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The Yorkshire Expedition: Hard hats required

Our tour of Yorkshire last week covered 350 miles of road, seven locations, more than 20 speakers and countless exchanges of opinions and information.

We started with a discussion of how to ensure quality and long-term thinking in an economic climate where short-term results were considered paramount; considered the context of rural areas and Yorkshire’s tourism strategy; debated the role of the artist in regeneration; and examined the impact of the arts on architecture in Hull, city centre development in Sheffield, and the creation of the new Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield.

Other questions forced their way in, too. Where in all this is the space for social justice? What about ordinary people? How, for instance, could the Hepworth Gallery become accessible to black and minority communities? Will its café sell South Asian food as part of its ‘Yorkshire’ identity?

One of the people on our charabanc was Alison Drake, famous as a community representative during the makeover of Castleford televised by Channel 4. Alison has had to resist calls for money to be spend on ‘useful’ things rather than on public artworks; she’s had to endure taunts that she’s been spending her time on ‘rubbish’ because people didn’t understand the value of what was being proposed.

And yet, with explanation and debate, the sense that Castleford could become known for its creativity as well as its industrial past prevailed. On a bigger scale, Sheffield has had to do the same: interestingly, the city council commissioned female artists to develop the hugely popular Peace Gardens as a counterweight to the hard-edged ‘Steel City’ caricature. The great success of the Peace Gardens, Peter Thompson of Creative Sheffield explained, was that it put a smile on people’s faces.

There may be some hype there. But you only have to watch people enjoying that space on a moderately fine day to see the truth of it.

For those who despise the role of planners and bureaucrats, it’s worth noting that it was the city council’s own regeneration team that took the initiative and rejected the original bog-standard offerings of hard landscaping, insisting instead on an approach that was risky and creative. For the artists who get precious about their integrity or the radicals who believe only grassroots action can make a difference, it’s worth remembering that imagination and a desire to create better places isn’t the preserve of the independents and the activists.

Somewhere in the depths of many bureaucrats lies an activist soul. Perhaps artists can help release it; and perhaps the bureaucrats can help artists understand concepts of accountability and legitimacy. What’s more, when each is prepared to venture out of their safety zone, put on their hard hats and grapple with the more difficult aspects of the other’s culture, amazing things can happen.

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