Creative Practice
An online series of talks looking into the role creativity has in the development of our places as part of The Stove Network’s kNOw One Place programme.
Un-earthing new perspectives on people and power, place, space, and practice, this series hosts some of the country’s most exciting artists, thinkers, and producers at the front line of social art, wellbeing, economy, activism, and community development. In each talk, our speakers will investigate the themes supporting creative placemaking* and its potential to influence change from the grassroots to the government.
*We define Creative Placemaking as: a community led approach that uses creative activity to support collective decision-making and positive change for people and the places they live.
- What is the role of the artist in community-led change for the places we live?
- How can this be used by our communities to help imagine, vision and shape new ideas for our places?
- How does a creative practitioner negotiate their way into a genuine collaboration?
For this conversation we will be joined by Anna Francis, an artist and researcher, co-founder of the Portland Inn Project and a Director at AirSpace Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent. Anna will be sharing with us her experience of how an artist comes to be concerned with the long-term thinking / visioning of a place / community and the different ways that are needed to navigate and support that. We will look at the challenges of short-termism and the impact that has on projects and their ability to think longer-term.
Watch the replay
Anna Francis – Artist / Researcher
Anna is Associate Professor of Fine Art and Social Practice at Staffordshire University, and a Director at AirSpace Gallery and The Portland Inn Project. Born in Canterbury, she moved to Stoke-on-Trent in 1997, and lives there with her partner and two children. Her work creates space to discuss and reframe city resources through participatory art interventions. Working with the public and other artists, they collectively explore places differently. In recent years this has focussed on Stoke-on-Trent, using an action research process to recognise untapped resources, plan responses to disused sites in the city, taking action to change the way these sites are viewed, and, make changes.
All events will have BSL interpretation and captioning options for those that require it
