Five questions with...Take A Part
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Tell us about how you’ve been working during lockdown?
We’ve been continuing to work with our communities in Plymouth which experience social injustices, that are currently magnified. We’re also directly supporting artists and organisations who work in social practice, or want to, with free 1-1 Surgeries and Virtual Visits to studios. We’ve been profiling these artists in our e-news each week. If you’d like to take part, please email hello@takeapart.org.uk.
With local schools, we devised Creative Making Packs to directly support frontline worker and vulnerable families to be creative together in stressful times. Artists Bridgette Ashton and Joanna Brinton are using these packs to give a community task for their Coxside Cartographies project. The first task is to create maps of local social distancing walks. These maps are shared in school windows and online so community members can suggest routes and things to see.
How are you reaching communities?
We’ve always worked on the ground and with our communities directly to co-author the creative projects that they want to engage with. We’re meeting virtually with them via Zoom now, but that’s not easy. 8% of the UK population don’t have access to digital in the home (ONS data). Even more may only have one device in a whole household or limited data packages. There is a huge divide. So we also pick up the phone and do flyer drops.
We’re lucky, because we have so many key partnerships in communities we can turn to. Local schools, residents groups, housing associations and youth workers are all helping us reach out.
Right now, we are devising a community ‘zine’ in Coxside with local residents as the authors and editors. The aim is for the community to have a non-digital way to reach one another that echoes their voice and reflects their needs. The zine will include information on things such as foodbank opening hours, where to go to borrow what you need, recipes to share and more.
What have you learned about making work under lockdown?
Needs change, people’s capacities change, guidelines and desires change. What has been clear is that we’ve needed to respond much more quickly, and to keep listening. So not locking yourself into one path and being open is really the best approach.
We’ve noticed that mental health and self care for our team is paramount, and we are investing in it. We introduced No Work Wednesdays (same pay, one less day), a Taking Care Fund (£100 for each team member to spend on what makes them feel better) and are working towards an After This is Over Bonus for all the hard work the team has put in.
If you had one piece of advice for other organisations/artists looking to make work now, what would it be?
It’s all about going outside of your comfort zone and your venues.
Pick up the phone today. What does your local foodbank need? What could you do to support the homeless shelter? How can you, as a creative organisation or artist, be relevant today?
What can you do where you live to make the world better? Partner more, and always. If you don’t do this now, then when will you? Now is the time to use your skills to make good. To make the connections you need to ensure that you continue to be useful in our new society. We all have one shot at shifting our practices to be relevant in the future. As Drucker says, ‘Abandon yesterday.’ Do different.
What are you working on next, and what are you looking forward to in the future?
Lots! We are moving some of our Social Making symposium workshops online now to support the sector to be more prepared for collaborative working moving forward - mental health awareness, how to run accessible events, community fundraising and supporting diverse audiences, how to create podcasts etc.
We are initiating a South West Social Art Network to virtually connect the socially engaged and community arts practitioners across the region together to find out more about what is needed to create resilience moving forward and to imagine for the next phase.
We are also asking our communities now to think about where they want to go. What creativity do they want to have happen when we come through this. Carnivals? Allotments? Documentaries?
