Starting from a different place to travel together to different futures

These five ideas offer powerful practices, tools and tactics which can be used to overcome barriers experienced by local people and communities who would like thriving cultural lives. They will help us to create the conditions that enable people to take cultural and creative action which contributes to regenerative futures and restoring our relationship with nature.

Drawing of people in a network

What if… we put relationships first?

An open network of Cultural Collaborators are engaging in many experiments together. These are leading to the Dudley Creates cultural strategy in action.

Find out more about A NETWORK APPROACH here.

Drawing of people in a wider diverse network

What if… everyone decides what counts as culture, where it happens, who makes it, and who experiences it?

We can take deliberate cultural action to take us to more just and innovative creative futures.

Find out more about CULTURAL DEMOCRACY here.

Drawing of people in nature

What if… we followed nature's lead?

Like nature, culture is a collective and interconnected endeavour. If we pay closer attention to these ever-changing and entangled relationships, we can reveal more cultural possibilities for Dudley borough.

Find out more about CULTURAL ECOSYSTEM here.

Drawing of people in nature collectively imagining with thought bubbles

What if… we cultivated everyone’s imagination?

Culture and the arts can help make the impossible seem possible. Dudley Creates aims to nurture conditions for the imagining, growing, co-creating, living and celebrating of stories of wonder and future possibilities.

Find out more about COLLECTIVE IMAGINATION here.

Drawing of people and nature imagining multiple alternative futures towards a guiding star

What if… we all became good ancestors?

A 100 year timeframe helps us to consider the rest of nature and future generations. This can disrupt the usual concentrations of power as well as encourage futures consciousness in our cultural actions. It also expands who has responsibility for the cultural landscape to a much wider web of people.

Find out more about LONG TERM THINKING here.