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SAN Newcastle/North East

SOCIAL BUBBLES

15 minutes of communal bubble blowing with Social Art Network North East!
Join us at 5pm on the first Saturday of every month!
image credit: Lady Kitt, 2020

Image Description/Alt Text: Black and white photo, interior. Paper cuts from white paper on a gridded cutting board. Bubble wand held vertically. The outline of a face in profile blows into the wand from which a series of paper cut bubbles appear. Inside the bubbles are the words “Art. Talk.”

Location: on the Millennium Bridge Newcastle/ Gateshead (right in the middle!)

WHAT: 15 minutes of joyful, community bubble blowing

HOW:  Just turn up! Feel free to bring your own bubbles, but there will be bubble blowing equipment and liquid to share.

*At around 5:20pm anyone interested / involved in Social Art Network North East is invited to wander along the quayside and up Byker bank together to The Cumberland Arms pub for more in depth chats / cups of tea / pints

WHY:  SAN (Social Art Network) are a mutual aid network of people who are interested in social / community / participatory art. There are 12 SAN hubs around the UK who organise meet ups / get togethers / art socials. SAN North East have been running for around 4 years organising sporadic stuff during that time. We hope the Social Bubbles event will happen at 5pm on the 1st Sat of every month, from now on. The location may change from time to time so check the SAN North East Facebook group for monthly details.

ACCESSIf you would like someone to meet you near the millennium bridge and walk to the event with you let us know and we can organise that!

. The millennium bridge and surrounding area is flat (ish!)

. The surface of the bridge is smooth enough for wheels, entrances are wide enough for wheelchairs and double buggies, but the surface has a bumpy texture

. There are benches built into the bridge

. Even on a warm day temperature on the middle of bridge can be chilly

* if you’d like any access info we haven’t included here please contact us via the SAN North East Facebook group

PHYSICAL SAFETY:  The bridge is sometimes busy and is used by cyclists as well as pedestrians. To keep the event as safe as possible for everyone, please use the pedestrian side of the bridge for bubble blowing and try to stand single file near the barrier on that side.

EMOTIONAL SAFETY & KINDNESS:  SAN UK has a safer spaces agreement which informs the way we like to behave and support other people to behave at our events. Social Bubble conveners have summarised SAN safer spaces agreement as:

“everyone at every event is part of creating the atmosphere- let’s work together to make that atmosphere welcoming and warm, be kind (to people, non-human animals and the environment), keep working towards making less assumptions about people, ask permission (and respect the answer) before physically helping/ touching someone, value listening as much as speaking, enjoy making a mess and commit to being part of the tidying up”

You can read SAN UK manifesto here → 

ENVIRONMENTAL KINDNESS:  The bubble making tools we bring with us are reusable/ made from natural materials and the liquid is low in surfactants. If you are bringing your own bubble making stuff, please think about how to reuse/ recycle bubble wands and pots and how to make / buy mixture that’s as planet-kind as possible.