How do you encounter Peterborough?
Encounters have accepted a commission from the RSA to deliver a project in Peterborough that explores the process of engagement, among citizens of Peterborough and across their city. Ruth Ben Tovim, Ruth Nutter and Simon Seligman are the Encounters team for this project, and we will be using this forum to post thoughts, impressions, connections and progress as the project unfolds between now and the end of November.
Ruth Ben Tovim: On our first visit to the city, we drove around the arteries of Peterborough; roads that take the traffic of people in and out, roads that skirt neighbourhoods you can hardly see as you peek through dense trees and hedges, roads that block off everything from each other. We drive past new developments and more new developments and re-developments and land that will be new developments, through vast new urban villages - community building brick by brick, past shopping centre after shopping centre, past flat fields and greenery, greenness, through villages that are in the city but feel like the countryside. I felt a sadness, a gap, an absence, a longing, a disconnect. I wondered what was going on behind those hedges, what lives were being lived in the endless cu de sacs we passed with their dead end signs blinking to us at their entrance, who was there on the other side of the artery. I found myself asking questions; How and why might people connect across a city? What would that shift in the cells and make up of a place? What and where is Peterborough actually? What is this thing called daily life? If you’ve got a home, a swing, a school and a shopping centre right on your door step, do you really need anything else? Can you create a community just through buildings? What is it to live somewhere, to feel a sense of belonging, at whose expense? I had a desire to mix Peterbourgh up, to put people and stuff where it might not obviously fit, to show people the Peterborough I’d just seen, to break through the arteries, to find and make a connection, sense a pulse, find the people and share the experience of being alive together at this moment in time.
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Permalink Reply by Graeme Law on -
Perhaps there is as need to get a more balanced view of Peterborough through the eyes of its citizens - take the bus to the local centre or village, cycle along the 'Green Wheel', walk along the footpaths, attend some of the community events of the various communities - attend one of the Citizenship ceremonies that take place every fortnight - people who have positively chosen to be British and positively chosen to live in Peterborough!
End of rant!
Graeme Law -
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Permalink Reply by Encounters - Ruth, Simon & Ruth on -
Thanks for your comments Graeme, which do not feel like a rant at all, as all you say is logical and relevant. This was a first impression, after a particular experience, and as the project develops, other impressions (and provocations) will be shared here too. In the spirit of the discussion question, I would be interested to hear what, for you, is the key to encountering the spirit of the city, of your Peterborough? One of the things we plan to do is find ways for a disparate range of people from the city to share something of the essence of their neighbourhood with people they do not know from other neighbourhoods, as a way of encompassing exactly what you refer to, the variety of its people, communities, geography, modes of transport, cultures, etc.
Simon, Encounters.
Graeme Law said:Perhaps there is as need to get a more balanced view of Peterborough through the eyes of its citizens - take the bus to the local centre or village, cycle along the 'Green Wheel', walk along the footpaths, attend some of the community events of the various communities - attend one of the Citizenship ceremonies that take place every fortnight - people who have positively chosen to be British and positively chosen to live in Peterborough!
End of rant!
Graeme Law -
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Permalink Reply by Kate Hall on -
My first experience in Peterborough was when I was looking for a new home, moving down South from up North. We had previously avoided it and had been looking in in St Neots and Huntingdon - but felt those places were dead from the neck up. I know we saw a few houses here which we hated but I can't really remember them. What I can remember is this house, it was actually the weekend when the festival takes over Central Park - and the church across the road was having a summer fayre - and the people of this street had the street closed for a tabletop fair followed by a street party. We met our neighbours (to be.) It felt right. We put an offer in.
I still have never lived anywhere (from Manchester to Hampshire to Central London to Surrey to a university town) where I have known so many people.
The city has a pulse. You just have to live here, and to be honest work here (I did 2 years of commuting to London and know what it's like to just feel like I am passing through) and respect it to find it. -
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Permalink Reply by Kate Hall on
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I did try to delete my rant in response to provocative comment but my poor wifi stopped me.
My secondary response was that what connects me with the city is it meets some of my needs - and that is how I would map my encounters.
