This doctoral project explores how co-produced stories reveal underrepresented voices in urban regeneration discourses and examines in what ways these narratives can bridge community pride and policy advocacy for sustainable regeneration. Through arts-based practice, and sociological study, care will be taken to understand the link to place and storytelling in the North East, but will also identify opportunities for applying the methodologies to other regions. Through a rigorous scoping of the region to understand the horizon of creative approaches to public engagement, the geographies and type of communities involved at various levels in informing place-based narratives, this study will seek to understand the creative practice environment and its existing and potential connections with policymaking. This will involve working closely with groups such as Tees Valley Creates: The Freelancer Network and Stockton Business Improvement Districts (BID) to understand these dynamic environments.
About Me: This project follows on from my residency as the ‘community engineer’ within Teesside University’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Law. Working alongside Professor Antonia Liguori and Dr Sally Blackburn-Daniels as well as colleagues within the Institute for Collective Place Leadership, we have been exploring the role of musicking and storytelling, (in its various guises) as tools to give underrepresented voices the opportunity to be heard and listened to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDT1fT_FTHQ
I am also the founder and creative director of Blind Tiger, a community interest company that encapsulates my 35 years of work across voluntary, educational, health, criminal justice and arts sectors. Choosing to focus on men’s health and well being whilst impacting people across the wider community, Blind Tiger uses pubs, social clubs and town centre settings as contexts where stories can be told and lives can be changed:
