The idea for working with the homeless people came from one of the students who had helped to run drama sessions with the homeless to give them new skills and gain confidence.

The students carried out market research into hand-made tie dye clothing and decided to make and sell tie dye socks to raise funds for Lancaster and District Homeless Action Service. The group was involved in helping the homeless group learn how to make tie-dye socks so that they could carry on raising funds after their project had been completed. The aim was to raise £1,000 to support a touring theatre group. The enterprising students were able to meet this target, having raised funds from the O2 Think Big fund which they used to buy their materials and negotiate using an empty shop in Lancaster to sell their socks.

Creative Enterprise student, Damian Gray supervised the tie dying process having successfully run his own Tie Dye T shirt business whilst at University.

Working with Galloway’s Society for the Blind, students organised a series of workshops exploring tactile and sensory ways of making art. The project culminated in a final exhibition of artwork entitled ‘Sense and Memory’ at Morecambe Library. Visitors were encouraged to first experience the artwork blindfolded, challenging the notion of what art can be and altering the perception of art as a traditionally visual medium, promoting an understanding of what it means to live with a visual impairment.

The enterprising students were able to carry out this work gaining sponsorship from Clarks Shoes and the O2 Think Big fund. They were able to use the funding to purchase materials for their workshops.

A group of Theatre students used the Creative Enterprise module to develop a one day micro festival of public interventions which took place within Lancaster city centre, outdoors as well as within the premises of partner businesses.

The project aimed to animate various city centre locations with performance pieces that utilised the concepts of generosity, gift giving, conversations and exchanges as tools for exploring social change and alternative economies.

Prior to the festival one of the students, Leo Burtin said:

“It is our hope that Encounters will create an accessible, friendly and playful environment within which conversations might take place between artists, passers-by, and the partners involved in making the project happen around the various topics the performance works may explore”

The enterprising students worked several partners including Lancaster Arts Partnership, shops and retailers in Lancaster in order to curate the festival. The festival featured established and emerging artists , funding for the festival was raised through several sources including the Faculty of Arts and Social Science’s Enterprise Centre, the O2 Think Big fund and Talk with LEAP.