Locked down Theatre Royal Plymouth has received a share of a £150,000 pot to support its outreach work with people such as offenders, drug users, the homeless and those with mental heath issues.
The cash, from Co-Creating Change Growth and Replication Commissions, is for the flagship Our Space Project, a creative programme working with adults with “multiple and complex” needs who may have faced challenges involving homelessness, isolation, mental health issues, substance misuse or re-offending.
The award is one of only five given in the UK and will enable the Our Space team to scale up and/or spread out to new locations. The £150,000 pot will be shared among the five organisations.
Co-Creating Change is a London-based organisation which encourages artists to work together to help communities improve their lives. It is supported by Arts Council England, founder funder the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
The award comes after the Theatre Royal, which had to close during the coronavirus lockdowns, was bailed out with an £806,000 Arts Council England payment in July 2020, and £1.896million from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund in October.
The Our Space project began in 2008 in response to rough sleepers sleeping in the doorways of the city centre theatre. It is now a large-scale creative programme working in the community, in the theatre and making public work with artists with lived experience. Our Space has worked with 724 people, 44 referral partners and is available on social prescription.
Through the new commission Our Space will deepen its collaborations in Plymouth by working closely with the council-funded Plymouth Alliance and key services providing vital provisions for those with complex needs in the city.
During the coming months the members of the Our Space cohort will be mentored by The Young Foundation (YF), a charity committed to developing better connected and stronger communities across the UK, which will support them to implement their “growth and replication processes” and maximise social impact.
The cohort will also work with Co-Creating Change evaluator Susanne Burns to share the work and its results it with the wider Co Creating Change network.
Victoria Whelan, engagement and learning manager at Theatre Royal Plymouth, said: “Being successful in this bid is testament to our commitment to co-creation and our work in partnership with services across Plymouth.
“This approach provides a platform for everyone who wants to, to access drama sessions, and tell their story. We’re excited about this next phase of our work which will see us replicate the Our Space programme in four hubs in the community.
“We’re particularly excited that all sessions will be supported and developed by people with lived experience of the services where we’ll be working.”
Other successful commissions include, A Place for Co-Creation with Restoke, Cultural Spaces Responses to Homelessness with Arts and Homeless International, Making Together with We Can Make, and Our Culture with Rising Arts Agency.
Co-Creating Change is a network and programme which explores the role which artists, cultural organisations and communities can play to co-create change together around the UK and beyond. Co-creation encourages every individual to activate their creative potential and realise their own ability to make change.
