I'm very interested in community art projects and the many dynamics that surround them. More often than not, it is the process of taking part that is most powerful and not the outcome. This can make it tricky to secure funding when application forms often focus on the end result and if funders turn up for the first time to celebrate at the end, they more often than not have arrived too late! At their most powerful, community projects instigate fun, create connections, build confidence, open up the imagination, influence minds and bring about meaningful change and improvement. Art is brought out of traditional institutions, such as galleries and museums, and celebrated in streets, parks and community halls where it truly democratised.
Where Will The Flight Take Us?’ was a community art collaboration between myself, the talented projection artist Robert Motyka, and the Primary 7 pupils of Preston Street Primary School, which culminated in a celebrational outdoor street event.
Robert and I began by working with the youngsters, encouraging them to imagine and draw their own bird. They could choose to depict a bird that exists in real life, or a bird important to their family or culture, or a bird from their imagination - a flight of fancy! Birds are wonderfully symbolic, representing many things, such as freedom, community, migration, climate collapse, and even grief.
The pupils’ work was digitalised, formed into a short animation along with a soundscape, and then projected onto the buildings surrounding the Causey at a public event. The Causey is currently a rather barren and ugly traffic island but The Causey Development Trust (both Robert and I are members of the Steering Group) is striving to redesign the space in order to make it more pedestrian and cyclist friendly and most importantly, a wee public space that the local community can be proud of. Projects like this take time and sometimes it is necessary to act as if the desired changes have already happened. Hopefully this project allowed the community to see and ‘feel’ how the space could be used in an alternative, more community led way.
