Far & Wide has been running Participatory Arts Projects for nearly two decades. The bulk of our work is in Primary Schools but we also work on public events, community projects and training schemes for adults (see Moveable Feast). The success of these projects has meant that they have demanded more and more of our attention. Our working method grew out of an event called the Biggest Puppet Show on Earth.

The Biggest Puppet Show on Earth was first held in 1992 and involved Far&Wide coordinating a large team of skilled and talented puppet workshop leaders. Together we made a show with 250 people in it, in one glorious day of organised chaotic imaginative beauty. The day sparkled so brightly it was like mining and finding a huge unhewn diamond. From that point of discovery Far&Wide have run workshops as a team. We have a core team of three of us but this has been and can be expanded to encompass high impact multi- art form projects or mini-festivals. We have an extensive network of artists, musicians and performers that we can tap into. The key to our work is STORY.

Although our main media is puppets and we make all sorts of animated beings, from the gigantic to shadows and from ducks to angels, our main aim is to generate story. These stories happen on many levels. The most obvious stories are the ones we animate and take to performance with the participating group. We work with many types of narrative:

• CREATION MYTHS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
• THE NATIVITY
• SPONTANEOUS STORIES
• TALES OF FOOLS AND TRICKSTERS
• HERO QUESTS
• CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Whatever the narrative, the point of our workshops is to empower the participants through making something that is genuinely theirs. The workshops take them through deciding on what needs to be done, to making the puppets, set and scenery, the devising, scripting and rehearsal process, sound and lights to a fully realised performance of their own. We work with all sizes of groups up to 300. We also coordinate art weeks with dance, ceramics, felt-making, music and storytelling - which, like the puppets are integrated into the show that the group are making. Whatever you want to work on, we can find a way to do it!

Perhaps the most important level that story happens on is the transformation that happens for the individuals and the group we work with. For example, often people of all ages have an image of not-being-very-good-at-art or not-being-imaginative. The journey from "I Can't to I Can" can affect lasting change for people. The creative experience becomes part of their story.

Projects can be designed for One Day to on-going provision over a long period of time.