Agenda item

A verbal update by a representative of Transported Arts.

The Chairman welcomed Mr Nick Jones of Transported Arts to the committee and thanked him for his time in attending. The Chairman also introduced and welcomed Mr David Worthington the Council’s new Events Officer to his first BTAC committee meeting.

Mr Jones provided a thorough presentation which included confirmation that Transported was the Arts Council Creative People and Places programme for Boston and South Holland who have been awarded a further £850 000 to take them  through to 2025.  That had changed the position of Transported to being one of National Portfolio Status which better supported a more sustainable funding opportunity going forward with an application process every 3 years, the outcome of which whilst never guaranteed, did  bring it in line with the NPO programme.  Their role was specifically about reaching people that did not normally take part in arts projects, and about identifying where projects bring value to the place, enhancing unattractive areas, improving people’s health, and building a sense of pride in our communities.

It was overseen by an independent consortium management group, with Boston In Bloom, Boston College, Tonic Health Charity, BBC, SHDC and LCC, alongside our lead organisation, The Centre for Culture and Creativity at the University of Lincoln.   It had been one of the first 8 Pilot projects that got the arts council investment with 43 pilots now in place.

Providing a brief history to understand how the journey had evolved, members were advised that initially a whole year of consultation had taken place to identify peoples’ priorities and needs including how the public felt about where they lived, what they would like to see and what they would like to participate in. That ethos had remained in place and the new programme, Time and Tide, had been shaped by the ideas and ambitions, opportunities and needs of their partners.

The main themes, Festivals and Outdoor events, Public Art, Age focussed projects for young and old, Health and Wellbeing reflect the expressed priorities of the place.

Addressing the history and work over the previous three years which had culminated in the Time and Tide programme, Mr Jones advised that a key part of their work was their innovative work with younger residents

The Time and Tide Programme had age specific projects for young people and older residents. It reflected the learning over the last few years and the need to actively engage with young people, because they are the citizens of the future, future artists’ dancers and musicians, and future audiences.

Transported had been working with young people from the outset, in bigger projects, such as the festival and also through discrete projects.

In Partnership with Boston College Transported had worked with East Side Educational Trust, funded by Arts Council England to run the “I know I wish I Can” programme of workshops along with a Poetry Slam performance for 7 Primary schools and special school pupils. Hundreds of young people took part and created original poems and then performed and recorded them, creating a sound piece which Transported hoped to have installed in the sound wall at the Collection in Lincoln. 

Further collaborative working included the Thames Festival where funding had been secured from the Arts Council and British Council for Eight High schools to take part in the Rivers of the World Cultural and school exchange.  Transported had commissioned artist Emily Cartwright to work with pupils, first to  design a series of banners that were exhibited at the Tate Gallery in London, and then recently to create a series of paper cut and sculpted artwork. 130 pupils took part from 6 secondary schools, Boston High school, Boston Grammar school, Haven High, Thomas Cowley, William Lovell, and the Giles academy.

Their second Rivers of the World project with Thames Festival and the eight high schools was underway and pupils had created original artworks that would be digitalized into square flags.

The Flags would be paraded through London as part of the Queens jubilee pageant, which would be televised. In addition, the digital artworks would also being displayed on the large public screens around the UK, putting Boston youngsters and their artworks at the Centre of the nation's celebration of the Queens Jubilee.

Referencing the Boston Buoys project, Mr Jones advised that they had commissioned artist Carrie Reichardt to design creative activity packs that were delivered to Boston Pioneers School so that 60 pupils could sculpt the ceramic fish that were then fixed permanently to the “By Sea Buoy”.

Confirming festivals and community celebrations were an important part of the Transported programme, bringing joy, colour, dance, and music to the streets, Mr Jones advised that the feedback they received from such events, confirmed that the events were appreciated by people that don’t normally engage with arts, or consider themselves creative. 

Illuminate had for years given Transported and the Borough Council the chance to work with hundreds of young people in schools and community groups, to create the spectacular costumes and processional sculpture and lanterns inspired by the town’s connection to the pilgrim story and the Mayflower 400 anniversary, and in 2019 had commissioned a short, animated film about the pilgrim’s voyage to America.  

In 2020 and in the midst of lockdown Transported had been determined to do something to mark the anniversary. Two artists had been commissioned to design online workshops and deliver activity packs to schools, day centres and community groups to create a Lantern Trail of 1620 lanterns around the town called one small candle, as an act of remembrance to the 400^th anniversary of the Mayflower and reflection during the pandemic.

