Archive for “2015”

Architecture – Regeneration and our voice? In partnership with the London Festival of Architecture (salon in June!)

June 1, 2015 / Comments Off on Architecture – Regeneration and our voice? In partnership with the London Festival of Architecture (salon in June!)

The June People’s Salon is in partnership with the London Festival of Architecture.

With Carl Turner Architects and the Cabinet Member for regeneration and new homes in Southwark, Cllr Mark Williams.

This will be a highly interactive discussion with members of the public, developers, policy makers, architects and planners discussing the role and experience of the public in helping shape spaces and places.

With speakers from architectural practices particularly committed to collaborative engagement as well as residents and city dwellers who have recently helped shape this city, we expect a vibrant discussion.

Carl Turner architects – winners of Architects of the year award 2013 – One off house for slip house (also featured on Grand Designs in 2012) at the heart of ‘pop Brixton’ – a community campus for start ups currently under construction and running a community co-design process in Peckham Square at the moment will be sharing their approach to co-design and community engagement – a portfolio of projects that respond to and are shaped by the communities that they are bourne out of.

Cllr Mark Williams is responsible for Regeneration and New homes in Southwark, and with large projects across the borough he has a commitment to create large scale interventions that also respond to what local people need and want.

Not just a ‘talk’, but a ‘listen’, a ‘think’ and a ‘develop new ideas’ – Architecture the People’s Salon way will be live, dynamic and energetic.

We will be exploring how we as members of the public can have a meaningful impact on the built environment, and how we can ensure that our voice is constructive, important and useful to the process of design and development.

“Work in progress” relates most specifically to the ways that we as a public want to engage with the physical world around us – ensuring that it works for us, ensuring that it feels like progress and drawing out the role that we can play in helping to shape the work in progress into a work of progress…

 

Some of the questions that we expect to be exploring include;

– How do we manage peoples paradoxical need for real porous involvement and total definitive clarity?

– Who has found a way of making consultation a genuinely positive and creative process?

– What innovations and sublime refinements have people witnessed that been down to the involvement of the public in the design process?

“Last years LFA/People’s Salon event with Richard Sennett and Charles Holland was a highlight of the festival for me” 2014 London festival of architecture attendee.

 

1st June 2015

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Come to The People’s Salon, where being the audience is the performance and explore the impact of digital innovation on the way we experience culture – listen, think, question and share…

Arts and Culture – How is it political? (saloned in May!)

May 18, 2015 / Comments Off on Arts and Culture – How is it political? (saloned in May!)

How does it help us understand the world we live in?

With Bob and Roberta Smith, Kerry Michael, Sara Wahid, Mark Londesborough and Matthew Couper.

In the second of our political salon’s (and still keeping clear of all mention of Tories, Lib Dems, Labour, Greens or UKIP) we are thinking about the ways that arts and culture is usefully, importantly, critically political.

Whether we are thinking about Israeli funding of the UK Jewish Film Festival at the Tricycle, Brett Bailey’s EXHIBIT B for the Barbican, or that art can engage people in the democratic process,  the ways that arts and culture confronts, challenges and creates contentious debate across the media is well established.

When do we want our arts and culture served politically hot? What issues do we not want to see mediated through a cultural lens or festival theme?

Some of the questions we might be asking could include;

* How have the arts and culture shaped the way you see the world?

* In what ways have your views or consciousness been raised through arts and culture?

* What themes and ideas have been most interesting to you recently?

We bring Bob and Roberta Smith, artist famous for his political work, recently stood against Michael Gove in the election and at the heart of the ‘Vote Art’ project to engage people in voting through the power of art, to describe the next stage in his plans to use art to engage the nation. We also have one of our generations leading socially engaged artistic directors to the chapel for The People’s Salon – Kerry Michael, Artistic Director at Theatre Royal Stratford East will open the discussion talking about the social/political context of the organisation and how audiences engage with that Theatre. We will also have Sara Wahid, Head of Public Engagement at Royal Museums Greenwich with us – Sara is really interested in the ways that sexuality is presented and represented in heritage settings, we also have People’s Salon regular, Mark Londesborough, Creative Learning Director at Tricycle Theatre sharing some of his thoughts…

These fantastic people will start off the debate and then we can get the discussion going!

18th May 2015

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Come to The People’s Salon, where being the audience is the performance and explore the daily politics of arts and culture – listen, think, question and share…

Architecture 2: Architecture as Art with Turner Prize Nominees – Assemble (October 12th 2015)

March 25, 2015 / Comments Off on Architecture 2: Architecture as Art with Turner Prize Nominees – Assemble (October 12th 2015)

What can we learn about engagement and new thinking from Assemble as they prepare for their Turner Prize Show?

Following our London Festival of Architecture event, we welcome Turner Prize nominees Assemble Studios.

Monday 12th October 2015

Will Assemble be the next winners of the Turner Prize? Will you be able to catch up with them and chat with them over a glass of wine for a tenner if they do (we are sure you still will… but anyway – come to this discussion… it’ll be fantastic!)

