Report: Learning Journey to Wigan and Preston

Photos to follow

Yesterday we undertook our first ‘Learning Journey’ to St Helens and Wigan to find out what creatives in Lancashire have been up to. The day was an interesting mix of the modern and traditional in places that have strong parallels to communities in North Staffordshire. What was perhaps most inspiring about the trip was that much of what we saw is already within our grasp. The trip included a number of public sector officers from the different councils and workers from the arts, music, health, university and community sectors.

The first stop was George Street cultural quarter in St Helens. Although dampened a little by the persistent rain, we were interested to hear that the regeneration process had started at a grassroots level, by tackling the petty crime and physical barriers such as high fences and advertising hoarding that were putting people off using the area. A bulbous new glass rail station and several other modern buildings provide effective contrast with the historic fabric of the area, which had been protected through a conservation order and enhanced with grant funding. Although the rain meant the streets were quiet, we could still see that the older character of the area had not been pushed out by the developments to encourage creative industries, with a dry-cleaners operating underneath the Catapult apartment development and busy window-cleaners maintaining the new buildings with their local glass.

Moving fairly quickly indoors, we enjoyed a coffee (not quite a latte but near enough for us aspirational creatives) in the World of Glass, pondering links between high-quality pottery and glass design and watching fishermen brave the canal.

Then it was on to Preston with our musicians using the coach time to do a bit of jamming with Macbook and sysnthesisers. It is difficult, I found, to fulfil my role as social reporter by Twittering while listening to the interesting bits, so my observations were limited to such insightful comments as "Arriving in Preston, past another clone retail park". The Twitterati were thrilled, I'm sure.

The UCLAN media factory is an impressive building from the outside and in, very modern and full of contrasting spaces. In the Sandbox we experienced some futuristic "supportive agitation". For those of us for whom the best chance to handle gadgetry comes when we go to Hanley and pop in to the new MCC store, the Sandbox's vast screen is a thrilling thing to behold. Second to notice is the spotlighted podium which leads you to believe Steve Jobs is about to come on and do something witty with the screen. Then a very effective guided session to demonstrate the difference between your normal, hardly-interactive Powerpoint presentation with a few muted answers being thrown out from the group and a version in which all participants can join in with their own keyboards with entries being swiftly edited to build up powerful collaborative maps. Moving away from the screen, we then built representations of our barriers in lego. Both these exercises led to some very eye-opening honesty within the group, but, as is often the case, there was no time to go beyond the problems. I left hoping I'd get the chance to see more of what that big screen could do.

Stimulated by our play and a look at the Sandbox's attractive business units, we moved on to meet Charles Hadcock at his Watermark development. Originally from Staffordshire and very passionate about the Potteries, Charles is a renowned sculptor who ploughed money from his work into developing the Watermark from a derelict building in the industrial area of Preston. His aim was to recreate the atmosphere of his art college, London's RCA, for businesses and this had clearly worked with a complementary buzz combining relaxed studios with highly lucrative contracts and a combined turnover of £8 million a year. Charles' fellow artists had been involved in much of the renovation work, leading to a variety of welcoming spaces for very different types of businesses. What was worthy of note, however, was that there was nothing particularly inspiring or spectacular about the building. What made you want to explore these spaces was a very friendly, encouraging atmosphere centred around Charles' very lively, positive persona. While many of us found ourselves wishing that Charles would come and buy a building in Stoke, we can take away his belief that with our much stronger creative heritage than Preston, if it can be achieved there, we can do it too.

More inspiration came from our final presentation of the day from the very bubbly Creative Lancashire team headed by Ruth Raban. Facing many of the same problems as North Staffordshire, they imparted several useful lessons:
- they see their main role as a 'translation' service between creative industries and the public sector and also making the supportive infrastructure very apparent.
- the traditional industries that will survive in the UK will be those who appreciate the creative industries as complementary to their product, for example bike manufacturers need a strong creative team to maintain their brand and bring in new, desirable products that justify the expense of British quality.
- different sectors engaged with a number of different networks depending on their interests and this worked very effectively.
- giving grants out to people doesn't work: they prefer to invest in high quality supportive programmes. In the end, the responsibility it with the business to do the work to succeed.
- one area they have found successful is supporting people through building the track record that the public sector requires to work with them
- their best feedback has come from mentoring and support programmes and they have had very enthusiastic support from high-profile successful figures to give a little help
- they have made links with those who 'get' what they're doing, rather than trying to persuade those who don't.
- creative businesses have built trust in the organisation through 'soft', designer-led informal events which has then led to them requesting more professional skills as they network with inspiring role models. "People understand brands, not acronyms".
- they are working to prepare the industries for the arrival of Mediacity:UK (Wikipedia entry) and Lancashire firms have already landed contracts.
- they use a "solutions-focussed" coaching approach and match grassroots-led networks with government funding to support interventions the industries want
- because their capacity is quite stretched, they hope to focus on building 'learning sets' for peer-based learning and support

The people I spoke to were very positive about the day and what we had learnt. It left me reflecting on the importance of cooperation rather than central control. While we have learnt to rely heavily on public money because there is such a shortage of money in the area, this is focussed on very centralised long-term strategies. Earned funding adds an important degree of freedom to test out risky ideas and demonstrate what can work, which feeds in to those strategic projects and unlocks further funding. In addition, there is a deep vein of human capital and goodwill in North Staffordshire that can be empowered and supported, particularly when it comes to the hands-on activities and projects that bring life to an area. All three strands working to their strengths, interacting and respecting each other's importance are what will lead to a successful economy.

Other people wanting to add comments and reflections are very welcome to do so in the comments section. Also, if you are interested in joining a future learning journey with the Forum, please contact Stoke city council's cultural development team, tel. 232077.