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Creative People & Places Lockdown Learning: Case Studies
This new series of case studies reflects on the impact of lockdown on communities and the ways CPP projects adapted to work with them.
November 2020
Artists with Fishes and Wishes, East Durham Creates.
Case Study 2: The Role of Digital Engagement in Place-Based Projects
By Kathryn Welch
As COVID-19 – and the resultant lockdown – forced us into physical distance from one another, digital tools and online engagement became key to maintaining connection, communication and friendship. For many CPP Places, what followed was a steep learning curve – an intense live experiment in the online delivery of creative projects. The urgent drive to move engagement online has been an opportunity to investigate the role that digital engagement can play in place-based projects, and to explore the factors that can best enable effective online delivery. We’ve been looking back on what’s been learned through this intense period for digital engagement.
Case Study 3: Touch, connection and creativity
By Kathryn Welch
Of all the restrictions COVID-19 has imposed on our lives, loss of touch and physical contact came up again and again in interviews with CPP Places. There was talk of the big, fundamental moments in life, such as hugging a grandchild or the traditional last washing of bodies so important in Muslim funeral rites. But we missed small moments of touch too – helping a neighbour over the road, a touch of the arm in conversation, the reassuring contact of sitting side by side with a friend. In conversation with CPP Places and some of the artists and communities they support, we’ve been exploring the role of creativity in supporting, overcoming and capturing this profound experience of 2020.
Case Study 4: Basic needs and creativity
By Kathryn Welch
The effects of COVID and lockdown starkly highlighted the divisions and inequalities in British society. With lives and health under threat, poor (or no) housing, inadequate food and loss of work meant that many people were struggling to meet even their most basic needs. Essential needs agencies and key workers fought to keep up with demand for food parcels, meet housing needs and provide debt and welfare advice.
Drawing on an earlier conversation with East Durham Creates, who are embedded within a charity (East Durham Trust) providing basic needs services, I was keen to explore how CPP Places had experienced their role in this context. As people struggle to meet their most basic needs, what is the role for creativity in communities?
Case Study 5: Risk, failure, learning and resilience
By Kathryn Welch
Of all the restrictions COVID-19 has imposed on our lives, loss of touch and physical contact came up again and again in interviews with CPP Places. There was talk of the big, fundamental moments in life, such as hugging a grandchild or the traditional last washing of bodies so important in Muslim funeral rites. But we missed small moments of touch too – helping a neighbour over the road, a touch of the arm in conversation, the reassuring contact of sitting side by side with a friend. In conversation with CPP Places and some of the artists and communities they support, we’ve been exploring the role of creativity in supporting, overcoming and capturing this profound experience of 2020.