Regeneration Academy
Insite in partnership with Metal
Insite has been working in partnership with Metal, the artist laboratory space realocated to Westcliff-on-Sea in the autumn of 2007. The purpose of the regeneration academy project was to explore how ideas, creativity and culture could help to define, highlight and communicate the identity of places and the people who live in them.
We hosted several discussions over dinner in various towns through Essex during 2007. Dinners in Southend, Chelmsford, Harlow, Colchester and Thurrock brought the best of contemporary, experimental and participatory arts practice to Essex. Hosted by Jude Kelly OBE, founder and chair of Metal and Artistic Director of the South Bank, the series of dinners also involved other personalities such as Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, David Buckland, Billy Bragg, Bill Dunster and Michael Pinsky.
The project was marked by a final open debate in Southend in October 2007 at South East Essex College, which gathered more than 200 people. The event offered Essex residents an opportunity to voice their views on culture together with panellists artist Grayson Perry, DJ Nihal Arthanyake, actress Kierston Wareing and Jane Edwards, Executive Director of Living East.
The regeneration academy project was completed by a research initiative based on the concept of the 'ideal cultural home' with visual artist Simon Poulter and the development of a 'Rough Guide' to Essex working with three secondary schools, an artist, an architect and a designer, to create a guide book to the county seen through the eyes of young people.
Parent Project:
InsiteMore information
Documents
Themes
- Community Development
Interventions
- Artists' residencies
- Tourism events development
Venue
- Different venues around Essex