Transforming Place- Cultural Alliance Workshops
/Open Space took place on Wednesday 1st February at Peterborough Museum
Closing Words: Tower Beacon Embrace Change Surprise Pride Family Friendly Fire Impression Play Vibrant culture Equity Joy Playful Supported
Brief: From a Crypto-art exhibition to venue based projects to city centre events.
Particularly of interest to creatives and community leaders who want to create activity or bring audiences to established venues, in virtual spaces or in public, outdoor spaces. “More
productions/exhibitions /events; greater investment in creative and heritage activities; range of people involved” AND “Greater press coverage, visitor footfall at attractions, venues and hospitality …”
Reflection: The discussion of ‘place’ was a fascinating meander around artefacts the city holds that go underexplored or uncelebrated. Ideas included programmed tours around art in the city, the sculpture park, the great emerging street art scenes, a venue to venue bus service to help audiences explore the theatres in a day of theatre activity. Delegates also took a chunk out of how we make our spaces inviting for excluded audiences, having place and provision that better reflect rural, minority ethnic and migrant audiences.
How do we make Peterborough into PETERBOROUGH - Toby Wood, Peterborough Civic Society
Making Plays for Peterborough - What do they look like? Where do they happen? - Ivan Cutting
What problems does Peterborough have that arts and culture can solve? -Caroline Wallis
Peterborough is a multicultural / multilingual city - How do we bring different cultures out? -Mr Joshi / Anita Nayyar
How do we create welcoming and interesting spaces with public art- Louise Thirlwall
How do we measure if all voices are heard ? -Snow Snieguole Maliavskaja
The time has come to refresh our heritage- what does this look like? -Sarah W
How to create spaces that enable people who are marginalised to make lasting connections? - Michael Whittick, CPFT
How do we bring alive open space with Live Art? -Kate Hall, Jumped Up Theatre
How do we best work with Rural Communities- Ruth Campbell, metal
How do we engage a cross section of the city/ hard to reach?- Claire Simseck, Allia Business Centre
Response to topics
How do we make Peterborough into PETERBOROUGH - By Toby Wood, Peterborough Civic Society. Contributors: Sarah, Dot, Penny, Mike.
Points raised:
Museum is currently successful and appears to be ‘swimming against the tide’ of difficulties
Our city does have ‘presence’ e.g. Katherine of Aragon
Our cultural spaces do not always ‘do a good job’
Heritage Festival was a particular success and should be reinstated
Cohesive marketing is a key issue
Let’s not just think about city centre but the areas outside the city – ‘doughnut effect’
Flag Fen is nationally important but comparatively locally insignificant
City leaders need to acknowledge that ‘culture’ is vital to the economic health of the city
How does the city encourage a wider audience?
We need to look at modern, dynamic methods of information dissemination
How does the city further engage those visitors who come to the city ostensibly for other reasons – Ferry Meadows campers, away football supporters
We’ve come so far … NOW WHAT???
Key BIG points – we need to
identify barriers including “it’s not for me’ syndrome
create and foster a positive identity
widen appeal – language, marketing, thinking outwards, tell our story, focus on events
improve transport links – circular bus linking key cultural venues
recognise/promote attractions not in city centre e.g. John Clare, Flag Fen
acknowledge that children who have visited attractions as part of school activities can influence/encourage parents to visit again
improve tourism offer
2. Making Plays for Peterborough - What do they look like? Where do they happen? - By Ivan Cutting, Eastern Angles
What does making theatre for Peterborough look like?
Going into other people's places
Crown to Town pub crawl – working with landlords and landladies, reminiscing, repurposing?
Countering the statement “Lincoln road used to be such a nice road”
Meeting the people you hear about further down. Combining hospitality, leisure, retail!
Potential venues/spaces
Places of worship
Parks
Street art walks – making the unsafe safe?
Eel Festival – eel is critically endangered, black market in eels – the ivory of the Nene – food or jewel?
3. What problems does Peterborough have that arts and culture can solve? -By Caroline Wallis, Arts Council England.
Discussion around encouraging people into the town centre culture could;
Make the city centre more welcoming.
Help solve some health and wellbeing issues including social prescribing
Encourage Tourism
Encourage new cultural businesses.
Obstacles to new creative or cultural businesses include difficulty in getting council lets for pop ups and issues with different council departments not talking to each other.
There were sometimes clashes in cultural issues which causes issues.
Peterborough Free Strategy should be finished soon, there was concern about lack of ambition in the town, also lack of trust and feeling of being let down. There is also an issue with digital poverty.
Free Festivals were considered to help with bringing different communities together and help with lessen isolation and encourage understanding of different cultures.
