Turning the Tide: the role of social arts in reviving coastal places and building post-pandemic resilience
By
Paul Drury-Bradey
Image description: source colour photograph, interior. An amusement arcade, taken from a high vantage point, revealing the tops of rows of slot machines.
Published in September 2021 as part of the extended digital edition of Social Works? Open journal…
“England’s seaside places have suffered some of the worst effects of the Covid-19 pandemic: deaths ripping through care homes and elderly communities, huge spikes in unemployment hitting those in precarious employment the hardest, and amusement arcades left empty and forlorn for months on end.”
But arts-led projects and people are demonstrating that culture and creativity can help build resilience and start to breathe civic life back into seafronts, town centres and places.
Margate has momentum, a unique creative energy—grassroots groups working with institutions in innovative ways. But its precarity means things are fragile, according to Turner Contemporary trustee Kemet Hawthorne Pink.
Kem grew up in Margate, and has always considered Thanet home. He explained that the post-pandemic future for seaside places is a complex issue:
Even in the good times, you have seaside economies in places like Margate that are not that financially resilient, with small changes in consumer behaviour having a significant impact on the economic activity in the area.
It could be argued that many seaside places had the beginnings of circular economies, with people living, working and spending money locally. But Kem explained that any disruptions to this process can very quickly create a negative cycle. In short, the money runs out quickly.
But there are reasons to be cheerful: Kem shared his pride at The Turner Prize coming to Margate in 2019: driving vast amounts of visitors in the off-season and stimulating businesses during the town’s off-season. But more than the big shows, Kem is most proud of the institution’s new ways of working with the community. He said:
Turner Prize 2019 was a special moment, built on deep local partnerships delivering genuine community involvement and local pride. The work the gallery has been doing since inception made that possible and we know there is still further to go. We'll be opening again soon with an exciting programme and have explored ways to reach and engage new audiences during recent lockdowns. Despite some of the economic headwinds one of the most resilient things has been the communities ongoing desire to drive positive change in their home.
But how have these bold programmes and brave plans for the arts sector in coastal communities been shaken up by the pandemic?
Rach Drew, co-director of Scarborough-based community producing company ARCADE, said:
It's obviously been bad news for freelancers all over England, but in an area where deprivation is already a problem and the number of people out of work increased quickly, the situation has worsened. I was made redundant and personally was not eligible for any support. Without my husband I would have needed to find employment outside of the sector and I'm certain there are people who were forced into situations which meant they had to find new roles or leave their artistic practice, even if the shift was believed to be temporary. However, many artists have quickly adapted their practice and their independent trader status has given them the agility to flex their model. Artists are known for their ability to look at problems in inventive ways and this stands them in good stead to be resilient and hopefully will see them bounce back even stronger when things return to some kind of normal.
Many arts leaders in coastal places are looking towards co-creation and participation, and that is true on the Yorkshire Coast. Rach said:
After the pandemic, we want Scarborough to develop a coherent offer across cultural organisations that engages the community and focuses on local people. Tourists have ruled the roost here for a long time—not that this is bad, but it does play into the seasonal jobs market, which produces a difficult winter season. Activity for the community which engages them, skills them up and causes them to feel pride and ownership over the town would be my hope for Scarborough.
Post-pandemic, the goal is to reconnect people—tackling loneliness, social isolation and perhaps even boredom. More than that, is there an opportunity to rethink accessibility and ensure that people with disabilities can access cultural activities? Rach explained that artists taking this mission-based approach can be at the forefront of this work over the next few years:
There's also an opportunity around people, so starved of real-life culture, spaces outside of the living room, human connection and even, being jostled in a crowd, that means events and ideas that allow people to interact, connect and engage with others will be in high demand. Artists can and will be able to use this to their advantage.
But, what support do artists need to do this? The drive to push for change, and be 'entrepreneurial' is not enough. Rach called for the growth of an ecosystem in seaside towns that could help people to create and deliver their own arts:
We need a cultural infrastructure and people that supports residents to deliver their own ideas and their own events—whether that's supporting people to fundraise, to risk assess, to lead or to plan—increased confidence in local residents will pay dividends in the cultural sector. Access to funds is important, of course. But so is an openness to collaboration and a willingness from business to get involved and invest in the people who are here.
The potential for the arts to make lasting change happen post pandemic is one of the reasons Rach founded ARCADE in 2020. And it is vital artists in England’s seaside towns are bold, brave and act purposefully to seize this opportunity to make change happen:
Culture adds huge value to regeneration of areas wherever its allowed to flourish: it gives people skills, confidence, pride, and a sense of community. Post Covid, feeling like you belong to another group of humans will be absolutely vital. Culture offers a reason for visitors to come to a place that's not just the sandy beaches, fish and chips and ice cream—and it can become part of the culture of a place, part of its story. Scarborough in particular is often already lodged firmly in people's memories as the place they rode a donkey, but there's an opportunity now to install a new thought around Scarborough, what it is and who it appeals to. Artists could absolutely take the lead on this.
