Artists, crafters, creative and culture groups could for sure play a bigger part in our town and city centres.
We know from our work with #TheVacantShopsAcademy that many would love to if we can overcome the barriers.
So it’s exciting to be connecting with creatives in one of our locations to try assess interest levels.
“Would you like to have an arts & crafts, creative, culture, community-based shop in your local town centre…? Maybe, short term, starting as part of a pop-up shop project, but longer term if it works well for you. Could you stock and run the shop on your own or would it work better with other makers – either people you know already or could meet as part of a wider project. Are there other ways you think creative individuals, groups and organisations could get involved.”
Examples we’ve see in other places include:
- Makers Collectives – where groups of artists and crafters combine to run a shop;
- Art Galleries which feature a number of artists, and they run together;
- Community art classes and workshops run from town centre units;
- Markets (both indoor and outdoor) that feature local crafts as all or part of their offer;
- ‘Knit & natter’ groups and others where people get together to practice their art or craft skills in a town centre setting;
- Wall art, shutterart or on-street art installations where local artists and crafters contribute to making their place look better.
Accepting that there are barriers to overcome here, it feels like a sector that has huge potential to help with tackling #highstreet vacancy and the wider #placemaking conversation. Let’s see.
What do you think…?
