Community Power Podcast Series 1 Episode 9: Making space for creativity in Cornwall

Episode 9: Making space for creativity in Cornwall

Chris Allen

Hello and welcome to another Community Power Podcast, a weekly series brought to you by the Community Wealth Fund campaign in partnership with Local Trust. My name’s Chris Allen, and in this series, we’re showcasing some incredible projects, focusing in particular on what happens when you give local people the power, the money and the assets to make a difference to their neighbourhoods. With me is series producer Beth Lazenby. Beth, where are we off to this week?

Beth Lazenby

So this week, Chris, we’re going all the way down to Par Bay in Cornwall, and we’re going to be chatting to Hannah and Liz, who run a community interest group called Make Space Cornwall. They’re going to be chatting to us about what they do to provide creative sessions to local residents and all of the benefits that it’s brought to their community so far.

Chris Allen

Thanks Beth. Indeed, a very beautiful part of the country down in Par Bay in Cornwall. Pity, it’s only a virtual visit. We’re going to be hearing from Liz Davies. But first of all, I put to Hannah Shore that I really like the title of Make Space Cornwall. How did that come about?

Hannah

Oh, thank you. Well, it was really about making space for yourself and having time to focus on creativity and one thing at a time, and that space being anywhere. It could be your kitchen table, it could be down in the village hall, it could be up in your attic, in your shed, wherever it needed to be. We very much kind of realised that a lot of creatives and artistic people who may not, you know, have the opportunity to go to university to do creative pursuits will often be working from their kitchen table or in their attic.

Chris Allen

It sounded very much immediately there that we’re talking about making space for yourself, but also, it’s something to do with mental health and wellbeing in this?

Hannah

It’s about also living in the part of Cornwall where we do. There are parts of Cornwall that have had a historical artistic culture, like St Ives, Newlyn, Falmouth where the art school is. And Par has really missed out on that. But there are a lot of people, artists and creatives that live here that really earn very little and work in isolation. And one of the aims with Make Space, and also part of the wider Creative Civic Change initiative, is actually to expose more residents to cultural activity on their doorstep, which will hopefully have the outcomes of better mental health and wellbeing, and processing and encouraging their own creativity.

Chris Allen

I had a quick look at your website, and I was looking down all the different ways by which people could interact, all the different talents you’ve got there. I thought I was almost on the Repair Shop cast for a minute or two really. You’ve got such a range of talents there, and that gives people a whole range of ways in which they can explore their artistic talents or just find out if they have any artistic talent.

Liz

A lot of the makers that we have listed on our website – there are more, I haven’t had time to list all of them yet – they have either come and delivered workshops in the name of Make Space, or they’ve come and contributed in other ways, and all of them extremely talented.

Chris Allen

And you’ve got this motto of art makes things better. How did that come about? What was the ​‘better’ you had in mind?

Liz

Well, let’s start with the fact we’re not claiming that art makes everything better. We’re merely highlighting the fact that immersing yourself in creative pursuits has many benefits. And you know, if you spend the time on yourself, you can clear your mind and take the time to process, and problem solve.

Hannah

And I think there’s also an issue about it being an open-ended activity when we live in such a target structured society. And I think one of the things that we aim to do is to be inclusive and bring people together where they feel they haven’t got to be a brilliant artist or not to be judged on their work.

Liz

And it’s very much a safe space. So Make Space often runs in pop up locations in marquees or village halls. So whenever anyone arrives to a Make Space event, they get welcomed by me or one of the team, and we take our time. It’s not about come in, sit down, you’ve paid your money. Here’s the workshop. It’s about coming in and being invited into that little community, socialising, interacting and learning from each other.

Chris Allen

Well, I can see that you’re focusing on the learner space and looking at some of the pictures you got there, you know, there’s a lot of colour, a lot of fun. There’s a lot of mess at times as well. So it sort of is a broader canvas. But I suppose through all that you do, people might be discovering that they have a talent they didn’t realise because no one had really given that chance at school, or they were bad at art, and they just gave up, thought, ​“I can’t do that”. And they’ve suddenly discovered, ​“Well, actually, this stuff I can do”. Have you got any examples of people who sort of been pleasantly surprised about the artistic talent they suddenly discovered they’ve got?

