Promoting Community Dialogue: Facilitating Intergenerational Understandings through Community Arts

The New Earswick Community Art and Research Initiative was a ten-month research and community development project conducted by researchers at Staffordshire University to promote community dialogue in the village of New Earswick, York. The researchers collaborated with the community art organisation 'Letting in the Light' to work with a small cross-section of New Earswick residents, with the aim of facilitating improved inter-generational communication and understanding.

Researchers found that:

• Community arts initiatives can provide a strong focus for participants, and organising an end-of-project event (such as a local exhibition of arts products to present issues raised) can provide a useful platform whereby intergenerational interaction can take place. Project activities and end-of-project events can provide opportunities for residents of all ages to reflect and engage with alternative and changing perspectives in a positive way.

• There may be resources within the community (such as schools, sports clubs and community buildings) that can play a much stronger role in the development of community projects. Working with pre-existing networks can be a useful way to reach into the community. Building and maintaining good relationships with individuals, groups and agencies is crucial for success.

• The creativity generated by an arts initiative and the connections activated through existing networks can help to overcome the dangers of 'participation fatigue', which is commonly experienced by communities who are 'over familiar' with the efforts of a variety of agencies to engage their participation.

Background - The New Earswick Community Art and Research Initiative

In October 2004, the Institute for Access Studies at Staffordshire University was commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) to undertake the New Earswick Community Art and Research Initiative, which focused on promoting community dialogue in the village of New Earswick, York. This project was to provide contextual support to evaluation research being undertaken by the Centre for Social Inclusion, Sheffield Hallam University who were looking at the HOTEY (Helping Others to Enjoy Yourself) scheme. The Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust set up the HOTEY scheme in 2004.

The joint aims of both research projects were to: collect local views on young people and the perceived problems of youth nuisance in New Earswick; to raise positive inter-generational dialogue across New Earswick; and to assess the direct and indirect impact of the HOTEY scheme.

Project benefits and outcomes

Working with pre-existing community networks and resources
The researchers worked with local service providers (such as the housing trust, the school and the community centre) in order to access and engage a number of young and older residents. These networks were further utilised when distributing posters and flyers to advertise weekend workshops and the exhibition. The project also allowed some community organisations (such as the school and the Friends Meeting House) to fulfil their missions in ways that they were not previously able to. This was partly due to the project being perceived to be 'outside' of such community organisations by the project participants. The project also provided the opportunity to open up 'new' places to local people, which elicited positive responses from residents. 75% of residents attending the exhibition had never before entered the chosen venue; previously, many did not know what it was, what it was used for, or whether they were 'allowed in'.

Identifying and gathering understandings of local issues

The research gathered local understandings of issues being voiced by a variety of residents in New Earswick. The research team interviewed older residents about their experiences of the village. It was explained how the interview material was to be fed into a wider arts-based project, and then the interviewees were invited to extend their involvement to providing personal photographs and home-video material to further illustrate their views, which were then used in the exhibition. The research team also engaged a group of Year 9 students. The students voiced their local issues by accompanying the researchers and artists in a tour of the village whilst taking photographs (see example below plus caption) and video footage of places of significance to them. The photographs and video footage produced were also used in the exhibition.

"This sign's supposed to make us feel safer, isn't it? I'm not sure it does though. It make's our area look rough". Female, Year 9 student

Two Saturday workshops were also held, which were open to any resident of New Earswick. These involved the researchers, artists and the Year 9 students meeting other local residents who had brought along old photographs, newspaper articles, and anecdotes of experiences of village life. The students scanned the photographs into the computer so that the images could be reproduced for the exhibition, and collected additional materials for use in the exhibition. The workshop was an example of positive interaction taking place between younger and older residents. The arts-mediated activities raised participants' interest and ability to express interests and concerns about life in the village.

Once all materials had been collected the students worked with the artists to select images that represented New Earswick in the past, New Earswick in the present, local methods of communication, places of significance to young people and images that described the project's process. They then traced the chosen images onto acetate and projected them onto silk panels. These panels formed the main focus of the exhibition.

The exhibition provided a space for residents to reflect and engage with alternative village perspectives. The project's process and exhibition were able to make people's views and experiences visible, to demystify prominent places in the heart of the village, and to encourage constructive interaction between disparate groups of residents. The project gave young people and older residents the opportunity to articulate their views and prompted reflection.

Producing a set of arts products

The project produced a set of art products that endured once the project had ended. These products included: six large silk panels printed with different images of New Earswick a short film recorded by the young participants in collaboration with Letting in the Light (all participants received a copy on DVD); a series of photographs taken by the young participants; and a series of quotations covering different perspectives on the village from all project participants.

The Panels

Each of the panels produced had a particular theme. The first two presented a montage of local events and personal memories collected from adult residents who had attended the workshops

Points to consider for any future projects of this type

Remaining flexible

It was originally intended that the project would partly focus on working with groups of young people in New Earswick who were perceived to be displaying problematic behaviour. This would have required the involvement and support of detached youth workers via the area's Youth Service; however, project implementation coincided with the Youth Service being restructured, which meant the research team had to explore other ways of accessing and engaging local young people. Project plans were adapted and contact was made at a senior management level with the local secondary school. This resulted in the participation of 13 Year 9 students in three in-school sessions and two voluntary Saturday sessions. A street-based evening outreach session was run to try to incorporate the views of other young people living in the area.

Co-ordination with external projects

It was important to pay attention to the existence of other schemes and projects running community activities. By communicating with other projects in the area it was possible to co-ordinate and plan the timing and content of this project's activities so as not to coincide with others' community activities. This also meant there was less chance of causing residents confusion over which projects to participate in.

Project durability

It was important that participants recognised and understood the limitations to the project so that false expectations were not raised. This project was admittedly conducted on a small scale, but it did successfully raise interest in all participants and facilitated the start of positive interactions between residents through the activities and the exhibition. However, it is questionable how durable these outcomes will be if they are not capitalised on and developed by other agencies in the immediate future.

About the study

The project employed a four-stage development process:

1. Understanding the current situation

Local perceptions of New Earswick were gathered (including problems, negative experiences and solutions) by conducting qualitative research with a number of local service-providers, adult residents and young residents.

2. Gaining entry and building trust

Accessing and engaging local participants for this project was heavily dependent on the research team being able to establish relationships with local gatekeepers (such as the school, the housing trust and the community centre).

3. Raising interest in project participation

The project focused on informal, personal and creative approaches to participation, to make participation more attractive and meaningful for those involved.

4. Promoting participants' success

To ensure participation would be an enjoyable and worthwhile experience the project team attempted to informally introduce participants from one context to another (e.g. older residents who had been interviewed were encouraged to widen their involvement to become creative workshop participants). The end of project exhibition doubled as public recognition for the project participants' involvement.

The researchers began the project by conducting in-depth interviews with a sample of adult residents of New Earswick. They also worked alongside community artists to run a series of arts-based workshops with a group of Year 9 students from the Joseph Rowntree School. A street-based consultation of local young people's views was also conducted. The research team and the community artists ran two weekend workshops, which saw young and adult New Earswick residents coming together to prepare and co-ordinate materials for an end-of-project exhibition in New Earswick. The exhibition was held in New Earswick in June 2005 and was attended by over 100 local people. A research report was also produced for internal use by the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust.