Creative Citizens: A Photo Collection

Creative Citizens are everywhere. They are active in book clubs, fan networks, planning, design and dance groups. They devise innovative services for the elderly and campaign for new playgrounds. They knit, garden and make things. They sing in choirs, run community radio stations and provide on-line community news services.

These people do what they do not because they are paid to but because they want to. Their motivations are diverse -from doing something because they believe it has a social, cultural or economic benefit to the community to more personal motivations such as developing new friendships, learning and gaining skills or because it is something they enjoy.
Throughout our research project 'Media, Community and the Creative Citizen' we have been exploring what these people do, why they do it and what the value of their activities is. We have worked with groups of Creative Citizens and individual Creative Citizens across Wales and England who are engaged in a myriad of activities from a hyperlocal news service in a small Welsh port town to the saving of a local market in the east end of London. These people have been hugely inspiring to us in their dedication, energy and ideas for their particular project. We found it interesting the different ways people contributed with some taking on the leadership roll, initiating and running their project and standing at the front of a campaign while others preferring not to be singled out as individuals but rather to be recognized as part of a group of Creative Citizens working together. Still others are invisible, hidden behind their computers at home but their contribution evident in the creation of hyperlocal blogs, coding of community websites, running of local forums and numerous other digital online activities.
We wanted to capture some of this diversity and the opportunity arose to create this special collection of photos for our Creative Citizen conference and exhibition, which took place at the Royal College of Art in September 2014. These twenty-five photos were taken of Creative Citizens on location in their communities in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and the surrounding areas of Cardiff. They contain images of some of the people we worked closely with through the research and others who we came across through our networks and those of our community partners.
In selecting people to invite to take part we were keen to represent as wide a spectrum of activities as possible and to convey the different dimensions in which these activities take place be this in an amateur or professional context, on a volunteer basis or as paid work. We have found that there is a fluidity in the activities of Creative Citizens between informal and professional practice. Everyday creativity feeds into professional creativity, by enhancing it through the gaining of practical experience, skills and increased confidence. Examples of this include Tom Bryson who used to scribble down stories as a hobby but who is now a successful novelist. Vince Baidoo, whose film and music making has recently culminated in him setting up his own production company. In the other direction the professional skills of individuals come to the service of everyday creativity and we include many examples of this too -Frank Kennedy, who uses his expertise in advertising to help raise revenue for the Tyburn Mail, and Annette Naudin provide expertise to small creative enterprises through the Moseley Community Development Trust.
In June 2014 photographer Sara Lyndsey travelled to each of the different locations to take the photos. She worked with each person to choose a backdrop for the photo that they felt represented the activities or the community they were involved with. Each person was then asked to respond to a few questions that were then used to compile the captions accompanying each photo. We hope you enjoy these snapshots into the activities of Creative Citizens and that they perhaps open questions for you as to who are the Creative Citizens that you know, what is their impact and also whether there are types of Creative Citizenship that are not represented here, that perhaps fall under the radar, and therefore whose value is not known or considered. These are questions we would like to explore further. Carol believes this helps to encourage pride and engagement in the community and creates a safer environment. Carol got involved initially after retirement and feels it is has enabled her to get to know a lot more people in the locality as well as becoming more engaged in local issues. She also finds she has the possibility to influence local problems. Jess's focus is on the café and deli serving freshly cooked foods and local produce. Jess says it is a privilege to have this job, it is unique and changes daily but it is also very hard work and always challenging.

Introduction
Joyce is part of a group of knitters at the Mill in Walthamstow. She lives locally and when the council wanted to turn it into a drug centre she joined the campaign to stop the plans. She has been part of The Mill ever since. The knitting group provide a great social service bringing all sorts of people together. While they discuss and share their skills in knitting they also provide a relaxed, welcoming and safe atmosphere where people feel comfortable to discuss other things. The knitters will offer advice where needed and in this way look out for each other in an unobtrusively supportive way. Catherine Greig Catherine is involved in activities in her local area but she also runs a business 'make:good' that puts these skills to use in other areas. Her philosophy is that people should be at the heart of change in their neighbourhoods whether that is about big change to the physical environment or changes to activity and street life. She considers herself lucky to be able to spend her time on the creative activities that are her passion. Through this she says she meets interesting people, gets to hear wonderful stories and finds she is constantly amazed by the human spirit.

