NOTT ART : Memories that connect us
NOTT ART promotional images
In late 2021, we gave our young creatives taking part in Creative Futures, work placement programme focussing on Nottingham talent, a brief to design and deliver an event based on one of Collaborative Future’s values they most strongly relate to. We started with connection..
The meaning of connection..
.. for Collaborative Future?
We invest time into relationships
We bridge distance between people
We bring diverse people together
.. for our young Notts creatives?
All people joined through Nottingham
Creating a channel to connect via history, meaning of a place
Deepening the ties in our community (between people and businesses)
Creating a space of safety, where people feel confident / comfortable to connect
Facilitating a fun and light hearted connection post lockdown
Connecting via documenting moments and encouraging collective art-making
The event
Through “NOTT ART: Memories that connect us” we celebrated Nottingham people and businesses by exploring different ways of documenting moments and collective art-making. In the event, we created a small scale paper model of the city and shared stories of our encounters here. We invited each individual to make notes of their memories and attach them to the paper replica city, allowing us to map overlapping experiences and tangled lives.
“Had a lovely time.. haven’t crafted in ages.. forgot what fun it is. Thanks!”
The buildings + memories
The piano man @hockley
“My first outing with my youngest as a newborn baby was to the cafe in Hockey on a hot July summer's day and my baby slept while I listened to the most beautiful music. And then I took my older daughter back the next week and she danced in the street like a ballerina.”
youth centre
nottingham train station
“A big new chapter started in Nottingham for me last year and those first few times arriving on the train, meeting this person that had changed my life, felt incredibly intense and vivid. Going back to this station will always conjure up these feelings for me.”
blend coffee @sneinton
“When I first started my PhD program they didn’t tell me where the doctoral school office was, so I didn’t really know where I was supposed to work all day! I discovered Blend early on so I spent the first few weeks there every weekday and made it into my little office. I would order a coffee and toastie and park myself in the comfy chairs…so the first words of my thesis were probably written there.”
ROCK CITY
“I’ve got loads of memories of Rock City, but the first one that came to mind was seeing The Ramones when I was a teenager. It was the sweatiest gig I ever went to! And brilliant!”
SEXY MAMA LOVEs SPAGHETTI @HOCKLEY
“Had the most beautiful date with the love of my life. We just spent hours chatting in a corner and sharing puddings.”
Works Social @Lace Market
“Han was the first person to believe in my idea for starting Collaborative Future. We chatted for 30 mins over a cuppa and then she and Rach invested so much energy into helping me get it off the ground.”
PAGE 45
“It’s so difficult to pick just one memory from Page 45 that would really do that chapter of my life justice. I’ve been a customer since I was 12 and worked there during my college years. It’s more than just a comic shop to me. It changed how I think about work, expanded my taste in music and gave me role-models and friends for life. Opening up in the morning, the smell of the stock room, the window display artwork from years-gone-by stored on the top floor… I treasure every moment I spent there and remember exactly how everything was like it was yesterday.”
artist studios
BROADWAY CINEMA #2
“I went to see Raw - didn’t realize it was a film about cannibals.“
WOLLATON HALL
“We visited Wollaton with my daughter and granddaughter during a period of outdoor socialising during covid restrictions. Travelling 2.5 hours to be able to see them just for a few hours but it tipped it down with rain and we got absolutely soaked!”
“I’ve met some amazing people!”
“What a great idea! Enjoyed meeting some lovely new peeps!”
“A lovely idea, nice to hear peoples favourite significant places.”
The organisers
The trio who ran NOTT ART event - Taylor, Chantelle and Mika
With support from the Collaborative Future’s Community Advocates Sonia and Prisca, a group of young Nottingham creatives - visual artist Chantelle Fagan-Clarke, ceramic and textile maker Mika Sawicka, poet and spoken word artist Taylor Riley - collaborated to plan, organise and facilitate this experience. For most of the trio, this was their first experience of collaborating with others of the same age, facilitating an event, planning the structure and activities that needed to happen. Through this collaboration we saw growth in each individual involved.. someone more quiet come out of their shell and be the welcoming face and point of contact for the attendees on the day. Someone who has been dreaming of running events but wasn’t quite sure of all the detail and planning it takes to pull it together now has a blueprint they can take beyond their time on the Collaborative Future programme. Someone who felt close to burn out at the time, delegated tasks and trusted and supported others to run with them. As with any event and happening, there’s also a lot of learnings that took place at NOTT ART for both our team and the cohort. We all took time to look back and think about what we enjoyed, learnt, found challenging or would change for next time:
“I learned that I find being responsible for a large group of people overwhelming, and that I want to try our smaller groups of adults in the future.”
“For next time, I would love to check on more people and have more one-on-one conversations.”
“I’d like to spend more time sharing stories and capturing the conversations.“
Intrigued?
We would love to run similar events within other communities and organisations, if you’re interested in fostering collaboration and connection through creativity, drop us an email via hello@collaborativefuture.co.uk