Culture for civic participation

Community Paint Day, credit Khali Ackford

During the summer, Trinity and other members of Bristol's DIY Arts Network teamed up with Radix Big Tent Ideas Festival to shine a light on the city's cultural offer.

Cultural leaders from across the city came together to share their experiences of how culture can drive change in the city. Leaders such as Carolyn Hassan, Director of Knowle West Media Centre, who talked about the importance of investment in arts and culture (see above). Watch the full series of provocations about how culture can drive change here.

As a community arts organisation Trinity are committed to creating pathways for people to take part in civic life, to have the right for freedom of expression and to celebrate both the heritage we share and the differences we may have.

From our Art of Resistance project exploring the human stories behind activist movements in Bristol to supporting residents to programme activities in their neighbourhoods and celebrate local successes, Trinity supports access to culture to give people a voice and the freedom to make positives changes about the things that matter to them.

In partnership with Eastside Community trust and Somali Kitchen, we are collaborating with local residents to create opportunities to learn more about taking part in civic life. From Night Clubs for the over 55’s, to supporting local artists to develop their ideas, to celebrating the places people live.

Through funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch) we are collaborating with St Pauls Carnival and David Jubb of Citizens In Power to explore if a Citizens Assembly model could be used to co-create a cultural strategy for the city and surrounding area. This model of participatory democracy brings people together from all walks of life together to collectively tackle issues and has been used successfully during Coventry's City of Culture.

Over the next year we are going to be pulling all these strands of work together to further explore how co-creating with communities and creating the space for democratic decision-making can enable people to use culture and creativity as a vehicle to empower, amplify and respond to the issues they hold true.

Interested in finding out more?

• Follow #67MillionVoices on socials and join in the conversation about what culture means to you.
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• Read $ Identity Capital $