Exchange and Collaboration

The connectivity which began during our residential labs has continued to grow and led to on-going exchanges of contacts and methods across the network. There have been many cases of cultural exchange and collaboration both supported by the programme and outside of our programme activity

Kate Stewart (Liverpool) and Louisa Davies (Stratford-upon-Avon) co-facilitated an artists lab for Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. This is a valuable new connection for Kate. Together, their skills inspired an innovative way of working for a heritage organisation.

Kate and Russel Hlongwane (Durban) also secured a grant from British Council’s DICE Fund which enabled them to explore their shared conviction about the need to address furniture poverty and to ensure that locally manufactured, affordable solutions for basic furniture are available to all. Kate travelled to Durban to explore how to implement an incubation of her social enterprise furniture project Urban Workbench in the city. They have applied for further funding to continue this partnership long term.

In Almaty, Anel Moldakhmetova and Watershed Producer Hilary O’Shaughnessy led a workshop for city officials, Creative Producers and activists.

In Dublin, Michelle Browne co-facilitated a City Change Masterclass with three of her Creative Producers International colleagues (Leticia, Ryan and Kate), working with 15 artists, activists, architects, producers and students to foster greater capacity in the arts community in Dublin to engage with city stakeholders, and to create and produce ambitious work that imagines alternative futures for the city.

In Clearwater, Florida Ryan Swanson co-facilitated a three-day workshop called ‘Change Through Play’ with two of his Creative Producers International colleagues (Leticia and Anel).  The workshop brought together a group of 15 municipalities, local artists, community organizers, and representatives from local institutions to explore ideas of creating the city of the future. Ryan, Leticia, Sarah Brin and Malaika were recently selected to host a panel on ‘City Change Through Play’ at SXSW 2020, which was unfortunately cancelled due to COVID-19.

Our cohort of Creative Producers continue to develop communities of friends, teams and colleagues who have a kind of shared language – their work rooted in their local environment but connected to an international set of ideas and experiences.

“Through Creative Producers International overall I have begun to see opportunity, and this is not to be understated, where I never could have imagined myself belonging, often because I simply didn’t know it was there before.”
– Alice Holland (Brighton)

“My understanding of my community, my city, and my work have changed astronomically because of my engagement with different people doing very interesting and dynamic things from different parts of the world. Coming from Nigeria, a country riddled with systemic social challenges, every problem seems too big to handle. But what I have learned is to not be burdened by things that don’t work, but instead focus on prototyping micro-interventions that have the potential to deliver impact and are scalable at the macro-level.
– Malaika Toyo (Lagos)

“The team created the most extraordinary context in which we could all explore profound questions about how our work/passions informed our sense of self. Perhaps even more importantly it raised questions as to how much of ourselves was unrealised creativity hidden behind the ever supportive producer. Scary, exciting and obviously just what was needed given the wonderful work that I have seen coming out from the gang.”
– Paula le Dieu (Sydney)