Their Turner competition exhibition will have opened the proceeding week and so there will no doubt be a huge amount of focus and debate happening about their work and practice, so come and hear from them, debate with them and hear about the Turner Prize from the inside!

Assemble have been nominated for projects including the ongoing collaboration with local residents and others in the Granby Four Streets, Liverpool. They are an exciting London-based collective who work across the fields of art, design and architecture to create projects in tandem with the communities who use and inhabit them. Their architectural spaces and environments promote direct action and embrace a DIY sensibility.

There has been tons of press about their nomination – take a look at your preferred media outlet!

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2015/may/12/assemble-turner-prize-2015-wildcard-how-the-young-architecture-crew-assemble-rocked-the-art-world

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tramway/exhibition/turner-prize-2015/turner-prize-2015-artists-assemble

http://www.dezeen.com/2015/05/12/assemble-turner-prize-shortlist-2015-first-design-studio/

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/assemble-and-the-turner-prize-a-rebuke-to-a-profession-that-has-sold-its-soul/8683005.article

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/turner-prize/11599068/Turner-Prize-2015-shortlist-Liverpool-council-houses-nominated.html

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/artists-work-toxteth-nominated-turner-9241165

The nomination of an architecture practice has caused quite a lot of debate, but the Royal Academy has shown architecture in its galleries for many years, so is this really such a surprise?

The team at Assemble have said that they will be able to talk about their Turner Exhibition entry, their practice, how they work with the public on their projects and how they build ownership and engagement whilst also creating extraordinary spaces!

Some of the questions we might be asking could include;

* What can we learn for our own lives and work from the way that Assemble lives and works?

* How does Assemble’s practice shape what we expect from artists and architects?

* What would we like to see Assemble doing in our communities?

* What other innovations are we excited about seeing in the near future?

12th October 2015

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Come to The People’s Salon, where being the audience is the performance and explore the impact of privileged actors keeping all of us off the red carpet! – listen, think, question and share…

Acting – what a privilege… Who gets to act and what effect does that have on our society?

March 25, 2015 / Comments Off on Acting – what a privilege… Who gets to act and what effect does that have on our society?

Acting – Oh what a privilege! 

With the press often full of highly privileged actors and a live debate about who gets access to a drama school education, we thought we’d take a look at the question through the other end of the telescope…

Who are the people who are acting today and how did they build their careers?

What is the social impact of diversifying the people who we see on our stages and our screens and what impact does that have on the way young people see opportunities and possibility in their lives?

Where are the social and educational origins of casting decisions? What impact does education, facilities and environment have on the skills and talents of our young people to develop into extraordinary actors and performers?

We are bringing the Principle of LAMDA (London School of Music and Dramatic Art) Joanne Read to the House to start off our discussion. LAMDA has alumni that includes Jim Broadbent, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brian Cox, Hermione Norris, Paterson Joseph, Toby Stephens, Anna Chancellor and Anna Maxwell Martin. With a national and international outreach programme and a significant bursary programme, Jo will be exploring the ways that LAMDA does and should find and support the development of diverse people to reflect the diverse society we inhabit. She will be joined by alumni and some current students to explore the barriers and social implications as well as debating some of the initiatives that we might advance to increase diversity within the acting profession.

As ever at a ‘People’s Salon’ event, the discussion will be shaped by you, the audience so that we have live and real debate and everyone’s perspective, questions and concerns are heard and responded to… So come along, get a ring side seat, explore these questions with us, and debate the ideas and implications with actors who you see daily on your stages and screen.

Postponed from 7th September – New date to be released soon

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Come to The People’s Salon, where being the audience is the performance and explore the impact of the arts on the way we live and engage – listen, think, question and share…

The soft power of arts and culture (Saloned in April!)

March 13, 2015 / 1 Comment

What does soft power make you think and how do they make you think that?

In the first of our two salons exploring the politics of culture (we’re trying to ignore party politics, but social politics still has a place in our daily discourse doesn’t it?!) we are focussing on soft power. We often think about the ways in which our values and cultural credentials are projected overseas, but in this salon we are thinking more about our perception of others and how that is affected by their cultural exports and soft power programmes.

Has China’s role in the world been affected by it’s cultural exports? Have the cultural investments by Abu Dhabi and Qatar affected the way we see these states? What about Brazil, India and Kazakhstan? How are these nations seen around the world, and are our perspectives affected by their cultural policy?

We will hear from the extraordinary Lesley Katon, who is (among many things) an International producer of Cultural and Historical documentary film that often explores untold national stories from new perspectives, and who always has a range of projects in the pipeline (some of which she will naturally not be able to share with us at the moment) that are designed to explore and shine a light on lesser known cultural stories and artists. We will also hear from two People’s Salon regulars who will share their thoughts to get the discussion started…

Some of the questions we will be asking might include;

* What cultural exports have the greatest impact on our perceptions of other states and nations?

* Which countries have shifted your perceptions about them in the recent past?

* Where would you like to go or know more about, triggered by a cultural experience?

13th April 2015

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Come to The People’s Salon, where being the audience is the performance and explore the politics of global culture – listen, think, question and share…