Working with local community voices to shape our programme
Illustration by Laur Fitton
Written by Sophie Crocker
It’s really important and crucial for us at Culture Within Newham that our work is community-led, and we have a number of ways that we work with communities to empower them to make decisions for us.
One of these is our Community Voices Panel, a panel of 18 Newham residents – two from each of nine Newham areas indicated by the different colours on this map.
Panellists work with us for an 18 month term, and come with their resident ‘hat’ on rather than any professional ‘hat’ they may wear locally. Importantly, the majority of the panel do not have an arts background, which means they bring a really broad set of perspectives and experiences. The group covers a wide range of demographics, and is vocal about issues around diversity, disability and equitability, among other themes. Meetings are held every two to three months, usually about two hours long, and all Community Voices are paid for their participation.
So far, we have asked for their advice on setting a manifesto for our arts programme, selecting our six ‘Unexpected Partnership’ project commissions, our three ‘Art on your Doorstep’ public art commissions, and helping us shape our mission and objectives. The first meeting, which was about shaping a manifesto, was captured by artist Laur Fitton, who then also turned their comments into manifesto banners our social media campaign (using fonts inspired by Barking Road shopfronts). The full manifesto series is available here.
The Community Voices group is very engaged with what we do, help us to spread the word about our programmes among their own communities sometimes, and are occasionally given additional opportunities to input into more specific questions, for instance by sitting on an interview panel or attending our brand and website design focus groups.
Their voices are entirely crucial to everything we do and to hold us accountable to the people we run this programme for, which is everyone in Newham.
If you are interested in becoming part of our next Community Voices cohort, make sure to keep an eye out for our new recruitment campaign in autumn 2024, or email Sophie to express your interest.