Paul Perkins
Paul works at a children and young people's organisation in North Camden called the Winch. He also volunteers as a Trustee for a mentoring and drama charity and helps out at local events when the opportunity arises. Paul says 'I've always had a commitment to seeing children and young people achieve their potential, and it's a real privilege to be able to work doing just that'. As well as the frustrations and successes of the work, I get to feel connected to the community in which I live. In London that's not always possible, but it's a really nice part of the type of work I do and where I do it.
Rachel helps to run a local community news service for Port Talbot called the Port Talbot Magnet. They have run the website for over four years, and recently launched a quarterly newspaper. Rachel's involvement began when she was made redundant from her job as editor of a current affairs magazine. Together with others who had recently lost their jobs at the local newspaper they set up the Magnet as a way to keep their skills in the profession and also to ensure the local towns that were losing their weekly newspapers did not miss out on quality local reporting. Rachel enjoys being part of the many campaigns to improve the town and knowing that her journalism is making a real difference.
Richard is the publisher and editor of the Caerphilly Observer, a fortnightly newspaper and website. Richard set it up in 2009 as a means to keep up-todate with his home community while he worked and lived 200 miles away in Brighton. They aim to cover as much community activity as possible for the benefit of their readers. Richard says he gets a tremendous sense of pride and achievement in knowing that he is contributing to the community and the difference this is making making to local media in the area.
Roger is a surgeon who uses simulation and performance to bring the closed worlds of surgery and science into view, inviting the public to participate in activities they can't normally access. Passionate about education, his early work on simulation provided new opportunities for teaching and learning within healthcare. The current work in engagement grew out of this. He is particularly interested in using simulation as a way of exploring surgery as a practice that is also a craft and a performance. Throughout his career he has been fascinated by connections -between medicine (especially surgery), the arts, performance and craft. Linking these in new ways is a highly creative process and his diverse team of researchers, clinicians, scientists, artists, performers, designers and craftsmen have resulted in many exciting and unexpected new directions. Rosalind Jane Turner Rosalind runs facilitated walking and talking or 'netwalking' as she also calls it. Having spent many years observing how people communicate (or not) she wanted to try to create something that allowed people to have a conversation and really be heard. So she developed her experimental walking and talking methodology and runs two versions of this. The first involves walking with a particular speaker and the second is an alternative networking experience. She enjoys how her work brings her into contact with so many different people and organisations and gets satisfaction when she sees the difference it can make when people are given the opportunity to walk together and actually have a proper dialogue.
James and Steph set up and developed the hyperlocal website WV11.co.uk which serves the community of Wednesfield. The site came about initially in response to their mutual desire to improve the perception people had of the town. There was a lot going on and they wanted to share this with others. The site has helped bring people together and also now acts as a springboard for their involvement in other activities such as arranging local Fun Days and fundraisers. They have both gained a great deal from running the website -helping improve local services, meeting some fantastic people and Steph even got her job because of her involvement in it.

Tom Bryson
Tom has loved reading from childhood and has been a 'scribbler' for a lifetime. But a few years ago he got serious and as a result has now written four books. When he is not writing his entertaining crime thrillers he participates in local writers' groups, gives talks in local libraries to community groups such as the University of the Third Age as well as using social networks to provide tips and advice on writing.
Vince is a 'trans-media' story-teller. He tells his stories through filmmaking, music making, and lately in the format of a comic. His stories are influenced by his community of young creative media makers in Bristol. To show-case his stories Vince created the YouTube channel South Blessed. It also shows the work of other young people in the community around him. Vince enjoys involving people in the filming and production. However his main motivation for doing these things is that he is doing work that he actually likes and 'not just working for the sake of work'.

Jack Pugh-Waters
Jack produces videos for the South Blessed YouTube channel. He sees these videos as giving the community a voice on a channel that is getting lots of online traffic. He likes what he does and can't imagine sitting in an office working a 9 to 5 day. He would rather earn a little less money and do something that he wants to and which he sees as having a chance to benefit the community and make a change no matter how small.
Ward's Corner are a group who campaign to halt the demolition of a city block in Seven Sisters, Tottenham. The space is currently home to independent businesses, heritage buildings, residences and an indoor market. They believe that the best approach to planning is one that takes its lead from the local community and have worked to produce an alternative and viable plan. Much of the work they do is about finding new and innovative ways to engage people in the planning and regeneration issues. This requires a lot of creativity and thinking beyond, often obtuse, plans and official policy documents so they try to use visual social media and interactive platforms whenever possible. Using this approach, their Community Plan was granted permission by Haringey Council in April 2014. Annette Naudin Annette is on the board of trustees for Moseley Community Development Trust (MCDT) in Birmingham. She lives locally and was keen to be involved in the community. Through her work she is interested in small creative enterprises and felt that she had some skills and knowledge to offer MCDT. Her contributions to MCDT are mostly in relation to the co-working and events. Annette feels that being able to contribute has given her a sense of belonging in the community as well as gaining new friendships and skills.

Angela Lewis
Angela belongs to Bootstrap Artisans Co-operative, a group of local artists, makers and creatives that decided to join forces and work together rather than working in isolation. Many of their members had struggled with redundancy, health or family issues which made traditional employment routes tricky so this was a way of creating their own work with the support of a peer group. They aim to open their first arts hub later this year offering studio space, business incubation units, employment opportunities and teaching spaces. Working in shared space will allow them to offer collective purchasing and hire large equipment enabling the group to increase their production.