Community Art Project 2008 (Part1)

The Community Art Project as it has come to be known, is a pilot project for New East Manchester. With the aid of funding it is hoped that through art & artists skills, something positive can be done in the community where we live.

The project is supported by Art Council England, Manchester City Council, Housing Market Renewal, Eastlands Homes and Whitworth Art Gallery. The project came about through government directives to implement regeneration projects using art as a foundation. Several projects were shortlisted around the country, and has it happens one was chosen in East Manchester, namely the wall that backs onto Alan Turing Way. As I said it is a pilot project, and from the outset several problems arose, mainly concerning community consultation and implementation of the project.

The estate where the project is located is part of an ongoing investment program by Eastlands Homes, many of the homes on the estate have recently had new garden walls built. The first problem concerning the project is that Churchfield Walk and Pitman Close did not get any new garden walls, it was only after a letter was circulated did they know anything about the art project. This already creates a divide within the community, some of the community wanting to know why those particular houses might be getting something different. The second problem was when a meeting was called, which invited people from the estate to discuss how the project will be implemented. This is where it failed again, first it should have been established that a project was wanted by the community. Thirdly the people who were directly affected by the project were not even consulted, a major oversight. I would have thought it commonsense to ask the people whether they wanted an art project in the first place or just an ordinary garden wall like everyone else.

Happily, commonsense prevailed and the project co-ordinators (Jason Bowman & Julie Crawshaw) and Steve Coram from Eastlands Homes listened to comments made and rectified any previous mistakes, and now the Community Art Project is going ahead and hopefully will be finished before christmas. A steering group has now been setup to oversee the project made up of people from the estate along with interested parties. Funding is already in place although personally I would like lots more money to make this something really special and showcase what East Manchester can do, so if Sean is looking in, dig deep please, you know you want to.

We have already had several meetings that have gone well, and it can be quite daunting for members of the community to visualise what impact art could have on their wall. One immediately thinks of puttings pictures on the wall when you mention art, but that is not the case. I have a background of working in brick and know from experience just what can be achieved, that is not to say the material that is finally used will be brick, but it is my personal preference. My reasoning is based on that sense of safety and security that comes from brick, it is long lasting and versatile. I have included a couple of examples here just to illustrate what I mean about versatility.

There are many materials that are suitable for a wall, it does not have to be brick, other materials to consider are; Concrete, Wood, Metal, there are other materials, but from a safety aspect probably not. By attending the meetings and looking at how artists work with different materials and how creative they can be, it has opened up a whole new world for me, I am excited even now of how the wall will look when it is finished.  

As I have a personal interest in this project I hope to bring you news and updates as they happen, the next stage we are at is the selection of an artist, we hope to end up with a shortlist of about 3 artists, from that, one will be chosen to work with the community on the project, or maybe more than one artist, you never know.

so I will update this article when I have more news, which will hopefully be at the beginning of next month (august).