Creative Dearne

The project is situated in Goldthorpe, a former mining village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and since the closure of the mines in the 1980s, the community has struggled economically. While the area currently offers community facilities through the Playhouse – a local community theatre that hosts a variety of events and performances, it has been recognised that more creative provisions are needed for local young people to tackle present antisocial behaviour.

Within the Playhouse there is an opportunity to reinvigorate the currently unusable basement rooms, improve their connection to the neighbouring park and provide a space within the community which young people can take ownership over. 

Working with the local community to develop and test ideas our brief was to engage young people of 13-19 age range in the new proposals for a Creative Dearne. Community engagement was a vital part of our process to aid our understanding of their needs and define our proposals. Our engagement included the wider community of Goldthorpe through stakeholder consultation, activities with the Young People’s Centre, and a series of exhibition events held at the Playhouse, Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church, and the Goldthorpe Railway Embankment. Our output included a participation toolkit, providing the client with means for future community engagement, and for the legacy of this project to continue.   

Building on a successful Live Project stack for Discover Dearne, our Live Project Team worked with the local community to create an exciting vision for a Creative Dearne.

The project also led to the production of a series of booklets, setting out our ambitions through short-term actions, providing the client with immediate exciting interventions for the Playhouse and ‘The Basement’, as well as a long-term vision for the neighbouring Welfare Park. The work developed during our Live Project will feed into a long-term business case by Discover Dearne and has the potential to help secure further funding for a Creative Dearne.

Credits

Student Team: 

Anchi Liu, Ben Warren, Choon Yuan Wang, Eleanor Watterson, Elizabeth Schofield, Emme Trenchard-Mole, Gloria Kostrzewa-Seyoum, Haonan Zuo, Kejie Jiang, Muireann McHugh, Oliver Harvey, Razvan Ivanov, Ying Guo, Zhijie Zhao

Mentor:

Dan Jary