One Artists said that she had a confession box which was used far more than she expected it to be.
It was suggested that these events should be family friendly, with childcare or workshops with creches to be more inclusive.
Finding events was considered an issue with existing models not working:
The quarterly booklet with listings was considered useful.
A listing site was considered a good idea possibly looking at Milton Keynes as a model.
Using Creative and Culture should be considered at the beginning of many projects but often not considered. There was a feeling that leadership in Peterborough often had an ‘old style’ approach and not aware of innovative ideas or opportunities.
There could be more spaces available for Artists to use in colleges in the holidays for example encouraging colleges to join the AA2A scheme. https://aa2a.biz/
4. Peterborough is a multicultural / multilingual city - How do we bring different cultures out? -By Mr Joshi, PCVS / Anita Nayyar, Curator-Producer, Psychologist.
We need to pivot from done with to done by minorities. Barriers to funding minority led cinema, theatre, poetry, art are often lack of understanding of the cultural relevance by venues and funding gatekeepers. Where minority producers have pushed the boundaries, self funded and marketed, events have been full house. E.g. Punjab to Pakistan poetry night at the Key, Bollywood films at Clare Theatre, crowds attracted to Baltic folk dance at heritage festival.
A funded working group of minority Producers working together to programme touring companies from around the world, of interest to the local communities. With the objective to invite people in and celebrate diversity.
5. How do we create welcoming and interesting spaces with public art- By Louise Thirlwall, Nene Park Trust
Public Art can be:
Not obviously be public art
Playful &; interactive – creating ownership
An experience
Relevant to the viewer – being able to see themselves in or relate
to the work
In the wrong space
Not boring
Tell peoples stories
Useful – street furniture/ benches/ swings
Nostalgic-‘I remember it being created’
Landmarks
Reassuring [about place]
Grouped and create a destination (YSP)
Embedded in the landscape (not plonked)
Use sound, water and/or light (Amsterdam Light Festival)
A device to make areas feel safer
outdated
Considerations:
Who is the decision maker?
Where is the location
Safety issues
A reaction is good, but be prepared for negative press and
comments
Make sure you have a champion/s for the sculpture
Does it need to create a strong reaction- meh is no good!
Temporary or change with time
Artists contract to consider maintenance and temporary.
Public Art should be:
Quality
Collaborative
Destination (tourist attraction)
Heritage themed
Site Specific
Relevant
Experiential
Interactive
Playful
Creates connections
Temporary or change with time
Action/ Idea:
Create an accessible trail of temporary public
artworks – that create a safe, interactive and
interesting space using light, sound and colour.
Artists/ Collectives will be commissioned to respond to
themes of space/ place/ people/ heritage/ play with a
number of the commissions created in collaborationwith communities in PB.
6. How do we measure if all voices are heard ? - By Snow Snieguole Maliavskaja
Report coming soon.
7. The time has come to refresh our heritage- what does this look like? -Sarah Woodbine, Peterborough Museum?
Peterborough is a multicultural/multi-linguist city – how do we bring the different cultures (showcase them) and bring them out?
Mixed Income Streams/Finances.
Fees/Good deals/Sponsorship/Grants/Local community fundraising.
Vaishakhi Festival – Mr Joshi talked about Leicester being the City known for Diwali, why can we not choose another festival and encourage the whole community/city of Peterborough to help celebrate it?
Issues: Lack of Funding – ideas are there but funding – things build slowly. Heritage Festival 2024?
Affordable, high quality programmes for young people but need affordable accessible spaces.
Opportunities for cultures/communities to come together but also opportunities for individual cultures and groups to celebrate separately. Is there a pot of funding that can be applied to? Where is the support for applying for funding? Lists of where funding is available.
Street Music Day – Snow talked about a festival that happens in Lithuania where everyone joins in and plays on street corners throughout the city, they come together and perform together in a spontaneous way.
Talked about the need for better representation of the different cultures in the museum, theatres, in events and at festivals – is their appetite for shows or exhibitions of different cultures, would this encourage more engagement?
Need to explore different models that make events and activities sustainable (some subsidized) – such as venues being available for free etc.
8. How to create spaces that enable people who are marginalised to make lasting connections? - By Micheal Whitticker
Report coming soon.
9. How do we bring alive open space with Live Art? -By Kate Hall, Jumped Up Theatre
Report coming soon.
11. How do we best work with Rural Communities- By Ruth Campbell, Metal Culture
Report coming soon.
12. How do we engage a cross section of the city/ hard to reach?- By Claire Simseck, Allia Business Centre
Report coming soon.