Tomorrow’s garden

Tomorrow’s Garden was initially planned as an outdoor community engagement event designed and delivered by B arts but was adapted because of the Covid lockdown and in consideration of public hesitancy and mobility issues to a digitally delivered filmed version, enabling people to join in from home. This adaptation involved a collaboration between B arts & Dr Pawas Bisht and draws upon his documentary filmmaking and participatory storytelling expertise. The partnership also enables new research on how the creative arts can contribute to post-Covid recovery and how new forms of digital, online, and mediated engagements with arts can be developed to cater to new contexts (need for social distancing/ audiences unable to access art venues/performances in person etc.).

More broadly the project is linked to the work of the High Street Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) for the conservation area in Stoke town. As part of this, B arts has been commissioned to deliver a series of pilot projects, Sparks, across 2021. Tomorrow’s Garden is designed as the third of these Sparks events introducing the idea of the HSHAZ to the general public, businesses and residents in Stoke Town. The illuminated installations featured in the project have been made by commissioned artists and community groups – including ASHA, a refugee group, Brighter Future, a housing and mental health support charity and local communities – via online demonstration or in-person workshops within the government’s Covid guidelines. Each installation encourages people to think about what we’ve learnt, or started, or discovered in 2020, especially during the Covid-19 era, that we’d like to grow, develop and flourish in 2021.

• Keele Academic Lead: Dr Pawas Bisht
• Methods used: Participatory storytelling; community-based creative co-production; digital storytelling.