CREATIVE PRACTICE AND SOCIAL CHANGE: Part 2 - Grappling with the big stuff

by Tracy Shaw, Loca Creatives Director

 

As I was saying last time, I'm a little preoccupied at the moment with the challenge of explaining, in succinct and persuasive ways, how the kind of 'creative engagement' practice that is at the heart of Loca Creatives' work actually contributes to big-picture social change agendas. The succinct bit's still eluding me, so I'm working on persuasive instead.

Since 'Arts and regeneration' became a label for a broadly defined but particular field of practice - somewhere back in the nineties - the policies and agendas that regeneration links to, and the language around them, have of course shifted. Quite rightly the creative practice has evolved to keep pace. Yet it strikes me that despite shifting agendas and practice there are some constants about how and why artists contribute - not in marginal or icing-on-the-cake ways but fundamentally and crucially - to the big regeneration-related issues and themes of the moment. I thought I'd spend this post setting the scene, then follow up next time with my own takes on what's special, powerful and often unique about what artists bring. It would be great if that prompted a bit of a conversation and some other perspectives - do feel free, it's all grist to the mill and you may unwittingly become the finder of the diamond.

So for starters let's take a scoot round some of the current big themes. Localism, neighbourhood planning, housing improvement, placemaking, revitalising town centres. Active citizenship, asset-based community development, community resilience. Co-design and co-production, participative democracy (along with concepts such as 'co-operative councils' and local authorities as enablers rather than patrician providers). Tackling worklessness, troubled families, aspiration, narrowing the attainment gap. Immigration, integration, inter-culturalism. Health inequalities, mental health and wellbeing generally, young people's mental and emotional health specifically. Sustainable living, environmental responsibility, re-connecting with nature. Spot the ones I've missed. All of course set against a backdrop of 'doing more with less'; poverty on the rise; a general sense of disaffection with - if not alienation from - political processes, decision-making and public services on the part of many; and a generation of young people struggling to see any prospects for themselves or any way of turning their aspirations into reality.

Put like that it's not hard to understand the bemused looks I get from people at (non-arts) meetings and conferences who've come along to talk about big social policy stuff and wonder what a company that does 'arts and regen' or 'creative engagement' has to do with any of it. But hang on, those people. Isn't it the case that we're also gathered here to think about the barriers that need dismantling and the resources that need nurturing amongst people and within communities whose participation as active stakeholders is a pre-requisite for making in-roads with those big agendas? The language we use may vary, but in the kinds of forums I'm referring to aren't we usually grappling with how to achieve the conditions for some or all of the following?

• New kinds of relationships between citizens/residents on the one hand and local government and services on the other, and therefore: different organisational behaviours and more creative ways of thinking, acting and communicating; building trust, mutual respect, collaboration and co-operation; service providers being more comfortable with the notion that people who use local services and live in local places are experts with invaluable views, ideas and experiences. 

• Removing obstacles to engagement: ordinary people feeling involved, responsible and motivated because they feel able to contribute regardless of circumstance, confidence or ability; people feeling listened to; people feeling effective because they see that they have influenced things in ways that make some lasting difference. 

• Connections, pride and belonging: people in communities who feel connected enough - to each other and to the place where they live - to want to be involved in collective action, whether in big ways or through small-scale actions that change and improve things at the 'hyper-local' level; communities where people feel a strong enough sense of shared identity and local pride to want to join with others to make their services, neighbourhoods and spaces better. 

• Vision, aspirations and creative thinking: people able to see things in new ways, dream dreams, imagine new ways of doing things, come up with inventive solutions, contribute to service design and place design, feel part of a shared agenda for change that has personal meaning and relevance.

• Quality spaces: spaces that say people are valued, and that look as if people take pride in them; spaces that contribute to local identity, are conducive to individual and community wellbeing, and to social interaction and bonding.

• Care and respect - for self in the first instance, because unless you care for and respect yourself how can you begin to want to make your own circumstances better or improve the services, facilities and spaces around you? And how can you begin to care for and respect the people you live alongside, or community and society, or the planet? Or want to make the shift from Me to We and have a positive impact on the wider world?

I don't know about you but I'm seeing some key words in all of that. Collaboration. Contribution. Trust. Optimism. Confidence. Curiosity. Listening. Imagination. Vision. Design. Pride. Achievement. Self-belief. Identity. Connections. Belonging. Interaction. Relationships. Conversations. Empathy. Care. Hmmm... I'm thinking this musing about how to articulate the ways in which artists and specialist creative practice contribute to the big social change agendas of our times might just be going somewhere. I'll be back for more, hopefully with you on board and itching to take the steering wheel.