Remote Residencies
In 2020 we supported an inspiring group of artists to build connections with their local environment.
After three years working in Weston-super-Mare, we had planned to spend the next year on the ground here in the south west exploring new areas. We thought we’d invite artists from across the country to help us with that exploration.
Instead, in Autumn 2020 (with the UK under lockdown restrictions due to Covid-19), we supported community artists across England to spend time researching their own local connections. From Blackburn to Brighton, we paid artists to spend time exploring the areas nearest to them: volunteering with local charities, reaching out to groups, and reflecting on their work - thinking about how they could be generous and useful in these difficult times, as well as what they need to look after themselves and the people they collaborate with.
First, we put out an open call for community artists. We were looking for people working anywhere in England, in any artform, with an interest in community co-creation. We received nearly 300 applications.
Next, we worked with a brilliant and generous selection panel - made up of artists, community collaborators, producers and supporters - to choose which artists to support at this stage. Some of the chosen artists know their local communities very well: they’ve lived in an area for a long time, they have strong connections with local partners. Others are new to their town, or their work normally happens out on the road. Some of them have worked for many years in this field, while others are relatively new to it - so we had a rich melting pot of ideas and experiences to share.
And then we hosted our residencies online. Everyone was sent a ‘curiosity kit’ (designed by our wonderful friend Megan Clark-Bagnall) to help kindle their ideas. We met most days on zoom, brought in guest speakers and one-to-one mentors, and let the discussions unfold.
Some artists chose to set out exploring, and met different community groups adjusting to pandemic life: from a gardening club in Newham to a volunteer cycle-delivery scheme in Chorlton. Others used their residency time to form partnerships with services: from a foodbank in Brighton to a neurological care centre in Preston. And everyone took a moment to reflect - to consider how community work could happen safely under covid restrictions, and to brew ideas for future projects and new ways of working.
Thank you to everyone who explored with us. You can click on each artist’s name to visit their website and learn more about their work.
Azara, Jessica Sanders, MEDance, Ryan Gilmartin, Sonia Quintero, Uncultured Creatives, Emma Case, Maiya Leeke, Maral Mamaghanizadeh, Melanie Kalay and Tanaka Mhishi.
Most of these residency artists also recorded a chat as part of our ‘Conversations With Community Artists’ series - you can watch those videos here to get a taste of the wonderful work that’s happening around the country.
You can explore the original open call for artists here, or scroll down to see what happened next.
Community Research Projects
Building on connections made during our remote residencies, we commissioned a group of artists to deepen their partnerships with local community groups. We weren’t looking to support public projects at this stage (although some of them did organise events). Instead, we wanted to encourage artists to focus on strengthening relationships with specific community partners - to better understand their local landscape and build the foundations for future projects.
What Matters to Me
Emma Case & Hope Pantry (Walton, Liverpool)
Founded just before the first UK lockdown, Our House Walton offers (amongst a fast-growing list of things) boxing for children and young people, a cafe, counselling and mental health support, and support services for sex workers. As the effects of Covid worsened, they open a community pantry scheme providing emergency food.
Photographer Emma Case spent time getting to know people using the pantry and volunteering at the centre. There was appetite for some creative workshops (the centre has a focus on building confidence and ‘trying new things’) but people’s visits were fleeting, so Emma needed to find something that would work as a ‘takeaway’.
What Matters To Me was a pop-up photography challenge and exhibition. Members of the pantry took home cameras along with creative prompts and inspiration cards. Their photos and stories were then professionally printed and displayed as part of a mini-festival at Our House. This display then in turn led to more people sharing stories and memories.
The centre is now planning a series of collaborations with local artists. And Emma has discovered a light-touch process that perfectly unites her skills as a photographer and community host.
Photos by Emma Case.
Writing with an Accent
Sonia Quintero & gardeners, poets and refugee families in Newham (East London).
Sonia Quintero is a poet and the organiser of Newham Poetry Group. During our residency, Soni was introduced to two community groups meeting nearby that the poets had never previously crossed paths with: a gardening club, and a peer-support group for refugee families.
We supported Soni to continue research with the two groups, who were thrilled by the prospect of working together. The young families helped the (mainly elderly) gardeners navigate zoom and online tools to help them reach new members, and the gardeners welcomed everyone to the peaceful green spaces they were nurturing. Everyone was excited by Soni’s invitations to try some creative writing exercises as part of these meet-ups, and soon they were planning events together.
Writing with an Accent is an ongoing series of workshops and open-mics celebrating the vibrant voices of Newham. Soni regularly convenes meetings between the different community groups to share stories, swap skills, and write poems inspired by the local landscape.
‘Little Way’ by Rosalin Ysabel
Little way, little way,
where are you taking me?
What do you inspire me with those rosés from heaven?
What nostalgia do you hide in those dark clouds?
Little way, little way,
how nice it is to see the world!
How much greatness since we started?
from our first joys, loneliness and guilt.
Little way, little way, how much we have overcome ourselves!
What great memories and challenges achieved; meanwhile, I have grown as beautiful and solid like those palm trees.
From ‘A Snow Poem’ by William Fisher
This morning brings
Another mundane miracle:
A transformation
Of the muted dismal greys
Of these darkened winter days
Flake by gentle flake,
Every single twig and strand of wire,
Aerial, washing line, oval lidded litter bin,
Everything, every field and tree and shrivelled leaf,
All bequeathed
The same cold kiss of snow cloud breath.
Food & Connection
Melanie Kalay & BMECP (Brighton)
BMECP (Black & Minority Ethnic Community Partnership) is a community centre in Brighton. They host a range of regular activities and, since the pandemic began, a food bank. Many users of the centre explained that other emergency food providers didn’t provide the ingredients they were familiar with so BMECP established a regular service focused on ingredients for African and Asian cooking.
Melanie Kalay spent time getting to know the space and the people who visited and worked there. Juliet the manager was very keen to offer some creative activities, and to connect the Food Bank with other community activities at the centre. She and Mela agreed that sharing stories about food could be a useful and gentle way to begin relationships.
This research was happening during a Covid wave in the UK, so people were keeping their visits to the centre very short or picking up food on behalf of others. Mela therefore collaborated with local illustrator Jill Carpin to create an eye-catching flyer that could be distributed with food. These flyers invited people to respond with either hand-written notes and recipes or online chats.
With a strong collaborative relationship now in place, Mela hopes to pursue future projects at the centre using her multidisciplinary practice: from in-person cooking events to yoga classes.
Maiya Leeke - Dance in Care Settings
Following on from our Remote Residency programme, Maiya continued her research exploring dance in care settings. She conducted interviews with staff and patients, received mentoring support from other artists to develop her toolkit of skills for working in these environments, and fed back to Terrestrial and peers on her on-the-ground learning.
We also want to mention Alex Zawadzki and Jamie Holman (Uncultured Creatives), who spent time investigating the needs and interests of people experiencing homelessness near to their base at Prism Contemporary in Blackburn. Through a dialogue with the Council (owners of the studio building) they were able to catalyse a project that supported local emerging artists to deliver workshops with the people they’d met on the streets (eg. designing and making masks, festive gifts etc.).
You can hear all of these artists, and many others, talking about their work in our Conversations with Community Artists series.