Liz

Hillary, she came in, and that was very much. She works in a primary school. And before that, before children, she was very creative, and it kind of lay dormant in her. And she came along to one of our free pilot workshops that we did pre-pandemic, and she just got totally lost in it. You could see her coming to life with it. It was absolutely fantastic. And she’s gone on to carry on creating and doing further workshops. She started off her own little creative group that now meet. So they’ve got their own little group, which is lovely. It’s really nice. And she’s selling some of her work. The telephone box has been turned into a mini gallery.

Chris Allen

Nice.

Liz

She’s displayed some of her work in there as well. So she’s gone from strength to strength. And I feel quite humbled in the fact that it was kind of reignited by one of our events, and it definitely increases the mental wellbeing of the people there.

Hannah

Yeah, self-esteem, self-confidence and having fun.

Chris Allen

Yeah, we’re allowed to have fun, aren’t we? We are allowed.

Liz

Yeah, let loose. Throw some paint around, push some clay. It’s so important that we’re able to play and have a good time.

Chris Allen

These programmes, they’re resident-led, designed — you let people do what they want to do. Why is that important? As opposed to you sort of, sort of saying, ​“Hey, this is, this is the route you need to go down”.

Hannah

Well, we’re not an academic or educational facility as such, are we. We don’t, we don’t have that, that sort of paradigm, but, but it is about individual expression. People who feel that that’s something that’s been lost to them for many years, very often. And I think particularly so for women. I think there’s, there’s a gender issue there where women are so primarily involved still in childcare and homemaking, still, that just to have that time is so important.

Liz

I think if you’re suffering from mental health problems or poverty, or whatever it may be coming to one of our events can just be that little bit of lighthearted fun that you needed to make yourself realise that it isn’t all doom and gloom. And actually you can throw yourself into making something and chatting over a cup of tea and actually it not being about being the best one at making that thing. It is purely about getting immersed in that flow, in the process and allowing that to happen. And a lot of people initially find it quite hard. You spot them, don’t you, and you go and sit down and you have a side-by-side conversation. Rather than an interview, it’s, it’s just a chat about where they are in their day and how they’re doing and ​“oh what are you making?” And it’s quite a special environment that gets created between a group of people who are all immersed in that one thing, yeah.

Hannah

And it’s a social occasion as well. But also, if I’m doing those workshops, time goes so quickly. Three hours seems to go in as if it’s 20 minutes, it’s just so immersive and so much, so enjoyable.

Chris Allen

And art is sometimes used as a way by which people can express some of their deeper feelings, deeper issues as well. Do you find that in in workshops, that people are able to explore their feelings through the art that they’re doing?

Liz

For sure, and it may not always be apparent, but you can see people who are completely just processing the materials or whatever, and they are focused, and they are in it. And you kind of think I’m just going to leave them to it for a minute, because they’re doing something significant.

Chris Allen

It’s intensely personal at times, isn’t it?

Hannah

Completely, absolutely. I mean, I’m a jeweller myself, and I ran a jewellery making workshop, and this one lady, she was really taking it out on that metal. She was hammering away. She was loving it, and she’d got a newborn baby, and she was allowed out for the day. It was like a special treat to come and just have some head space. And, oh, it was wonderful. Yeah, she’d come with two friends and just let rip with this hammer. She made a beautiful set of rings. It was really great.

Chris Allen

Obviously, some key therapy of different kinds in there as well, at times too. And do you have the opportunity to see the longer-term impact on people? Because obviously they come along as part of a project. Do you sort of keep a link with them so you see what happens next?

Hannah

Yeah, we do like to I’ve got a nice group of contacts, actually. And we do keep in touch via social media, you know, and we update them about events we’ve got. And we often get people coming back and enjoying our workshops again and again. We’ve actually got Make Fest happening again this year. And I’ll email all of the guys that came along from last year and anyone in between, and let them know that we’re offering some more, some more, light relief and hammering.

Chris Allen

Elizabeth, anything, any, anybody in your mind, as you think you can see some kind of longer-term impact on them in terms of confidence, building skills, building obviously not naming them, but just stories that you see there?

Liz

Yes. I mean, there have been some people that have taken part, but not just to Make Space, but other participants in the Creative Civic Change programme. Some have enjoyed themselves and gone on to do the same things that they did before. And there are other people who’ve really, really flown with ideas, with a whole wealth of interactive activities, and some of them to do with ceramics. To do with the environment, to do with our place in the world, which is at a very high flood risk area. To think about all of those things together with the legacy of the Par area, which is very much to do with ceramics and the China clay industry.

