OUR BIG REAL
GYPSY LIVES
BIGGER TRUER HAPPIER Context
The beginnings: • Working with Lincolnshire County Council • Partnerships with Lincolnshire Traveller IniCaCve • Arts Award 2008 • RelaConships and trust developed Lincolnshire Traveller Initiative
Aims: • Fully embedding in the Traveller communiCes a model of working pracCce that makes educaCon for all age groups the normal expectaCon • Expanding acCviCes to cover all of Lincolnshire They aim to increase Travellers' life-­‐chances by: • PromoCng community cohesion • Enhancing Traveller self-­‐confidence and self-­‐esteem • Increasing levels of literacy and numeracy • Enabling Travellers to achieve a range of naConally recognised qualificaCons. • PromoCng access to health provision Reminiscence/ The stories
Heritage Lottery Fund
Outcomes for people: With our investment, people will have: • Developed skills • Learnt about heritage • Changed their aRtudes and/or behaviour • Had an enjoyable experience Outcome for communi1es: With our investment: • A wider range of people will have engaged with heritage Outcomes for heritage: With our investment, heritage will be: • In beUer condiCon • BeUer interpreted and explained • IdenCfied/recorded The Project Aims:
• To give the young Traveller community skills and training in undertaking oral history • To empower older generaCons of the Traveller community to recognise the importance of their unique stories and share them • To record the shiV from tradiConal caravans/trailers and seUled homes, alongside dramaCc changes in employment • To inform the wider Lincolnshire populaCon of the heritage of the local Traveller community • To produce and circulate bespoke educaConal resources • The creaCon of a publicaCon, DVD, micro-­‐website, Resource Pack, archive materials and touring exhibiCon The Creative Team
David Lambert – Execu9ve Producer Leanne Taylor -­‐ Project Co-­‐ordinator and Educa9on Pack crea9on Ka1e Smith -­‐ Social Ar9st, Photography Charlo@e Bill -­‐ Film Maker Charlo@e Ansell -­‐ Crea9ve Writer Sue North -­‐ Media Liaison Andy Farendon -­‐ Designer The project
Outputs:
• Film • Publication • Oral History CD • Photography • Education Pack • Exhibition
Media
Film
Evaluation
Challenges: • The Cmescale was too short • The delicate challenge of filming and permissions ambiCous project with new families • Working on an • Sustainability/exit strategy Successes: • A suite of bespoke resources were created • Stories were captured, shared and are available online • The film offered a pla\orm and a voice for the families • The relaConship with the local media has improved • The project enabled the children and young people to parCcipate in something new and different • A new Lincolnshire Traveller IniCaCve was created www.culturalsoluCons.co.uk Emerging findings and points for further invesCgaCon • The constraint of promised outputs: How to ensure that projects can remain responsive to the needs, desires and leadership of the community? • Place-­‐based approaches: How can a funding and support infrastructure that is largely place-­‐based, address the requirements of a community where travel is a key characterisCc? Might alternaCve models of cultural service provision be more effecCve? •  The problem of sustainability: With so much parCcipatory arts work being project-­‐based, what happens to communiCes aVer a project (and funding) ends? •  How to build on work already done in a travelling community? What support might be required? •
Ethical quandaries: Lack of post-­‐project support places project workers in a delicate moral posiCon and under a lot of pressure: Oh, I think that’s the big thing that I learned, um, because I’ve gone on to do a lot of work with **** but that’s all been kind of voluntary because she had this real passion for photography and I thought, you know, it’s not fair to go in and say, “I can show you this. This whole new world and, you know, you could really enjoy it but actually now the Project’s finished, I’m going”. How long have you got? I think with a, with a longer 9me frame, I think it would’ve got to the point where a lot of the young people would’ve been really comfortable documen9ng every day life and, you know, taking photographs of their home environment and their family and their friends but, just having a few sessions with each ... it just ... you can’t do that. *** ...and obviously there’s always issues about funding and 9me, but I think it was the sort of project that needed to have been done very slowly and build up rela9onships over a good long period and then I think the quality of the work we would have managed would have been far beRer because I think the rela9onships were so key, so I think what we were trying to do was go in and establish connec9ons really quickly …` •  A clear finding from the interview work is that workers involved in the project, whatever their role, acknowledged working significantly more than contracted to ensure success: how much work with community is part-­‐subsidised by project workers? What is the implicaCon for fairness and sustainability? It’s more about doing what you can and it was one actually I worked way over, I put a lot of hours into it and I ended up edi9ng the publica9on as well which we hadn’t or I hadn’t bargained for but it needed doing.