People, Place, Product – Crafting communities in Brighton City

The main aim for our project is to demonstrate to our students, staff and partners and the wider public the value of collaboration through design to address diverse issues of sustainability; socially, economically and environmentally.

Our ‘On Our Doorsteps’ project will ‘remap’ Brighton in terms of University and community relations by undertaking a ‘mini-festival’ of partnership engagements and productive, creative events across the city. Each of the distinct collaborative projects and participatory events will use co-design methods to engage participants from diverse neighbouring communities, age ranges and social profiles in the creation of products. The products formed will be cultural objects, totems and souvenirs, which celebrate and communicate the value of collaboration with the University. They also respond to the need for opportunities for economic development, sustainability and social cohesion identified in partners individual mission statements and against contextual social, economic and environmental pressures. Over 10 partner organisations will work with staff and students from the 3D Design and Crafts programme in forming new communities of benefit locally, building on a history of exemplar community projects this course has routinely provided through its innovative and acclaimed community and sustainable practices. Each collaborative partnership event will take place from February 2012 culminating in a ‘showcase during the Brighton City Arts Festival, followed by exhibition at the Faculty of Arts Graduate show and then on to the International London Design Festival. Projects will be mapped across the cityscape via an accessible website, providing a long-term platform for ongoing partnership network in future years. Each event will engage neighbouring communities in immediate proximity to a number of University Campuses and will result in very different experiences and new relationships, based on identified need, which will forge a legacy of long-term mutual benefit and progressive opportunity.

Our partners this year include; City Wildlife Trust & Park Rangers, Purl Knitting Circle & Shop, ‘Build Brighton’ Charity, American Express, Brighton Toy Museum, Mouslecoomb Primary School, Brighton Community Compost, The Level Restoration Project, Brighton & Hove City Council, Brighton Language School.

This collective project as a ‘mini-festival’ will facilitate connections between formerly disparate groups, charities and societies within the city. The projects each utilise co-design and participatory processes and group workshops and events, which promote collaboration and the integration of mutually defined ideas and input at their core. This manifests in the reciprocal appreciation of the different perceptions and approaches that each party takes to shared value systems and issues that extends learning, understandings and empathy between the parties.