Common Vision's latest 'Futures Playbook', Creative Community Engagement: Learning Through the Pandemic has been launched. The publication contains a series of inspiring examples of how creativity and culture has helped tackle loneliness, ill-health, poverty, discrimination, and digital exclusion in local communities since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis and in the years since.
The Playbook has been supported by Arts Council England and research was led by Common Vision in partnership with Creative United. They've drawn on comprehensive mapping of community-based cultural initiatives, an open survey with 120 cultural organisations and practitioners, focus groups with 50 practitioners and sector leaders; and a series of depth interviews, to build a rich picture of the ways in which cultural organisations and practitioners have been unable to interact with their usual communities in conventional settings. It shares learnings in five categories: creativity at home; connection online; digital accessibility; doorstep and outdoor settings; and community settings such as schools, hospitals and care homes. The playbooks explore what this means for developing cultural practice beyond the pandemic and the opportunities in months and years ahead to engage communities in cultural and creative experiences. You can also read a series of articles on ACE's website about the project.
This publication is the latest in Common Vision’s series of Futures Playbooks, which set out to join the dots between what is happening now in civil society and local communities, and the emerging patterns or ‘signals’ of things to come.
Their previous Playbooks include an exploration of 'Regenerative Resilience' in local communities, and a scan of emerging trends in civil society infrastructure.