To the doorstep and beyond

Background 

This is one of a series of five articles showcasing the interim insights of the Learning through the pandemic project.

Common Vision and Creative United have been commissioned by Arts Council England to deliver the project, listening to cultural practitioners and sharing community engagement and participation best practice from the first two years of the pandemic.

Each of these articles are a preview of content which will appear in a final playbook; they include an overview of the learnings under this theme followed by practical resources you can explore. The playbook will expand on this with top-tips, case studies and consideration points

This article was written by Matilda Agace, Senior Research and Engagement Manager, Common Vision.

Learnings

Through the pandemic our streets, back gardens, town centres and beaches have all become places for creativity and culture to be experienced and enjoyed. Many cultural organisations and practitioners stepped outside of the comfort of their venues and studios to meet people in their own neighbourhoods and public spaces. Whilst outdoor arts specialists had been developing these ways of working for many years, working in these environments was a learning curve for many organisations. 

Successive lockdowns meant many people around the UK hardly left their homes for months on end, leaving them feeling atomised and isolated. Our desk research, interviews and focus groups have highlighted how cultural organisations tenaciously worked to engage and support people in their own homes by developing at-home creative resources and digital experiences. But these still often lacked something: human-to-human connection, and a sense of shared, collective enjoyment and wonder. 

As soon as it was possible, many organisations channelled their efforts into restarting live in-person connection, whilst keeping people safe and healthy, by working outside. We’ve seen how organisations worked with the constraints and opportunities of many different contexts:

Doorstep and garden

Taking performance and culture to local residents’ doorsteps and back gardens started as we emerged from the depths of lockdown. Practitioners developed specialist shows to adapt to the boundaries of this context, slimming down the number of performers, or playing with the limitations of social distancing. This work on doorsteps and in back gardens was often developed for people who were sheltering inside for longer than everyone else, and therefore had a welfare focus as well as a creative one. For instance, Acta Community Theatre’s Lockdown doorstep visits film was produced out of material developed when visiting their Malcolm X Elders Theatre group on their doorsteps, and Duckie’s Posh Club’s Easter bunny doorstep tour was aimed at older isolating community members. 

Others developed work for families (including those of key workers) who needed an injection of variety and fun in their days to keep connected and motivated. Bamboozle brought 30-minute micro-performances of live theatre to the doorsteps and back gardens of families with children with profound and multiple learning disabilities, setting up a gazebo for the families to watch in, and providing flyers for inviting neighbours along, to counter social isolation. Individual practitioners often led this work, such as choreographers Tamar and Jo’s Doorstep Dance pay-it-forward programme to support Hull’s more isolated community members and frontline grassroots groups. 

Steet and neighbourhood

To help facilitate community connection and social confidence, many cultural organisations and practitioners worked in socially distanced ways through entire streets or neighbourhoods. This work often aimed to create the energy and excitement of big public events, sparking the imagination of with those who wouldn’t typically choose to participate in the arts. Theatre Factory’s commission of a four-metre-tall street puppet of a Border Collie generated so much interest from local residents that it led to an outdoor dog-making workshop followed by a ‘dog show’ and parade.

Other approaches harnessed the spaces within residential streets, setting up micro galleries in home windows. Winter Windowland supported communities to make trails of festival window displays, and Theatre Alibi’s St Thomas Story Tours collected stories of the neighbourhood from local residents to develop a social-distanced walk guided by actors and storytellers, and a book-able doorstep performance which everyone in the street could watch together.

Civic spaces and town centres

The energy and fun of outdoor collective culture has the power to enliven an area, bring joy to passers-by, and spark connection between community members. Some organisations experimented with novel social distancing, for instance Slung Low’s Wrongsemble car park performance was held in the two-by-two-metre bays in the car park, with tents for each bubble to watch a performance safely, and headsets so the play could be heard by all. ZoieLogic Dance Theatre’s  Grid Experience provided a safe way for people to dance together and boost wellbeing outdoors. 

Other organisations experimented with interventions in public space. Southpaw Dance Company’s REACH performances saw a community-sourced narrative performed by 14 emerging dance artists at three Metro stations in Newcastle and Tyneside. Creative Folkstone’s The Plinth, a massive open exhibition hosted on 14 outdoor plinths placed around Folkstone, encouraged residents to display their own art, take photos, and get creative outdoors again. And Peterborough Presents’ memory tours of Millfield town reached 7000 people with hybrid online-content and street-based exhibits. You can see more examples on Outdoor Arts UK’s mapping project of work during 2021. 

Parks, woods, beaches and in nature

Green space, trees, and nature have been a refuge for many people during the pandemic, providing a safe space to socialise, play, and relax. Many cultural organisations and practitioners have been exploring how to use green spaces as a site for art and performance. East Durham Creates and The Barn at Easington created a series of ‘Fishes and Wishes’ video guides for children, telling them a story and guiding them to make fish out of found natural materials on the beach or outdoors. Company Of Others’ Grief Floats performances used the resistance of the North Sea and the stretch of a Tyneside beach as a natural distancing device, with dancers performing in the sea and audience members watching from the sand. While Nottingham Poetry Festival’s word walks, guided by professional poets in local parks, led participants through writing exercises to explore the poetry in the everyday; Nene Park Trust’s 42Words project developed a responsive artist commissions, based on words fed in from community members, that were displayed on the park’s trees, fences and an underpass; and dart’s Creative Rambles led groups of older residents on poet-led walks around Mexborough parks.

Resources 

The resources below may help your organisation develop your at-home provision, get new ideas for developing your existing at-home work, and reflect on what the future of these methods are beyond lockdowns. More will be available in the ‘Learning through the pandemic’ playbook, due to be published by Common Vision in early 2022.

Outdoor Arts UK: Outdoor Arts COVID-19 sector guidance: Guidance from July 2020 covers pointers for a wide range of outdoor performance including static street shows; processions and carnivals; park festival, instillations, light nights, and walkabout events. 

Exeter Culture: Get-in, Get-out, Get On: Successfully Delivering Outdoor Performance Work in Covid Times:  A practical guide that walks you through the considerations of outdoor performance during the pandemic, from how to do risk assessments to what to include in your briefing to performers. It is studded with case studies covering static street shows, walkabout performers, stilt and arial artists, self-contained performances in vans or tents.

Creative Lives: Get Creative Outdoors Festival toolkit: A briefing for taking part in Creative Lives’ open-source outdoor creativity festival. The guidance provides wider pointers for putting on outdoor events during the pandemic. 

The Audience Agency: Using evidence to… reprogramme outdoor events: A guide to re-engaging audiences in a socially distanced way by outing on outdoor events and performances. It guides you through knowing who to contact to get permissions, understanding who might come, how to ticket it, and knowing who turned up.

Oily Cart: Doorstep Jamboree participant guides: Guides that accompanied Oil Cart’s project in which a travelling Balkan band popped up across London on the doorsteps of families who were still shielding. The Doorstep Jamboree Home Gig Social Story is a good example of pre-performance material to send participants. 

Doorstep Theatre Project: Performance and safety guidelines: This set of guidelines for doorstep performance produced by this American theatre company provides useful examples of the kind of safety precautions you may want to consider.

Events Industry Forum: Making Outdoor Event Gatherings Happen Again: Published by trade body for event professional in Many 2020, this guide makes the case for safe re-starting of public events but has some practical pointers that may continue to be useful as the pandemic develops. 

National Rural Touring Forum: Rural Touring venue Risk Assessment & Check list ideas: A spreadsheet that lists different kinds of risks associated with touring (whether in a venue of outside) and suggests different mitigation measures.