Another new arts organisation in Scarborough is helping to build confidence in the cultural offer and visual arts scene in the town. The Grade II Parcels Office on Scarborough Station is currently being transformed into a major new visual arts centre for the town and is due to open as soon as lockdown restrictions allow.
Since 2009, the small handful of volunteers have worked to raise over £850,000 to restore and convert the Old Parcels Office into seven artists’ studios, a workshop and teaching space and a gallery which will feature exhibitions of work by local, regional and national artists as well as annual schools exhibitions. Sally Gorham, artist and Co-Director of Scarborough Studios is leading on this ambitious project and said she was feeling extremely hopeful about the post-pandemic future for the Yorkshire Coast:
The opportunities to develop Scarborough as a major regional centre for the visual arts are enormous. You only have to look at way art is at the forefront of the cultural regeneration of other coast towns such as Hastings, Margate, and Eastbourne. We are already in dialogue with Woodend, Scarborough Museums Trust who run the Art Gallery and Crescent Arts about how we can work together to support the cultural regeneration of Scarborough by making contemporary art more accessible, bringing high quality contemporary art to Scarborough, and giving innovative artists a platform to show their work. Of course this is only going to be possible if we encourage and support artists living and working in the town and the young people who will be the artists of the future.
Artists reusing and re-purposing disused and empty buildings has been a theme in inner cities for many years now, but what will it take to encourage young and ambitious people to move to seaside towns in England? Sally said:
Artists also need affordable studios to work in. The Old Parcels Office will be provide seven studios but many more are needed to encourage more artists to establish themselves in Scarborough. Incentives should be offered to encourage more imaginative use of some of the rundown a disused property across the town. Artists by nature are full of creative ideas but they cant make things happen on their own, leadership by Councils is essential both as an enabler and as a funder. In Brighton Phoenix Arts runs 100 artists studios and two public galleries in what was a disused building in the centre of the town. This has transformed the whole area attracting new business and creative entrepreneurs. In Margate an Alternative Art School has been established in the old Woolworths building and in north London old factories and warehouses have been converted into thriving hubs of artists and artisan studios and in Peckham an old fire station has been converted into an art gallery.
There’s much we can learn about the future by looking into the past. Sally explained:
Seaside towns have always attracted artists and for many visitors a trip to the seaside isn’t complete without a night out at a concert or the theatre. So there’s a real opportunity to build on this. Artist communities thrive in places that offer cheap accommodation and studio space but are often pushed out as property prices rise. Property prices in most seaside resorts are still relatively cheap and so are attracting artists to move out of the cities. Encouraging this shift is good for local economy, creating jobs and developing skills; attracting and retaining businesses revitalising places; and developing local talent.
The importance of nurturing talent and affordability is high on the agenda in Margate too. Jessica Jordan-Wrench has just started working as the editor of the creative community newspaper the Margate Mercury. She is one of the many people who left London to move to the coast.
For Margate to continue to attract artists, it needs to be able to offer decent, reasonably priced accommodation. I think five-years-ago it absolutely did, but I am not sure that is still the case. I am lucky enough to be a homeowner, but I have heard a lot about the rental market going haywire over lockdown with more people being able to work from home and so leaving London. Rent control now!
The sense of participation driving the conversation in Margate is really strong. Jessica explained:
There’s lots of socially engaged and participatory arts projects in Margate. The Open School East and The Margate School are two art schools based here), as well as Arts Education Exchange? A lot of good projects come from them. They all feel very embedded, rather than just parachuting in and leaving when the funding dries up, which I know can be an issue.
Adrian Friedli has been working as a consultant director at Scarborough’s Crescent Arts during the pandemic and underlined the precarious nature of artist’s lives—a dichotomy of this being facilitated by seaside town’s uniqueness but also limiting possibilities for people. He said:
The pandemic has probably made artists’ existence (even) more precarious as there are relatively fewer opportunities for work in those locations to start with, and the option of supplementing with work or commissions in other locations will have been severely curtailed due to Covid-19. It will likely have intensified the sense of end-of-the-line isolation that can attach to coastal locations. It has focused thinking on the immediate, surrounding environment as a resource and opportunity. We received 31 applications to a call for micro-commissions on the theme of place, with a great range of responses to what connects people to Scarborough as a place.
