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ExpErimEnts inplacE making
Case study 1
 Arts and Social Change
Intergenerational chart or Reminiscences and Connections
The GOODWILL postcard restson the window ledge o one o theparticipating houses
 
thE author: richard ings
 As an independent writer, researcher and arts consultant over the last twenty-ve years, Richard Ings has worked with numerouscultural organisations, rom Arts Council England and the CalousteGulbenkian Foundation to the National Youth Theatre andGlyndebourne Productions. A selection o his publications maybe read and downloaded at www.richardings.posterous.com.
This case study is the rst in a series o ve which will explore key strands o the Arts andSocial Change programme within Citizen Power Peterborough. This set o case studies willexplore how these projects contribute to theaims o Citizen Power and uncover some o theinherent challenges we have encountered, inthe hope that these may prove useul or similar initiatives.
pEoplE.crEatE.changE.
citizEn powEr pEtErborough
Citizen Power Peterborough is a two-year programme o actionsupported by Peterborough City Council, the Royal Society o Artsand Arts Council England. The aim is to build connections betweenpeople and communities, get people more involved in public lieand encourage active citizenship. Citizen Power Peterboroughre-examines many aspects o lie in the city through a number orelated projects ocused on new ways o supporting local peopleand their communities to make a positive dierence. There aresix projects in Citizen Power; Recovery Capital, PeterboroughCurriculum, Civic Commons, ChangeMakers, Sustainable Citizenshipand Arts and Social Change.
arts and social changE
 Arts and Social Change looks at the role o arts and imagination increating new connections between people and where they live inorder to strengthen participation in community lie in Peterborough.This programme involves a wide range o projects that place artistsat the centre o re-imagining the possibilities o what a place couldbe and how to create this together with a ocus upon:
• The commissioning of high quality, innovative arts
interventions
• The building and strengthening of a locally based
arts ecology
• The exploration of the role artists can play and contribute
 within social change contexts
• The integration of arts and creativity within the city’s
aspirations and initiatives
 
Case study 1 | Experiments in Place Making | 54 | Case study 1 | Experiments in Place Making
thE naturE of an ExpErimEnt
One thing that makes Experiments in Place Making dierentrom more traditional arts interventions is its genuinely experimentalnature. Each project is a dierent attempt to remodel the relationshipbetween the artist and the citizen and to integrate creative with socialpractice. The artist has to create a project design that is sensitiveto local needs and that oers more than a targeted workshopapproach. Ideally, their intervention should act as a catalyst or socialand even political engagement. Although each experiment is smallscale, it should serve to show how a more lasting change mighthappen. It could then, in practical terms, provide something solidor council ocers and artists to build on.Out o this programme can come not just greater social engagementamongst people living in the same place but the possibility o a morecreative and productive relationship between citizens and their localgovernment. These experiments provide a hint o new ways in whichideas can be exchanged and issues negotiated as part o a new andmore democratic conversation. Both the project itsel and the newrelationships it has generated will help to create a useul legacy:a new ecology or joined up practice and creative approaches toshared problem-solving. In discovering the opportunities and benets
of working in the ‘civic sphere’, artists will understand better how
their talents and skills can help to build genuine orms o community.Neighbourhood managers will understand better how local artistscan contribute to greater community cohesion and what they needto do to broker relationships between local people and their creativecounterparts.
introducing an ExpErimEnt
The Arts & Social Change strand o Citizen Power has anoverarching aim: to support the development o a fourishingarts scene in Peterborough underpinned by a stronger sense obelonging amongst its citizens. The primary strategy or achieving
this is to build ‘connectivity’ amongst artists, between artists and
the community and – most importantly in terms o active citizenship– amongst local people themselves. Artists working in Peterborough had been discussing how this mightbe achieved at the Creative Gatherings (organised or Arts & SocialChange by Chris Higgins and Fiona Lesley o the MAP Consortium).
It quickly became clear that practical examples would be needed to
underpin and inorm the debates and conversations that had begun
 with Peterborough City Council’s neighbourhood managers about
eective ways o working together in the city and or the benet oits people. The Experiments in Place Making programme, launchedin October 2010, was the outcome: a resh approach to developing
community identity and civic purpose through quietly innovative
creative engagements.The Experiments in Place Making programme has worked bypartnering two locally based artists who have not worked together beore with a neighbourhood manager in order to develop newapproaches to place-making and conduct specic interventions thataddress a local need. Seven projects in seven neighbourhoods wereplanned and, a year on, our have been completed.
The primary strategy for achieving thisis to build ‘connectivity’ amongst artists,between artists and the community, andamongst local people themselves.Each project is a different attempt toremodel the relationship between theartist and the citizen.
casE study 1
ExpErimEntsin placE making
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