If you don’t already know us – East Street Arts are a creative social enterprise and charity. We create space for making art, social events and learning opportunities to make our cities better places to live and work. Our work can be seen on buildings, the high street and in neighbourhoods. We are here to support artists as we believe they have the talent, energy, ideas and determination to change our worlds. This is an opportunity for someone who wants to play a significant part in a project we have nurtured and grown for the last two years, and that we are dedicated to pushing forward for at least another five years! If you’re an artist who is committed to neighbourhood empowerment, planning reform, co-creating change and being rooted in communities then this might be the right commission for you.

What is a Neighborhood Plan? 

Neighbourhood Planning is a new way for communities to have a say in the future of the places they live and work that was introduced in the Localism Act 2011. It is an important tool that gives statutory power to produce a plan with real legal weight that directs development in the local area. This includes where new homes, shops, offices and public spaces can be built.

For two years, East Street Arts have collaborated with a cluster of culture and community-led groups and organisations in Mabgate, Lincoln Green and Burmantofts to kick start the process of developing a Neighbourhood Plan for this area. We’ve consulted with local residents, businesses, councillors and a wide range of stakeholders and are now in a position where we are ready to create a Neighbourhood Planning Forum. This forum will be made up of residents, stakeholders, businesses and councillors.

They will be responsible for developing a document that sets out planning policies for the neighbourhood area, that are used to decide whether to approve planning applications. The Neighbourhood Plan will be written by the local community – the people who love and know the area well – to ensure the neighbourhood gets the right types of development, in the right place. This will be the UK’s first art and culture-led Neighbourhood Plan. We’re now looking to commission the first artist to help bring together and facilitate the forum through a yearlong programme. 

Process

In our experience, artists tend to think about things differently. That’s why we’re keen to ensure artists are at the heart of the process for developing this Neighbourhood Plan. This will be the first in a series of commissions over five years that help push forward different phases of Neighbourhood Planning. It’s a long term process and journey, and ensuring we get a representative and committed group of people on the forum is the first step to ensuring it’s a success. We’d like to work with an artist from February 2020 – February 2021 who will lead on recruiting and facilitating the forum in its early life. We imagine this year to be broken into three phases:

PHASE 1: Designing the recruitment programme

• Working with East Street Arts, local councillors, Leeds City Council Officers, community groups and local business to create a campaign that will reach a broad range of people living and working in the neighbourhood.

• Delivering the recruitment campaign across 2 months. This will include everything from targeted approaches, door knocking, social media and presence at key local events. As well as a programme of activities for wider neighbourhood engagement that increases confidence, skills and wellbeing.

PHASE 2: The Forum and Public Programme

• Recruiting the initial forum – which needs to be a minimum of 21 people – and working with East Street Arts to set up a Neighbourhood Plan Hub: a space for the forum to meet, discuss and host events.

• Designing and delivering a public programme of activities that ensures residents beyond the Forum engage with the plan’s development and participate in creative activities that develop their skills and confidence.

PHASE 3: The Town Hall

• Towards the end of the year, working with the Forum to deliver a public event where local residents will work together to design a code of practice for developers. All of these activities need to be designed and delivered with key principles of care and wellbeing at the core. In order to ensure it is fully co-created and relevant to the needs of the area’s residents, we expect the activities to be developed over time and will support the artist in all aspect of the programme’s development. 

All of these activities need to be designed and delivered with key principles of care and wellbeing at the core. In order to ensure it is fully co-created and relevant to the needs of the area’s residents, we expect the activities to be developed over time and will support the artist in all aspect of the programme’s development. 

Commission

We are looking to commission an artist for one year to support the delivery of this brief. The exact nature of that engagement, including time commitments, can be determined with the artist based on their vision for the project. Ideally we are looking for an artist who is committed to social change, has demonstrable experience in co-design and co-creation, and an active interest in development and planning reform. People who live and work in this area love it. We all see issues and challenges, and over 18 months of consultation residents have outlined their concerns to us over losing what already exists here to developments as the city centre expands.

The Neighbourhood Plan and local forum will build local leadership, ownership and create a framework for how residents want to see the area develop. It’s incredibly important that the artist who works on this project shares that ambition and love for Mabgate, Lincoln Green and Burmantofts. This doesn’t have to mean that you also live and work here –maybe you care deeply for places under threat of gentrification or grew up in an inner-city ward. Either way, being able to demonstrate why you would like to work in this area will inform the panel’s decision-making process.

Budget

The Artist Fee is £5000. We have a budget for Programme, Access, and Engagement Materials of £5000 – the spending of which will be determined by the types of activities the artist proposes. East Street Arts will offer a large volume of inkind support spanning workspace, engagement support, producing capacity and guidance where needed. We would like to work closely with the artist to determine the exact activities and support the programme each step of the way. 

Timeline

A rough timeline, which is up for negotiation, is:

February 20 Designing the recruitment campaign

March and April 20 Delivering the recruitment campaign

May 20 Establishing the initial Forum and Neighbourhood Planning Hub

June and July 20 Designing the public programme with the forum

August, September and October 20 Delivering the public programme

November 20 Planning the Town Hall

December 20 Delivering the Town Hall

January 20 Evaluation

Get in touch 

If you are interested but need more information before applying, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Emma Beverley (Associate Director) on emma.beverley@esamail.org.uk or 0113 248 0040 to arrange a call.

Once you have submitted your application we will aim to get back to you within one week.