Can places like Scarborough do more to showcase their natural assets? Perhaps artists will look to the sea, the earth, plants and animals for inspiration as other big themes such as climate change shape discourse and creativity. Adrian explained the wellbeing aspect of life by the sea could align with creative practice:
Nature connectedness is seen as a key part of addressing health and well being post Covid-19, and Scarborough offers a very rich range of possibilities for supporting initiatives that connect people with the natural environment, and enable research into what contribution that connection makes to mitigating the impact of Covid-19 restrictions. There is interest generally within the arts sector in using the impact of Covid-19 to challenge what had been accepted previously as 'normal' in terms of how the arts sector worked. Coastal communities could be seen as attractive locations to explore ideas of what a reimagined arts sector could look like.
Crescent Arts is currently supporting two artists to develop a zine library in Scarborough, with zines becoming a popular medium for collective making and sharing work—developing a new narrative around a sense of place. Adrian said this process and the opportunity to make work and share ideas beyond the local is so important for seaside places:
Arts and creativity offer a space to explore issues that otherwise remain fixed or ignored in places that are largely conservative in outlook, and / or Conservative in complexion. They offer a way of engaging with and developing confidence and opportunities for young people where there is arguably little provision for their needs and options to express themselves otherwise. Arts and creativity can connect with conversations and networks beyond the immediate location, sub-regionally, regionally, nationally and internationally, opening routes for peer support and exchange.
And in this sense of place, is there an underexploited quality to our coastal communities? Perhaps the topographical imperative to look out to sea and foreign shores might offer a hopeful connection to new places and ideas?
Adrian explained Crescent Arts has recently worked with a community-orientated creative producer and artist called Katy Hawkins to produce a prototype zine which captures some of the zeitgeist of the work taking place on the Yorkshire Coast. It says:
The exchange, is that between arts – artists – people – place – which is at the core of the proposed programme. An exchange, through which new energy is produced.
Discovering a sense of place and its distinctiveness is something that drives the work of the Cement Fields team, an organisation that has grown out of Whitstable Biennale and now works across North Kent. Samuel Taylor from the organisation explained that a key part of their work is to enable collaboration between artists and local communities along the coast. He stated:
Creativity shouldn’t be parachuted in, it needs to come from the ground up.
Cement Fields is currently working on Estuary 2021, scheduled to open at the end of May. This is a large-scale arts festival curated in response to the spectacular Thames Estuary and the lives, landscapes and histories found on the Kent and Essex coastlines. The commissioned programme includes contributions by Mary Mattingly; Ackroyd & Harvey; Sadie Hennessy; Jack McNamara; Caroline Bird and Selina Nwulu; Jas Dhillon, Lu Williams and Elsa James; Robert Macfarlane, Zoe Svendsen and Carolyn Downing; Shona Illingworth and Patrick Wright; and Bob and Roberta Smith.
People are rediscovering our coastline. And the arts is just part of that story, according to Samuel:
By working with visual artists and local communities to explore the histories and potential futures of the landscapes around us, we can help people to discover the inherent depth and value of these coastal spaces.
Research suggests the pandemic has affected young people disproportionately with 75% of young people stating the 2021 lockdown was harder to cope with and 67% believing the pandemic will have a long-term negative effect on their mental health.
And that is true of young people in Blackpool. Anxiety and mental health issues are on the rise in this big seaside town, a place which has become a ‘lost environment’ according to Aaron Tonks, a specialist practitioner at the Blackpool School of Arts. He said:
Young people, particularly those who want to get into the creative industries, are really missing seeing a piece of work close-up or meeting face-to-face. There’s a lot of zoom fatigue and it’s just not the same at home—you need so many things in the studio. Developing ideas about how light changes mood. Hopefully we can catch-up.
What impact will this have on creativity in young people and emerging artists? It’s just too early to tell. I think we’re already starting to see a lot more photography that is introspective, I’m seeing young people here produce a lot more self portraiture and obviously working within the limitations of being inside a house.
There are benefits to the embrace of online working. It means new audiences can discover young artists in different ways, and—potentially—opening up England’s seaside towns. Aaron explained:
That’s been the problem with Blackpool, it’s a place out on a limb and it’s sometimes had this sense of young people wanting to escape and run to the hills. But though exhibitions like Blackpool Young Seasiders and Wish You Were Here we are finding a new international audience for young people.
It’s hard to predict a future for arts in towns like Blackpool, Margate and Scarboroug, but some things are constant, as Aaron continued:
You know, living and working by the sea—you can sometimes forget it is just there. But then you remember and go down the front and you’ve got that famous promenade—it is a sort-of facade but then the real story is everything that is behind it.
Perhaps that’s what is so important about socially engaged art in coastal places: it taps into the unexpected stories and new ideas belonging to the people living in places considered to be at the ‘end of the line’. However, through collaboration and a new approach to commissioning, the line can go in new directions. That combination of fresh perspective and fresh sea air can light up art and activism.
