As part of our aim to influence the practice of partners involved in the project as well as the thinking of key decision makers on the role that the arts might play in regeneration, Studio Weave, the architects practice working on the capital commission, were invited to work with PLANED and Haverfordwest Town Council to develop and deliver activities for Haverfordwest Festival Week 2017.
The result was Great Place – a series of drop-in outdoor asset mapping activities linked to a programme of hands-on making workshops designed to give participants an opportunity to explore some of the fabrication techniques that would be needed for the capital commission. These sessions were themselves part of a wider programme of the Lab place-making activities running throughout festival week.
The Great Place sessions were delivered by a team from PLANED and included an invitation to share ideas about the assets, challenges, opportunities and initiatives that could be then shared using an on-line platform designed by Studio Weave. See the pilot website here
The sessions also informed the development of an expression of interest to the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Great Place programme as a Confluence legacy project.
The overall idea was to provide linked activities that participants could find their own way around, dropping in and out of the things that interested or engaged them. On two of the days instructors from Coppicewood College demonstrated working on a shave horse, whilst on the other two days Cassandra Lishman gave people a chance to explore working with willow.
Over four days more than 200 people dropped in with around 50 leaving contact details and contributing their ideas for the pilot website.