The FOLD
—
From Music and Making to
Design and Debating
- Welcome to The FOLD
—
In 2018, Great Place: Lakes and Dales commissioned Deco Publique to produce a programme as part of the Great Place project, funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England.
The FOLD was a programme of cultural activities focused in three locations in the Lake District and North Yorkshire - rural locales each selected for their distinctive identities and communities.
Led by young people through a series of co-design sessions in Bentham, Kendal and Settle, The FOLD was initially planned as a series of physical, pop-up programmes for Spring 2020 specific to each location, before the Covid-19 Pandemic forced a halt.
Reimagined to exist physically and digitally, the purpose of The FOLD remained the same: to produce a relevant cultural programme that engaged and supported young people to become creatively empowered in their own spaces.
Through an Open Call, local and national artists, speakers, creative business owners, musicians and performers were invited to participate in the programme. The final selection was finalised by the young people in the co-design sessions. Despite the adaptation of the programme due to the pandemic, over 40 creatives were commissioned as part of The FOLD.
Date
2020 - 2021
Location
Kendal, Settle and Bentham
Client
Great Place: Lakes and Dales
Funder
National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England
Collaborators
Transformation North West, Bentham Playing Fields Association, Brewery Arts, Settle Stories.
Project highlight
Empowering young people to make change.
Project Areas
Research | Concepts & Creative Direction | Curatorial and Programming | Arts Commissioning | Project Management | Arts Commissioning |Budget Control | Operations, Logistics & Planning | Design, Marketing & PR Direction
Co-Design
At the beginning of 2020, a series of co-design sessions took place in Kendal, Bentham and Settle with PhD Candidate Laura Wareing from Lancaster University. The sessions utilised bespoke tools and activities designed by Laura, with the aim of drawing young people into a creative process. This enabled them to voice their views on the challenges they faced living in these locations and how they felt about their future there.
In the sessions, the co-designers selected activities led by the Artists and Creatives of most interest to them from the Open Call applications. From this, three live programmes of events specific to each location were scheduled for Spring 2020. However, these had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. Instead, we worked throughout the lockdowns with an engaged number of co-designers to adapt The FOLD into a programme existing physically and digitally, whilst staying authentic to each place and the conversations that were held during co-design.
“When I first started the Fold I felt quite disenfranchised from living in Settle, like there was no outlet for young people and I was almost just waiting to leave … there were other people in the group who just truly loved living in Settle and I think seeing it through their perspective has made me feel more connected to the town and much more appreciative that I get to live here.”
- Lily Whittle, 19
During the co-design sessions in Kendal, there was a particular interest in theatre and building a network of young creatives there. The young people were keen to work with Kendal based theatre company The Knotted Project (TKP). This resulted in a collaboration during lockdown in which The FOLD supported TKP to realise a piece with young people, Forge the Future. The FOLD in Kendal also saw the birth of Folded - an online zine led by some of the co-designers, populated by work, articles, words, sounds, visual art and more, by young creatives in the South Lakes. Folded continues to release quarterly issues online - a space to share, connect and uplift, created by and for young people in the rural North. You can read more about Folded on our website here, or visit the zine here.
In Bentham we met with the co-designers on multiple occasions, whether during the pre-scheduled sessions or for catch-ups in the local chippy or at the Playing Fields. The young people impressed upon us how important the Playing Fields were to them as a place to hang-out and use the skatepark. After lockdown cancelled the festival we had planned with them, we thought about other, more permanent ways to enliven the skate park for the young people. This resulted in a 2 day event including a flag painting workshop with Jive Prints, and the painting of a mural on the skatepark by artist Charlie Kondras, the design of which was selected by the young people through Instagram Stories. You can read more about this here.
We also wanted to provide an area that the young people could have ownership over - a space designed for them to sit and watch friends on the skatepark. Socially engaged architect Baxendale Studio was commissioned to create a sculpture which would serve the double purpose as a seating area for the young people. Local young craftsman Billy Walden was drafted in to build the structure, bringing Baxendale’s designs to life.
Respect for the heritage of the town whilst also craving new creative opportunities for young people was the main strand of conversation during the Settle co-design sessions. Pre-pandemic, a series of workshops, talks and events chosen by the young people was scheduled to take place over 3 weeks in Settle. When this was cancelled, we worked very closely with one co-designer in particular to reimagine what The FOLD could be in Settle.
The co-designers had been enthusiastic about the idea of a mural and so we commissioned traditional Signwriter Signs by Umberto to paint a contemporary mural referencing the town’s rich heritage. The design features words chosen by the young people as a reflection on their hometown. You can read more about the mural here.
Alongside this, we also developed workshop kits full of materials for a free online workshop with Yorkshire based textile artist Robyn Nichol, as well as producing 100 bags full of materials and a booklet containing 5 artist led activities which we distributed through a local charity and foodbank.
I wanted to join THE FOLD as I was looking for a young creative community in the place in which I live. I think the rural area of the Lakes is such a rich area of cultural importance, yet one that almost completely excludes young people, and The FOLD offered a platform to start conversations and plant the seeds of possibilities.
- Marisa Crane, 24
HOME
HOME is a series of portraits revealing glimpses into the lives of young people living and working in the Yorkshire Dales and Cumbria. A collaboration between The FOLD and Photographer & Director Juliet Klottrup, young people were asked to reflect on a particular location they associate with ‘home’. Shoots took place in the landscape, historic locations and village streets, each place unique to the subject. Once photographed using medium format film, Klottrup curated the final cut for the exhibition which travelled from Brewery Arts in Kendal to Car & Kitchen in Settle.
—
The FOLD Gallery
—
Photography - Stephen Garnett Photography, Jive Prints, Deco Publique, Juliet Klottrup, Robyn Nichol.