Culture

Community art hasn’t always had a good reputation. However if done well, it can engage lots of people, tap their creativity and express their identity. There are broad approaches:

• Communities commission artists to produce work. The community is the client but the work is entirely the artist’s.
• Artists collaborate with communities to jointly produce work, often through performance.
• Communities produce artwork themselves with or without the input of an artist.

These approaches can be used for all types of art.

Communities can use this creativity to express their identity. It can include
physical artwork or an artist’s input to street furniture, railings, signs and playgrounds. It can include celebrations, festivals and fêtes, music and performance. Communities might want to identify a space where events can happen like a village green or a local park.

Space for creativity and expression is vital and in recent years the closure of local libraries has been a blow to many communities. There are many examples of libraries and other local facilities that have been taken on by communities using volunteers and local trusts.

The Spode site in Stoke on Trent is a good example of how creativity and culture has been used to bring a site back into use that fell vacant just as the financial crash hit in 2008. Artists were encouraged to occupy some of the vacant spaces that have grown into thriving business space. The Ceramic’s Biennial took over the large factory space, a temporary theatre was created and now a hotel and restaurant have been developed.

However, the process also works in strong markets where promoting art and creativity through the development process can build links with the surrounding community and make the development distinctive. A good example is U+I’s development of the Mayfield Depot in Manchester where they have provided space for the Manchester Festival, the city’s Pride event and for a range of creative, cultural and food-related activities.

Suggest an annual celebration event and use it to celebrate the identity of the community. This can include carnivals and melas, village fetes and community festivals. Local groups and schools can get involved in creating costumes and decorating floats and events. Communities can also explore other ways of incorporating creativity into their neighbourhood, identifying local artists and working with schools and community groups to find opportunities to use artworks locally.

Look to use sites and buildings prior to development to house arts activities that start to create an identity for the site. Create pop-up opportunities using local designers and generate activities with events and performances that open the site up to the public on a controlled basis. Then once the activities are established find a way to incorporate them into the completed scheme.

Make small grants available to communities to develop their own events and artworks. Ensure that council-backed venues and festivals are required to run community outreach programmes and to take work out of the venue and into the community.