Arts Council: Creative Places, Sheffield

What?

• Creative Places is a partnership which aims to integrate the arts into large-scale house and community building programmes in Sheffield
• Projects to date include :
  • Postcards from Tinsley – a photographic project with the artist Ali White, which captured the views of local residents to the iconic Tinsley cooling towers. The towers needed to be demolished due to structural problems, and the project produced 4000 postcards to ensure every household has a reminder of the towers’ legacy
  • Forum theatre – ahead of the development of the Old Parson Cross, people’s sentiments on public spaces in the area have been used to form the basis of a piece of forum theatre, created by Dead Earnest. The theatre piece, entitled “The View” was a radio first when it was performed at BBC Radio Sheffield Open Centre, to a live audience of local residents
  • S2 Legends – young people’s views on the Manor area, also due for redevelopment will be recorded by artist Richard Hanson, working with local youth groups. The young people will be encouraged to photograph their families and the areas they live in, and the resulting pictures will be uploaded along with portraits of the residents to www.S2legends.co.uk
  • Flowers in the Frame – artist Ali White and cultural planning agency Eventus worked with the local community to create wild flower meadows on demolition sites prior to development. Photographs of the meadows and the local people who created them were produced as reminders

When?

Creative Places grew from an initiative set up by Sheffield City Council and Eventus. It was formally set up in June 2006

How?

• The Creative Places partners are: Arts Council England, Yorkshire; Eventus, a cultural planning and development agency and Sheffield City Council
• The Creative Places programme includes a Public Art Officer; training for regeneration officers to ensure culture is a part of future plans for an area; and specific projects in each Housing Market Renewal area
• Creative Places is funded by Sheffield City Council and Arts Council England, Yorkshire

Summary

• This initiative offers opportunities for the arts to be embedded within large-scale housing/community building programmes and to improve cultural provision in the places experiencing housing renewal and growth
• The programme enables Arts Council England, Yorkshire and the wider arts community to work in partnership with Sheffield City Council and the HMR Pathfinders in the planning and delivery of projects
• Involving artists and cultural practitioners in the planning and design of new high-quality spaces helps:
  
  • make the Sheffield a more desirable place to live
  • create a sense of local pride
  • make development more attractive to investors.