, and truthful without being exploitative?’
In my session we had lots of inspiring conversations, some of them about being able to recognise the humanity in every other human being. I was particularly inspired by this thought:
‘The only thing that evil needs to triumph is for good people to do nothing.’
Quddous and Natasha joined the session the whole evening and Olivia, Tajbir and Sarah joined us later. We had lots of fun, lots of laugh and we made six dolls, one of them was named Mali.
One of the makers experienced a coincidence that often happens when we make dolls – her doll has the same body conditions as she does.
‘Some things happened with the doll – on the side where it has a bad leg, is the side I have my actual bad leg, and the side where the hip ripped, is the side where I had a hip injury.’
‘My experience with making the doll. Well, what can I say. I cannot seem to put it into words. It’s more of a feeling, a feeling of openness. A feeling of coming together, not just with the people in here, but just people. It’s an odd feeling you are doing something so personal yet take on so much from the group. Here’s one word for this experience. Grateful. I am grateful.’
‘My experience today has been very insightful. Creating dolls and stuffing them with dreams and a heart as well as sewing them up and meditating on them was a very personal experience. It was intimate and special. Simply sublime.’
‘An open space for any conversation to take place, interesting space, so simple yet so powerful.’
‘Creating a doll filled with love and dreams for the whole world. Dreams that hopefully aren’t as temporary as clouds. Loved this activity, thank you.’
At the closing circle one of the participants talked about the importance of meeting complete strangers and spend time together as a community to work on our difficulties. Yes!
Thanks Sarah for facilitate the event, she did a great introduction, it made everyone happy and ready to work, and thank you so much for everybody who joined us to make dolls.
I love D&D .
Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
Yesterday nine amazing artists were gathered at Royal Academy of Arts at InPractice event to share their life experiences of mental and physical illnesses, including serious conditions. In this sad scenario some of them were absolutely hilarious when sharing their art work, we had lots of fun!!
We made dolls with Suzanne, Charlie and Chantelle during the break and continue till the end of the event. Katie joined us at the end so we moved to another room where we finished the process. We left RA at 10pm when it closed. We made five dolls.
One of the makers had an intense experience tonight.
‘I feel I should have been told what would happen to the doll I made before I made it. When it was taken from me it was like I was being taken away from me. It did not feel good. Had I known it was to help others I would be mentally prepared + been able to pour different personal feelings into the dolls for others. It left me feeling anxious. Though the actual process is powerful and loving one.’
In these five years this was the first time this happened. It is a deep experience but usually people deal more easily with letting the doll go away. For now on I will make sure that people are aware that I’ll keep the dolls they are making. I promised her I would take great care of her doll and would give it back to her in the future if she still feels anxious.
Another maker wrote this metaphor, it actually applies to me as well.
‘I almost lost my heart in the dreams.’
Thank you so much Moly to organise this incredible event, it is an amazing opportunity to learn and be inspired by other artists. I love being at RA.
RA, London, UK
Dreams and a Heart will be back at Royal Academy of Arts on Friday night for In Practice – one of our favourite places to hang out, listen, learn and meditate. It’s free, no booking required, and a really lovely evening – come along!
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/…/inpractice-access-communi…
ROYALACADEMY.ORG.UK
At this event we invite disabled artists and creative people facing barriers accessing the art world to share their practice with others.
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/event/inpractice-access-community-programme-artist-presentations
Meditation pics at Fun Palace
