Urban Rooms Dudley micro commissions
Urban Rooms are spaces where people can go to understand, debate and get involved in the past, present and future of where they live, work and play.
Image above from work developed by students involved in an Extinction Rebellion Architecture Studio at Birmingham City University in collaboration with CoLab Dudley in 2022.
Urban Rooms are spaces where people can go to understand, debate and get involved in the past, present and future of where they live, work and play. CoLab Dudley, the social lab which convenes the network behind Dudley Creates, share many tactics, activities, approaches and aspirations with Urban Rooms. The West Midlands Combined Authority have approached CoLab Dudley and asked us to collaborate with our High Street neighbour, Provision House to test out an Urban Room approach in Dudley.
Between late October 2024 and the end of March 2025 we’re convening an open collective learning enquiry to explore how might Urban Rooms in Dudley support wider and deeper participation in the shaping of possible futures for our town and neighbourhoods?
A team of Urban Room detectorists will be gathered, to help generate and care for the learning. Detectorism is the way that CoLab Dudley makes learning and researching together open and inviting to all. We made up the name! Detectorism isn't a specific tool or method. It is a way of being curious in the world, of paying attention to patterns in data from a wide range of sources. Detectorism explores ways to reveal and respect our collective insights to help inform experiment designs and actions for flourishing futures in Dudley.
Where creatives come in
We aim to work with 12 or more local creatives who will lead creative activities which invite local people to connect with the past, present and future of Dudley. Creatives may run sessions solo, or collaborate in pairs or small groups.
Activities might include walks, tours, collective drawings, What If? drawings, urban sketching, mapping with our senses, photography, model making, experimentation, storytelling, poetry or play. Creatives leading activities will be Urban Room detectorists too, contributing to the collective learning enquiry.
A shared budget
We have £9,500 from the West Midlands Combined Authority to invest in Urban Rooms creative activities. This budget will be shared between creatives who submit activity ideas by 9am on 31 October 2024.
For each creative the budget will be used for your time promoting, planning and delivering activities, and your time coming together with other creatives to co-design detectorism and creative documentation and surface collective learning. Plus your time producing creative documentation of data and learning from the activities. You can include a costs for activity materials, though we encourage re-use of existing materials, borrowing resources etc. . An access budget is available in addition to the shared budget above.
On the evening of Thursday 31 October 2024 the initial team of Urban Room detectorists will come together. You’re invited! For part of the evening those present will explore all of the ideas for Urban Rooms activities and collectively make decisions on how the funding available will be allocated.
The focus of creative activities
The purpose of Urban Rooms is to foster meaningful connections between people and place, using creative methods of engagement to encourage active participation in the future of our buildings, streets and neighbourhoods.
Although they can be different in many ways, the Urban Rooms Network explains that Urban Rooms share the following four principles:
A focus on our shared built environment - streets, neighbourhoods and public spaces
An open door - all welcome, especially those who are traditionally under-represented in decision making about the future of our towns and cities
Exploration through creative activities - to prompt curiosity and fresh thinking
To be ‘on-site’, that is, located in the places that are being discussed
You may choose to design activities which respond to this. See the Urban Rooms Toolkit to discover the methods (activities, techniques and tools) that have been tried and tested in Urban Rooms to foster inclusive and creative engagement.
In addition to the above, through research undertaken which informed Dudley Creates, we are concerned about the climate emergency, manifestations of colonial legacies and racism, and a cultural emergency dominated by narratives of individualism, scarcity, competition, consumerism and separation from nature. So in addition to Urban Room Dudley, which will pop-up at Provision House for 5 months, we will continue to develop and invite creative activities at the CoLab Dudley space on Dudley High Street which speak to these challenges. Examples include our work on climate justice, regenerative approaches and long term thinking. We’ll be badging such activities as Urban Room Unbound; going beyond the focus on the built environment to a critical consideration of our relationships with each other, with land and our entanglement in a wider web of life.
You may wish to design activities which involve connection with the rest of nature, or explorations of economic, social and political systems which shape our towns and neighbourhoods.
