Meeting people
On a cloudy august afternoon QDT staff ran a making stall at the Parks Trust Fun Day in Whitehouse in Lady Margery’s Gorse play area. We are coming to the end of the consultation period and some strong themes for the furniture project as part of the public art scheme are emerging. We wanted to check-in with some residents and see how those themes felt to them. During the 2 hour event we made 50 badges with young children, teenagers, parents and grandparents. We met people who have lived in the area for over 5 years and some who had only moved a few weeks before. The creativity was bursting out of people and our artist Saj Fareed helped people find inspiration for their badge design from local wildlife and nature through to their love of MK and super heroes!.
Shared themes
The 3 themes we spoke about most were family, friendship and nature. People talked a lot about family and how moving to this new area had given them more opportunities to spend time with their families – be that more space to play at home, a garden to share for the first time or places to walk the dog and be in nature on their doorstep. People also talked about the importance of friends and friendship – both in this community and elsewhere – with many making badges to give to friends at a later date. Nature is a theme that has been brought up again and again throughout the project and we heard about local mushroom hunters, sponsored walks and people feeling the benefit of moving from a very urban area to somewhere with more accessible green space.
There were stories of how people adapt to use open space as their ‘community centre’ while they wait for the infrastructure that isn’t there yet. What felt important for the furniture public art commission is that it supports, encourages and facilitates a continuing connection with nature – even once the shops and community facilities come. It must also have a sophisticated social element – with opportunities to be alone but also be together with family, friends and neighbours.
Next steps
Once the fun day finished we went to Lily’s Cafe – where we found many families with badges having tea and cake. What struck us when we entered the cafe was the softness of the space, it was warm and cosy and also playful and I felt the families & customers were very relaxed and happy. This is a contrast to the outdoor space which is vast and green and I felt strongly that some of that colour, warmth and playfulness needs to be incorporated into the commission too.
We have one more visit planned for the 3rd October 2022, when we will share some more in depth ideas with a small group of people at Lily’s Cafe over lunch. Please do get in touch via hello@quietdownthere.co.uk if you would like to be part of the conversation.
