Assessing the social impacts of our spaces
This project investigated the social value of the Warwickshire County Council 'Our Spaces' programme; a project aimed at helping to reinvigorate public spaces in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic by installing functional public art interventions in seven Warwickshire towns.
Art and culture play an increasingly vital role in the vitality and vibrancy of places, and there is a growing trend towards experiential town and high street centres as well as in countryside pursuits and activities. The Our Spaces project aimed to embed art and culture in our places to support regeneration activity as well as engender a sense of place and pride amongst residents and communities.
In this project, researchers worked with the Our Spaces commissioning team to examine how the artistic interventions benefit the public realm, focusing on the health and wellbeing impacts of spending time in public spaces, the public appreciation of space quality, and the use of the spaces before and after intervention. It enabled the local authority to learn more about the views of local communities regarding their public spaces.
The project involved two local artists, breakdancer Marius MatesLink opens in a new window and textile artist Julia O'ConnellLink opens in a new window. Together they created a unique performance combining textiles and dance as part of the Our Spaces installations activation.
Led by Dr Nikoleta Jones and Leigh Walker from the Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD), the project helped form a partnership between researchers at the Institute for Global Sustainable Development and the Warwickshire County Council Place and Infrastructure department.
A spokesperson from Warwickshire County Council said:
“Our project has benefitted from seeing the professional academic survey tools that have been designed by the university. We have also been able to consider the benefits of artistic interpretation of town heritage through the medium of performance.”
The project has resulted in a report which is due to be published shortly. It also enabled the researchers to build a strong relationship with Warwickshire County Council, and they hope to explore further research collaborations in future.
This project will investigate the social (non-monetary) value of the Warwickshire County Council 'Our Spaces' programme; a project aimed at helping to reinvigorate public spaces in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic by installing functional public art interventions in seven Warwickshire towns.
Art and culture play an increasingly vital role in the vitality and vibrancy of places and there is a growing trend towards experiential town and high street centres as well as in countryside pursuits and activities. The Our Spaces project aims to embed art and culture in our places to support regeneration activity as well as engender a sense of place and pride amongst residents and communities.
In this project, researchers will work with the Our Spaces commissioning team to examine how the artistic interventions benefit the public realm, focusing on the health and wellbeing impacts of spending time in public spaces, the public appreciation of space quality, and the use of the spaces before and after intervention. The project will build upon previously established research led by Dr Jones on the social impacts of policy initiatives to assess the short-term changes over the implementation period. The project will connect to the UN Sustainable Development Goals of Health and Wellbeing and Sustainable Cities, particularly through its focus on social wellbeing and access and use of public spaces.
For further information including dates and locations of community based engagement events, research details and questionnaire please visit further dedicated pages here - Assessing the social impacts of ‘Our Spaces’ (warwick.ac.uk)
This project links to the below Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