Where activities can take place
In the pop-up Urban Room Dudley at Provision House, 80 - 81 High Street, Dudley, DY1 1PY (a great, fully accessible open space on the first floor (lift available) and/or a small cosy space on the ground floor). Available for activities which take place on weekdays between 9am and 5pm
In the Urban Room Unbound at CoLab Dudley, 201a High Street, Dudley, DY1 1QQ (a curated ground floor unit, note that toilets aren’t fully accessible). Available for activities which take place on weekdays, evenings or weekends (we will liaise with you to agree times which a keyholder and space host can support you).
In Dudley Town Centre - feel free to venture out into public spaces and explore the built environment and natural habitats around the Urban Rooms.
When Urban Room creative activities can take place
Between mid November 2024 and mid March 2025
When detectorism co-design and collective learning will take place
A 90 minute detectorism and creative documentation co-design session will take place in November 2024, date tba
A 3 hour collective learning session will take place in March 2025, data tba
You are also warmly welcome to contribute further as an Urban Rooms detectorist in any of the remaining five collective enquiry sessions, on 13 Nov, 3 Dec, 29 Jan, 27 Feb and 26 Mar, all 6pm-8pm in Dudley. There is a separate budget which can pay for time spent by creatives in this role.
How to submit ideas for Urban Room activities
If you would like to propose ideas for an Urban Room activity or series of activities, please send us up to 2 sides of A4 outlining the following by 9am on the 31 October.
Your contact information and a paragraph about you with a link to your website or social media (wherever you share your work).
What your idea is - please keep it simple and easy to understand and do use images/video if it helps illustrate your idea.
If there is a particular community / group of people you want to work with let us know who they are, and how you would encourage them to come to your session(s).
How you will make the activities accessible and inclusive. There is an access budget that your participants can make use of over and above this shared budget for creative activities.
How you will help to keep people safe (e.g. risk assessments).
Let us know which Urban Room space(s) / outdoor space(s) you would like to host the activity in and why.
When you would like to run sessions/workshops e.g. 3 x sessions on Saturday afternoons between [date] and [date]. Dates should be anytime between mid November 2024 and mid March 2025.
How you’d like to creatively document different kinds of data about the sessions and who takes part (with appropriate consent, this might include where people live, what you did together, what people said…)
We’d also like you to take a look at the Dudley Creates website and see which of the ‘5 Key Ideas’ you most are most drawn to and if how they might relate to your idea (just a couple of sentences).
A budget which must/can include the following:
Must include
1.5 hours participating in a detectorism and creative documentation co-design session in November: £60
Your time creating invitations, spreading the word and securing sign ups to your activities (at £40/hour) The CoLab Dudley team will share your invitations too
Your time planning and preparing for the activities (at £40/hour)
Your time delivering the activities (at £40/hour)
Your time producing creative documentation of data and learning from the activities (at £40/hour)
3 hours participating in a collective learning session in March: £120
Can include
Activity materials. We encourage re-use of existing materials, borrowing resources, and if materials are to purchased, consideration of what they are made of and who they are bought from in relation to impacts on people and planet. We can offer guidance if you would like it.
Access budget (please tell us what needs you anticipate this meeting)
NB. The Urban Room spaces are available for free, so there will be no venue hire in budgets.
Please send your proposed ideas to: Lorna@dudleycvs.org.uk by by 9am on the 31 October
What happens next
We would love you to join us on 31 October, 6pm-8pm at CoLab Dudley. We will be launching the Urban Rooms Dudley collective learning enquiry, and for part of the session those present will explore all of the ideas for Urban Rooms activities and collectively make decisions on how the funding available will be allocated.
If you can’t join us on 31 October, we will update you by 8 November on the outcomes of consideration of all of the ideas.
A simple agreement outlining the funding commitment and expectations will be emailed to creatives whose ideas are chosen. Payment will be for 70% of time and all materials, and access budget up front. Payment of remaining hours will be at the end of March 2025, after the collective learning session. We aim to process and pay invoices within a week.
If you have any questions please email Lorna Prescott (Lorna@dudleycvs.org.uk) before 31 October.
Urban Room activities will contribute to Dudley Creates: a 100 year cultural strategy in action for Dudley borough, and to a programme to develop an Inclusive Communities Approach for the region led by the West Midlands Combined Authority.