Hannah

There’s one person that’s just sprung to mind while Liz was talking. And she came in looking very much like she just wanted the ground to swallow her up. It had obviously taken her a lot to come and I almost kind of held her hand and took her to her seat and congratulated her for getting there, because you could see that that, in itself, was an achievement. Eventually, she relaxed, she relaxed, and at the end, she had made a set of rings, and she came over and she said, ​“I wish I could hug you. I almost didn’t come. I’ve been able to make a set of rings for my sister, who has been really poorly throughout lockdown, and this is something I’ve made for her to cheer her up”, and it obviously meant an awful lot that she’d done the whole process, and it would mean a lot to her sister as well.

Chris Allen

It strikes me that you’ve created space there where the vulnerable feel they can come to.

Hannah

It’s okay to come and get stuff wrong and try and get it wrong again, and that’s alright. It’s okay that you’re not perfect at something straight away. Kids aren’t. They each get up and try again. But for adults to come along to a creative thing and get it wrong first time, it takes more out of you, I think. So you do, you have to kind of ​“Come on. You can do it. You can do it. Get it wrong. It’s alright. We’ve got another piece of whatever it is over here, and you can try again.”

Chris Allen

And we have this wonderful phrase nowadays called social prescribing. You’re giving therapy out there to people. Is it being recognised, the value of it in the statutory sector, you know, by the local doctors, or anything along those lines, or is it not seen as that kind of mainstream therapy yet?

Liz

We’re working on it.

Hannah

Yeah, at the beginning, getting involved with projects like this is slower. I think it’s just taking a bit more time than we would like, really, isn’t it?

Liz

It is. Well, I think what we’re doing as well is promoting a network of friends, fellow artists and community, which ultimately will help how, you know, where we live in Par. Help to raise the profile, the artistic profile of our community. And I would like to see Par Bay as a creative hub.

Chris Allen

Obviously, you work in collaboration with other people. One of the key organisations, events you work with is Prodigal Urban Playground. Tell us all about that.

Hannah

They run an event called Par-ty, which is a mini festival.

Liz

It’s a free family festival, and it was very successful in September last year. And we’ve now got funding to be able to do it again in September this year, and actually to make it an annual event. And one of the throw-offs from it really is the fact that there’s a group called the Emergent Ensemble, which has been an apprenticeship, if you like, for five performing arts graduates who couldn’t find employment. And they’ve had this apprenticeship and the chance to take part, to have a quite substantial part in the festival.

Hannah

And they’re dance based, aren’t they?

Liz

They’re dance and parkour based, and also they’ve all gone now, the ones that have done that year apprenticeship have gone on to all full-time employment in performing arts. Whereas before, they were working in low paid jobs and didn’t see that they would ever be able to be in their profession at all and stay in the place where they live.

Hannah

And that’s the real achievement, yeah, is that Cornwall is so overlooked, and everyone has to go from Cornwall up country to be a part of these bigger programmes.

Liz

That’s right.

Hannah

And that’s what Prodigal and ourselves are really trying to change. It’s actually just being able to have those things accessible within our community.

Liz

Yeah, I see Cornwall as a canvas of creativity, some of which hasn’t been actually explored yet. But I’d also say that there’s been a historical brain and cultural drain, if you like, of people that have had to leave and work elsewhere, and part of what we’ve done with the programme is to actually make a start on allowing young people to stay.

Hannah

And we’re working on Par Bay Creatives, which, which will be one of our kind of legacy things going forward, won’t it? Which is, it’s purely a community of these isolated artists that get together and have a likeminded kind of ethos and outlook on life and sharing their skills with the community.

Chris Allen

And people who obviously like to Par-ty.

Hannah

Yeah and Par-ticipate.

Liz

With their Par-tners.

Chris Allen

That’s Hannah Shore and Liz Davies from Make Space Cornwall. Where can we find out more, Beth?

Beth Lazenby

So we’ll pop the website address to Make Space Cornwall in the show notes, where you can have a little browse around and maybe even get inspired to do some art yourselves!

Chris Allen

Thanks, Beth. Yeah, maybe give it a go or start a project yourself. You might have some hidden talent in there. I know I haven’t, but you might just. Beth and I look forward to joining us next time on the Community Power Podcast, brought to you by the Community Wealth Fund campaign and Local Trust, discovering what happens when you give local people the money, the power, the assets and some space to be creative, to make a difference to their neighbourhoods.