Podcast:Curating another way of being
Field Notes from across the UK’s community asset sector
We’re Right Here’s Gallery of Broken Dreams is a powerful exhibition highlighting the loss of cherished community spaces across the UK. Since 2015, we've lost over 75,000 community, cultural and civic assets as local authorities have sold-off spaces to plug gaps in their revenue budgets.
It's a bit of a sorry story. But, there are people working across the country to try to stem that tide and save our spaces.
These community and cultural champions are uniting threads across our divisions and weaving them into a new tapestry. They're telling different stories to the ones we’re told to believe. They're overcoming individualism, choosing instead to inspire collective ways of meeting and making change. They're not waiting to be invited, instead using their convening and connecting power to gain credibility and klout.
They're making, not just measuring, impact. They're showing us that joy is a right, not a privilege. They're building models that are sustainable, not extractive. They're quietly, over time, eroding the barriers that force us to fear and fight amongst ourselves. They're showing us what good and fair health, housing and social outcomes could look like for all of us.
They are, each day, curating different way of being - for the good of each and every one of us.
This Field Notes series features just some of the inspiring stories from across the country who form part of a much wider Mycelial Network of Community Asset Developers; local leaders who are transforming the civic and social landscape of the UK from the ground up.
With the Government's Pride In Place: Impact Fund just announced and the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill on the horizon - set to give communities increased powers to purchase the shared land under our feet - we hope these stories will serve as inspiration for communities and a powerful reminder that saving ourselves is possible; but that it involves all of us – right now.
What you can do to help
- Amplify these stories across your networks; tell these stories over dinner, listen to the podcast with family and friends
- Share other stories like these in this spirit; you can make your own Field Notes postcard here
- Join a community, civic or cultural organisation in your area and be part of a movement for change
- Read about other people working in this space here as part of the We're Right Here campaign
#BuildCommunities #CommunityEmpowerment #SaveOurSpaces #SoldFromUnderYou #MycelialNetwork #CADFieldNotes #PrideinPlace
