Thinking about it....

Photo by Jason Thompson

“Think about it … liv­ing cre­ative­ly, for life!” was designed as a pre-fea­si­bil­i­ty stage of an explo­ration of the poten­tial for a hous­ing com­mu­ni­ty for old­er artists and peo­ple in relat­ed cul­tur­al occu­pa­tions in the North East of England. 

Host­ed by BALTIC Cen­tre for Con­tem­po­rary Art in Gateshead, the event com­prised a sym­po­sium with inspir­ing speak­ers Rose Gilroy, François Mataras­so and Hans Beck­er fol­lowed by an inter­ac­tive work­shop to con­cep­tu­alise and devel­op ideas about what the hous­ing scheme and com­mu­ni­ty would look like includ­ing essen­tial ameni­ties and com­mu­ni­ty inter-connections.

This pio­neer­ing project designed to sup­port inde­pen­dence, life-long cre­ative learn­ing and pro­duc­tion in a sup­port­ive envi­ron­ment for like-mind­ed peo­ple in old­er age aims to stim­u­late new col­lab­o­ra­tions, and enable res­i­dents to car­ry on con­tribut­ing to their local com­mu­ni­ty and to the learn­ing and cul­ture of the wider area, whilst pro­long­ing healthy and inde­pen­dent lives. 

The sym­po­sium was over-sub­scribed and well-attend­ed, and was received as an inspi­ra­tional event. It drew on a wide range of ideas and knowl­edge, and heard from experts in the field from across the UK and beyond. Most impor­tant­ly, the idea behind the ini­tia­tive was enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly welcomed.