Sunday 13 November - myself, Emily and 6 brilliant women who are to be part of How Shall We Begin Again? in Peterborough went to see the London-iteration of Jo Fong’s process at the Siobhan Davies Studios in Elephant & Castle, South London.

I will try to describe what I saw, from 2pm - 5pm, as a series of dancers, solo and group, came into the space, and shared the movement of their bodies and the progression of their thoughts about How Shall We Begin Again? It’s not opinion - it’s what I saw.

A Series of TedTalks. Where bodies did the talking ….

TThe city needs the theatre to have LEADERSHIP, that the uses of the space are FLEXIBLE, and that it’s values need to be CONDSOLIDATED. It is a KEY entry point for residents and visitors, and reflects the character of the city. It may feel isolated now but with the development of the Embankment is can be the much-needed cultural hub, where, uniquely in Peterborough artists and audiences can truly connect. And that there needs to be a LONG-TERM commitment to create this success, otherwise we will just be back here. having this conversation again in 12-18 months time.

This was an informal session where those who attended introduced themselves, and then went into a breakout room for a chat. Like we would do in an interval at a show, or as a people arrive for a meeting.

When we came back together we gathered some thoughts that people felt passionate about, some of which relate directly to some of the recommendations in the emerging Culture Strategy - which you can find on the Culture Forum page HERE.

We started February 2021 by acknowledging how hard Mondays, Januarys and 2021 is already proving to be. Luckily the Peterborough Culture Forum had Dr Emily Bradfield, Director of Arts & Minds, to talk about her organisation’s approach to supporting well being and mental health through creativity - as the core purpose of her organisation and also their day-to-day practise.

Top Tips

SLOW DOWN: (To speed up) Take a step back to focus on what excites you.

THINK CREATIVELY: These are unprecedented times. Trying something you have never done before may be the solution.

BE FLEXIBLE: Adapting to changing takes time, planning and energy - make space for that.

his forum has always been a good mix of artists and community groups, reflecting how the two sectors already work together. In this 9th session the mike was handed to community leaders to reflect on their experiences over the past 5 months, and to look forward. The aim was to capture these thoughts to feed into the creative sectors’ planning, design and delivery of projects.

Many thanks to Mohammed Saeed, for Community First, Andrew Palmer, from Cambridge Deaf Associationand Michelle King from Little Miracles, who, as regular partners of Jumped Up, kicked off the session …

Digital Culture Network is a Arts Council England initiative to support the sector’s use of digital tools for their organisations and work.

Hayden Corrodus is a Tech Champion for the Digital Culture Network and dropped into the Peterborough Culture Forum with some tips on social media.

Kate asked Hayden to:
1) Give an overview of what the Digital Culture Network is and how freelancers and small organisations can interact with it.
2) Give his personal view on addressing the challenge which we have all talked about of using social media to reach beyond our core audience, and in particular to reach the many diverse communities in Peterborough whom are just not being reached (and even more so at this time when community resources are not operating or focused elsewhere.)