‘Long-term plan to build a community’
IFIRST came to Stoke-ontrent in 1997, as a 19-year-old undergraduate, to study fine art at Staffordshire University.
In many ways, it was an accident that I ended up here, in a city I had only vaguely heard of, and I certainly could not have foreseen that a quarter of a century later, I would be celebrating the longest relationship of my life – a relationship with this bizarre and complex place, where I am now pleased to live and bring up my children.
Like many artists, my work is influenced by the world around me, and since 2006, my research as an artist has focused on the city which I now call home.
Research, the Oxford English Dictionary tells us, means ‘a careful study of a subject, especially in order to discover new facts or information about it’.
Certainly, this describes the work I do to make sense of this place and its heritage and where, as a city, we may be heading.
When we think about this word ‘research’ it can feel remote; like something that happens in labs, or offices, something which is talked about in essays, and theoretical conferences, rather than something that impacts our lives.
Perhaps the reason I have found myself at home here is because the research that we do so well at Staffordshire University, is the kind that happens on the streets of the city, with people, in a connected and connecting way.
In recent years, the university has been recognising its civic role and responsibility for enhancing the quality of life for people living in local communities.
In my case, this is about realworld connections with the people of the city.
My research looks at the resources and gifts of our place, and how they are often overlooked.
It is undeniable that our gifts here are many; the amazing world-leading heritage in ceramics, wonderful buildings, astonishing skills in making and creating, and some really beautiful green spaces, to name just a few.
What is also true is that we are in great need of investment and support, to ensure these gifts are still around for generations to come.
My research asks what might happen if we are able to reframe our gifts and potential, by putting decision-making and the capacity for change into the
hands of the people who live and work here, to explore what good we can do for ourselves, with the right support and resources.
In the past few weeks, the university has celebrated achieving significant success in a nationwide research quality measuring exercise, REF2021.
In my department, art and design, 91 per cent of our research was measured as internationally significant or world leading, but what feels more important is that 100 per cent of our research impact was rated as very considerable or outstanding.
To me, the ways in which our research can make a difference to the lives of people is the most important aspect of what we do.
Collaborative research projects I have worked on in the past few years include working with colleagues at Airspace Gallery to develop the Spode Rose Garden from an abandoned space, into a well-used pocket park.
I now collaborate with fellow artist Rebecca Davies as part of a team that includes the community of the Portland Street area of Stoke-on-trent.
The Portland Inn Project hosts a regular creative programme which aims to bring a community together through cultural and social activity and ultimately through developing a disused pub into a community asset.
This year we are working on a 100-year plan.
Across arts and community sectors, the way that activity and development is funded is often in short term, project-based works.
It is widely acknowledged that this can lead to a lack of opportunity to plan long term, and often results in a lack of resource and opportunity to make lasting change.
For a community to embark on putting together a 100-year plan, each smaller, short term project can be viewed as part of a wider landscape plan.
For 2022, The Portland Inn Project is embarking on writing our 100-year plan for our neighbourhood and this work will inform the development of a set of influencing tools, in order that other areas nationally can benefit from the work we are doing on our Stoke-on-trent street.
The 100-year plan borrows from landscape architecture and design-thinking to empower communities, funders and policy makers to resist short-term project based thinking, and to begin to think more holistically and sustainably, longer term, which can have significant benefits, socially, politically and environmentally.
In Stoke-on-trent, there is so much more to learn and discover and so my research continues….