SPICE project
SPICE (Stimulating Participation in the Informal Creative Economy) is an AHRC-funded project that seeks to connect Strandlines with other creative community engagement initiatives.
A series of workshops in four different UK locations are taking place between May and August 2011: The Strand in London, Jericho Boatyard in Oxford, Sheffield, and Saltburn in North Yorkshire/East Cleveland. Three members from each of the communities are invited to join each of the two-day workshops. Discussions and reflections about the project can be found on the SPICE blog.
The workshops investigate the informal creative economy (such as guided walks, ad-supported blogs and community-generated tourism) that has grown up around cultural heritage projects, and its role in developing the well-being of communities. Each workshop focuses on a different aspect of the relations between people, place, identity, creativity and sustainability.
1. Understanding the Informal Creative Economy: East Cleveland/North Yorkshire, May 24th-25th 2011
Questions: What is an Informal Creative Economy? And how and why would we nurture it?
This workshop looks at the value of activities that grow up round place and community and identifies core elements with an eye to attracting more engagement: both as audiences and as participants. The economy is unpicked as a site of value exchange, including how cultural, social or financial aspects interplay.
We will do our work in Saltburn, in the former homes of the mine owner and mine manager in an area that has been building a new identity as tourist destination in the wake of the withdrawal of the coal and steel industries.
2. Nurturing the Informal Creative Economy: Identity/Impact - London, June 15th-16th 2011
Questions: What does it mean to recognise heritage? Whose counts and how is it to be expressed?
This workshop acknowledges that all movements for change – even those that protect/develop heritage, environment and place – introduce chosen and hidden impacts. It looks at how processes work to highlight different aspects and considers the effects on participants, bystanders and those to be influenced.
The London workshop will focus on the life of The Strand, a historic street in the centre of the West End, and the many strata of people who come through it, work or live there.
3. Maintaining the Informal Creative Economy: Viability/Sustainability/Income - Sheffield, August 1st-2nd
Questions: What does it take to make creativity sustainable? How do values balance in the informal economy?
This workshop considers the nitty-gritty of keeping your activities afloat, whether by recruiting fresh energy or generating more cash.
We will be based in the Gist Lab, a city-centre open source hub for local activities that is so new that it is still creating its identity within the Creative Industries Sector that Sheffield is known for.
4. Summing up the Informal Creative Economy: Cohesion/Growth/Summary - Oxford, August 26th-27th
Questions: What are the big goals? How do we keep them in focus? How do we attain them?
This workshop sees us drawing our learning together and preparing case studies and tips to put into a summative document and multimedia record of the project. We will gather insights on building community, preserving culture and making longer-term projects viable and record this learning for use with policy- makers and publics interested in generating an informal creative economy based on place.
The last visit is to Oxford’s Jericho Boatyard, focus of a long campaign to preserve both a historic location and a way of life. We will be based on a boat on the canal and close the sequence with thoughts on what we need as moorings and what we can carry with us.