During 2018 to 2019 I was lucky enough to work on 4 different residencies. Building story studios, or spaces people could tell their story and work on their visions of the future. This was to help to feed into a larger scheme of consultation that was facilitated through Bro Cymru and Severn Wye Energy.
The four rural areas were Llannerch-y-Medd, Glantwymyn, Penmachno and Deiniolen.
Each one of the Story studios were community led, where the agents working in those areas worked closely with me sharing consultation skills and pushing the boundaries of how to ask questions.
Each of the areas had many Welsh speakers and being a Welsh speaking artist, it allowed me to understand the myriad of differences in perspectives. Whilst the project focused on poverty, it was a broad understanding of the affect of rural living, isolation, transport , lack of community spaces to name a few.
In each of the areas we worked closely with the community on what was important to them, how and what they would be like to be asked about. By working together we could celebrate and create secure spaces for honest dialogue. Whether playing with teapots to collect skills or making interactive maps. Each approach was tailor made to the community. Most of the studios were in village halls, except for the final one which was a “story bus”, which was a trailer space and a futurelab van, this allowed us to speak to people just wandering past and access the community in a way that was reminiscent of the bygone days of vans coming to every village.
The projects were highly successful and linked communities to solutions, there was a high number of key stake holders from community groups, National Slate Musuem, Menter Mon, Menter Maldwyn, Say Something in Welsh, Community Gardens, Food banks, Community Police and most importantly the community themselves which brought tea and cake and ideas for the projects.
Being a collective experience meant that we worked too with other artists from Kristine Luke, Zac Dutton to name a few.
More about Rural Futures can be found here
Naomi Heath 