Small Radical Acts
In April 2020 in response to the physical, political, and economic climate that we found ourselves, we were looking for ways to explore how socially engaged creative practice might evolve over the coming months and years. We knew from our past long term residency work and neighbour programmes, that work that looked to gently shift thinking or perspectives was often some of the most powerful work we have done. Work started discreetly with small numbers of people on the streets of our neigbourhoods was often more purposeful and authentic than setting out with grand intentions.
We also wanted to hear from artists about if and how their practices were evolving now that the boundaries between work and life were becoming ever more blurred with people taking on the roles of parents, careers and community support. What could we learn from these shifts?
We invited a group of 10 artists with an interest in working with people to explore initially the hypothesis that small acts of change or resistance can be radical as large acts. The group were carefully selected and includes five locally based and five nationally based artists. Over six virtual sessions the artists came together as a peer group to talk.
The SRA group is ongoing and we plan to do a physical meet up of the artists in Blackpool in October. We would like to act on some of the proposals of the group and bring the artists closer to our programme to help us inform the direction of how we work within our local neighbourhoods.