Boston has led the way in partnerships for public realm projects. In the first few years as part of the On Your Doorstep project, they had invited residents to nominate a place they felt would benefit from artistic intervention. One of the earlier pieces had been on the B & M Green, previously known for anti-social behaviour and littering.

The second project was commissioned to add to the improvement already on the B & M Green, and linked the railway station through to the bridge. It comprised a series of digital artworks inspired by the town and another, the Haven Fish Trail just off B & M Green, had been compiled with fish made by residents, modelled in clay, cast in recycled aluminium from the cans collected by the Neighbourhood Action Group.

Co-commissioning over the last three years had enabled larger projects and, in partnership with Boston Borough Council, funding had been secured to re purpose 6 vintage Buoys from the wash with three excellent artists commissioned to give them a dramatic and creative new life.  The artists were selected and plans approved by a project steering group with representation from our key partners and funders, Environment Agency, In Bloom, Big Local, Borough Council, RSPB Frampton and Lincolnshire County Council.

Funding from BBC further commissioned a landscape architect gardener to design and produce a new garden in central park. Woodcarvers that came together for the taster programme in Witham Way Country Park had also produced a wonderful Maritime Memorial on B & M Green. 

Referencing the health-related projects Mr Jones advised that over the last few years a lot had been done online.  At the outset of lockdown, Transported re-focussed money and commissioned artists to design projects that could be delivered remotely.

The Adult and Young people’s Aerial Dance programme had grown over the years with 50 people currently on the waiting list. 7 classes were run each week in Boston, and recently the team and participants had taken part in the UK Aerial Performance Championship regional titles.

In the future Transported would be working with partners across both Boston and South Holland to map, protect and enhance assets, including landscape, built and historic environment as venues and drivers for cultural identity, community making and social cohesion

Committee comments and questioning followed which included.

Members voiced their appreciation and support of the ongoing work of Transported.  They complimented the quality of the presentation and noted it had been inspiring.  They further complimented the inclusivity of the range of activity’s available, the excellence in particular of the fire garden and most importantly the importance of enabling confidence in participation of the activities, across all residents of the borough.

In response to questioning, Mr Jones advised the following:

All school children were involved in the activities.  Projects were age group appropriate with the Illuminate events being open to all ages whilst the Rivers projects had been for senior pupils. 

Excavation of the scrape at RSPB Frampton was underway for placement of the third bouy which has been painted at the farm on site and was awaiting final positioning.

Scheduling activity for residents in the rural areas was always challenging and the cost was significantly more for those residents than those in the town, but with prior notice of events, the rural residents were gaining in confidence about participating in and attending events.

Encouraging participation for residents from other Countries was extremely important and whilst no breakdown figures for the various nationalities were available, there was an increasing attendance at events by newcomers to the town.  Festivals took place across the world and had common factors which nationalities related to in differing ways. The Almanac project related to the seasons and invited artists from differing backgrounds to explore the best way to showcase their traditional activities.   Transported provided a translator on its stall to help explain the activities to a wider audience and children of foreign nationals played a key part in advising the non-English speaking members within their families.

Agreeing the perception of the Arts could be one of elitism, Mr Jones confirmed that a key challenge of the Arts Council had been to encourage and work with those least engaged and to make them feel more comfortable and to have a go.

Various suggestions for activity were raised by members which Mr Jones confirmed he would consider and in some instances liaise further with the respective members who raised them. 

The suggestions included Morris dancing, an open mic night or a facility for musicians to play for the public to encourage local talent, promotion of venues where instruments were available for musicians to play, additional use of the events space within the market place and use of the car park in pump square for evening entertainment.  

The installation of a band stand within Central Park was suggested with agreement to take it forward within the work programme.  A further suggestions in respect of bus shelter provision within the market place was also tabled.

Points of clarification were made by Mr Jones who confirmed he was employed by the University of Lincoln.  Furthermore he clarified that the £850k funding was for South Holland District Council and Boston Borough Council and that whilst the intent had been to ensure equal investment it had been difficult as whilst Boston Borough Council had engaged, South Holland had been less engaged and as such, to gain a balance of delivery Transported had engaged the businesses and developed projects with them achieving a reasonable balance. The relationship with Blackfriars Arts Centre had improved over time with Transported assisting them in a recent bid.

In conclusion the Chairman thanked Mr Jones for the very thorough presentation and congratulated Transported on their new Portfolio Holder status and funding guaranteeing the future of the arts for Boston.