Research
Dudley Creates brings together an abundance of insights emerging through action and experimentation in the neighbourhoods, green spaces and town centres of our borough.
Across hundreds of hours of shared learning, creative animation and engaged research with local people some recurring patterns stand out. These patterns have informed the strategy in action. They orientate us towards a focus upon eroding barriers to cultural democracy and supporting cultural action for climate justice. This means responding to the social and ecological crises being experienced by local people, by creating the conditions for them to take cultural action that generates flourishing cultural futures and restores our relationship and connection to the natural world.
“Work in the spirit of action research establishing conditions in which it is okay to try things out, take risks, learn from experience and work iteratively.”
— Gross and Wilson, 2019
Dudley Creates is a cultural strategy in action. It is shaped by experimentation, research and learning which began in Dudley in 2020 and continues.
The evidence, key ideas and intentions stimulating this strategy in action are drawn together with a 5 year budget in a document: Making the case
The following are key experiments and research which Dudley Creates draws on.
Local cultural landscape baseline research commissioned by Dudley Council in 2021. This was collated through a process of engaged research and cultural animation with local creatives and cross referenced with local, regional and national scale desk research. Dig into these observations and insights in our Digital Allotment.
Detailed research and analysis of place based and participatory cultural programme, Dudley Creates, delivered by Creative Black Country. This included reflections and observations from artists and participants of over 30 creative projects, including deeper reflective sessions with seven of the project leads and programme producers. You can download the report produced in 2022: Dudley Creates - lessons in place based social practice programming and the emergence of an ecological approach
Local cultural ecosystem learning and sensing undertaken and convened by CoLab Dudley as part of the first year of Cultural Compact Development funded by Arts Council England (2022-2023). This included 100 Coffees listening practice (June 2022+), Time Rebel peer learning around cultural landscape futures qualities (December 2022); collective building of our locally cultural ecosystem vital signs and cultural ecosystem manifesto all crowdsourced from cultural collaborators at the Rehearsing The Futures We Want gathering (December 2022).
Insights captured through mini-enquiries and creative documentation by Dudley Time Rebels since 2020:
A kinder, more creative and connected High Street ~ CoLab Dudley 2020
Time Rebel Collective ~ convened by CoLab Dudley (from 2020)
High Street 2030 ~ CoLab Dudley collaboration with Birmingham City University’s School of Architecture and Design (January - May 2021)
Dudley High Street Future Visions ~ CoLab Dudley collaboration with Birmingham City University’s Extinction Rebellion Architecture Studio (October 2021 - June 2022)
Radio Public ~ social art on Dudley High Street (February - July 2022)
What is more possible now? (Spring 2022)
Stories of Place (Nov 2021 - ongoing)
Doughnut Economics Learning Journey with Civic Square and Huddlecraft (January - November 2022)
Time Rebels of Dudley ~ Arts Council England Project Grant funded co-created experiments (May 2023 - March 2024)
You can find more CoLab Dudley learning in an online Lab Notes publication
Cultural Sector Learning Resources
Through the process of our cultural sector research and development of Dudley Creates, we have been grateful for the wealth of knowledge and wisdom generously shared by a diverse group of professional and lived experience experts. We have placed the references and links to a wide selection of these resources in Dudley’s Cultural Collaborators Digital Allotment so that they can be an asset for use and addition to by anyone interested in growing and sharing the cultural sector knowledge commons in Dudley Borough.
FUNDING
Cultural Compacts are partnerships designed to support the local cultural sector and enhance its contribution to development, with a special emphasis on cross-sector engagement beyond the cultural sector itself and the local authority.
Dudley Compact is funded by the Arts Council and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
RESEARCH LED BY
CoLab Dudley is currently taking the lead on the research for this Compact.
CoLab Dudley is a social lab which with a small team, a space on Dudley High Street and a network of Time Rebels and collaborators. It catalyses the involvement of hundreds of people each year in doing, creating and making in ways which help to nurture connection, imagination and long-term thinking.
PARTNERS
Dudley Compact has many partners. We call them ‘Cultural Collaborators’ and they are part of the borough’s cultural ecosystem.