Interview with Georgia Bowles, MiR Workshops Organiser

Last but not least in our interview series, I interviewed Georgia, who was in charge of this year's selection of workshops at Made in Roath! 

What event are you most looking forward to/have enjoyed so far?

Being workshops coordinator I've spent a lot of time during the festival collecting materials and moving artwork around, so the majority of the events I've been to have been my own! So with my biased tunnel vision I would have to say the Paint the Lake was my favourite. We had lovely weather, and even when it was completely packed with visitors it was still a really relaxing and enjoyable space - all made possible by our amazing volunteers Elloise & Meish!

How did you get involved with Made in Roath?

Last year I was an 'oddjobs' volunteer. I helped Helen, one of the organisers, with the organising & transport of workshop materials and making sure workshop events were ready to go on the day. I also assisted the volunteers coordinator when reaching out to the community for volunteers and organised those relating to workshops. So when Helen mentioned that they were thinking of having more coordinators this year I jumped at the chance!

Made in Roath must be a lot of work to organise – what is it that inspires you to keep going?

Being an artist/designer/maker can be quite solitary if your mostly working on solo projects, or if you're not in a communal studio space. So an event like this, that not only brings the artistic community together but also the wider community as a whole is fantastic. 

It's an opportunity to see how the community react to your work, to meet other artists and it helps you to put what you do into the bigger picture of the community. 

So while it was completely exhausting, it always felt like it was worth the effort everyone was putting in.

What do you think makes Made in Roath such a distinctive festival?

The community. Have I used that word enough already? Everyone who gets involved, from running events to attending them, is invested in its success as a festival. I think the fact that folk are willing to open up their homes and front gardens to the public is a sure sign that we're a community who wants to share and collaborate together.

There's no way that the festival would be able to run on such a large scale - almost 100 venues this year! - if it wasn't for the community offering their time, homes & businesses for all our fab events.

What is your favourite Made in Roath memory?

As this year is fresh in my mind, I think it would probably be from Sunday evening. All of the events I was coordinating had finished and my partner had come to meet me to help pick up the last bits of workshop materials. I was absolutely exhausted and it had just started to rain but I was determained to do something Made-in-Roath-y before I went home, so we headed to the Vintage Tea Stoppe. 

We sat on a wet vintage bench, in the rain, having tea & banana loaf on vintage tableware whilst listening to lovely vintage music and it was bliss!

Tell us a secret about Roath.

I heard that there's a door in an alleyway behind Roath Park Primary School, that can only be seen at twilight during Roath Park Bowling Club's meetings. Why they meet at twilight I don't know. It's a bit weird for a bowling club.