Stori’r Cwilt

Quilt: Liesbeth Williams

This is the story of the Utopias Bach Quilt as Policy experiment: a collaboration between Utopias Bach and Rewilding the Artist

By Lisa Hudson

The Cwilt Utopias Bach Quilt started back in 2023 when we were considering the possibility of Utopias Bach becoming an organisation. We were thinking of this partly in response to wanting to be a partner to Rewilding the Artist (and meeting what Arts Council Wales required of ‘partner organisations’), and partly as a way of exploring what Utopias Bach is/might be.

We asked ourselves how could we fit our unique way of working into something that would be acceptable as an ‘organisation’, without compromising what we are.

Angharad Owen

One requirement of Arts Council Wales, is that the organisation needs to have policies: equal opportunities, safeguarding, etc. We asked ourselves ‘How can we meet this requirement without compromising our unique way of working?’; ‘What would a Utopias Bach Policy look like?’  What even is a policy? How can we “Rewild” policy so that it is accessible, relevant and reflexive?

As Utopias Bach ‘Collective’ we had principles and processes that we had co-created through experiments and discussion, fuelled by a desire to find the best way to work together with each other and more-than-human beings we encounter. A policy felt like something different. A policy is usually a document, constructed by a few, used to prescribe a uniform procedure.  Once an organisation has a policy, it tends to become a written document that is meant to be read, but never questioned.

So ‘what would a Utopias Bach Policy look and feel like?’  It needed to be something where the process of development is more important than the resulting document. Could it be an iterative thing? Something that requires a response and an interaction? A non-linear experience? A meditation? …A quilt?

Perhaps creating a quilt could function as policy in a new way. Is it something that we would sew together and wrap around new members to introduce them to the group? Does everyone have to make a piece so that they can understand the policy? How can we make it relevant and useful?…

Inclusion score by Lisa Hudson