Creative Placemaking in Slough

Creative Placemaking in Slough

To round up our series of news posts on our Placemaking programme, Young Cultural Changemakers, we’re taking at look at Slough! Creative Producers for the area Jo Lonsdale and Ruth Rogers assisted by Creative Producer Apprentices Lucy and Leanne have been busy working on a huge range of projects bringing together partnership organisations, artists, and the young people of Slough. 

So far in Slough, we have:

• Set up a network of Slough Primary Art Subject Leaders and Heads of Art as an Art Leads Forum – informing and developing teaching and learning practices to support the creative curriculum and creative career pathways, with 28 Slough schools registered.
• Delivered creative consultation workshops with Montem Primary and AntzKidz engaging with their Y5 and Y6 Art Ambassadors in some bespoke skills training, empowering the children to have a pupil voice on how their art and design curriculum is delivered across the school.
• Amongst others, we delivered a creative consultation event with Afro Kickz founder Aida Kiraya at Together As One youth group, anda consultation event with Creative Academy in partnership with Avant Garde Dance Company bringing together 92 young people to discuss the challenges and positives of living in Slough.

In the conversations we’ve been having with young people at consultation events about Slough, some common themes that have been emerging include:

• Safety; not being allowed at parks at night because too dangerous /​gangs and knife crime;
• Rubbish and littering in and around Slough /​bins not being emptied /​no respect being shown for Slough;
• Need for places to go for young people /​creative spaces;
• Need for more green and social/​community spaces/​venues.

Building on these consultations, we have some really exciting projects coming up, including:

• A free programme of creative events, developed by young people and launching at the cultural conference on 14^th Feb 2024. Running throughout Feb until the end of July, this programme will provide free workshops and events for young people at the upstairs space at Creative Academy in Slough. Developed with Creative Academy, Prodigy Dance and Youth Dance Slough.
• A cultural conference on knife crime, developed by the young people of Together As One youth group in response to the loss of their friend from knife crime in September. Entitled ​‘Safe and Sound’, it combines art, music, sport, food, and embraces LIFE, and safer and better opportunities for young people. This event will take place on 14^th Feb 2024.
• A consultation for Young Carers Day on 13^th March 2024, a partnership with Slough Young Carers to create a creative workshop to celebrate their achievements and inspire them to see and reach for their potential.
• We are developing a Multi Academy Trust creative commission with 4 Slough Primary schools tackling litter and the impact rubbish has on the local environment and habitats. This will be in partnership with Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust and Slough Anti Litter Society and a 3D upcycling sculptor where pupils from each Slough school across Park Federation Trust will create recycled installations from litter picks.
• Creative commission with Littledown Special School in the Spring term, helping to nurture pupils’ positive mental health and wellbeing through digital animation workshops in partnership with Animation Expressions. Pupils will be working on their Discover Arts Award and be able to earn Digital Badges.

We also asked Jo and Ruth to share with us what they have most enjoyed so far working on this project: 

Ruth: ​“Creating consultations that are inspiring and affirming in their own right, and that also create supportive and safe environments for young people to openly share their ideas and opinions on the places and spaces where they live. And developing commissions that will have a legacy, and that will make a genuine positive impact on the town and its young people.” 

Jo: ​“Hearing the children and young people of Slough being so passionate and concerned about where they live and where they go to school. Knowing that they want to make a difference and make changes but don’t always know how to start doing this. Then, seeing through these consultations and commissioning how they feel listened to and enabled, confident to express what matters to them most.” 

Thank you to Ruth and Jo for this insight into what’s been happening in the area – we can’t wait to see what happens next.