At first I commuted to London and saw nothing of the place, and had no need for it. Times changed and now I need things from Peterborough - i.e. better schools, an air bed, regular work, bagpipes.
Having needs from those around me has meant that I have made connections and built relationships. I put something into the city because I need things out of it. And if you look those needs can be met. Well on request I have been offered 3 out of the 4 above, and I am hopeful for the first - and better wifi is next on the list.
And as for the needs the city doesn't meet (don't get me ranting now) - well maybe there are the people / organisations out there who can address them. And maybe there's not. But it's only from within the city that the solutions can come - the cavalry ain't coming. -
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Permalink Reply by Kate Hall on
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Good to see your presentation at the Creative Gathering on Monday - liking your modus operandi.
I have had two thoughts whilst I have been round and about:
- for the tours you mentioned that you would somehow transport the tour groups around by minibus or something... Please, please, please can you do it by taxi. i say this because there are a huge number in the city (there is always one available - none of that big city anxiety as to whether they will turn up) - and they are nearly exclusively driven by members of the ethnic community - who have been notable by their absence at all the RSA meetings I have been to so far. There is massive precendents for engaging this workforce in getting a project to work - i.e. inviting them to shows so they will talk to tourists about them - but I think if they could be engaged with this project, which is relevant to their daily lives - much benefit will come.
- Please do something for Hampton. I had to drive into the depths of the new developments the other night - and boy they need some stuff going on there which gets them out of their houses and talking to each other. I know there is going to be alot of stuff happening in Central Ward as there is a concentration of practitioners here, and there are many other obvious targets - i.e. Lincoln Road, Dogsthorpe etc etc. But as middle class and aspirational as Hampton is - it needs a bit of love too.
Thanks
Kate -
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Permalink Reply by Encounters - Ruth, Simon & Ruth on
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Hi Kate
Sorry for belated reply. We really appreciated your point about the inclusion of the city's taxi drivers, and we had already planned to be in contact with them, and are investigating whether they might be interested in applying to be participants, and also whether they might be some of the drivers for the tours, though for numbers sake, the tours will need to be in buses, not taxis. Your point about Hampton is also relevant, and the TAKE ME TO tours will be seeking to recruit participants from every part of the city, new as well as old. I agree that Hampton residents will have as much to show and share as those of any other neighbourhood, and it will be the counterpoint between neighbourhoods that is so interesting and thought provoking. Simon, Encounters.
Kate Hall said:Good to see your presentation at the Creative Gathering on Monday - liking your modus operandi.
I have had two thoughts whilst I have been round and about:
- for the tours you mentioned that you would somehow transport the tour groups around by minibus or something... Please, please, please can you do it by taxi. i say this because there are a huge number in the city (there is always one available - none of that big city anxiety as to whether they will turn up) - and they are nearly exclusively driven by members of the ethnic community - who have been notable by their absence at all the RSA meetings I have been to so far. There is massive precendents for engaging this workforce in getting a project to work - i.e. inviting them to shows so they will talk to tourists about them - but I think if they could be engaged with this project, which is relevant to their daily lives - much benefit will come.
- Please do something for Hampton. I had to drive into the depths of the new developments the other night - and boy they need some stuff going on there which gets them out of their houses and talking to each other. I know there is going to be alot of stuff happening in Central Ward as there is a concentration of practitioners here, and there are many other obvious targets - i.e. Lincoln Road, Dogsthorpe etc etc. But as middle class and aspirational as Hampton is - it needs a bit of love too.
Thanks
Kate -
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Permalink Reply by Encounters - Ruth, Simon & Ruth on
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Anyone living in Peterborough is being invited to apply to participate in a new kind of personal tour of the city, identifying and talking about locations that matter to them and have had a big influence on their lives.
This new participatory arts project, called TAKE ME TO, offers people living in the city an opportunity to share their own experiences of everyday Peterborough life, and to take a glimpse into the lives of other people of all ages and backgrounds who are living alongside them, by taking them on a tour to each others’ neighbourhoods. The e-flyer invitation is attached.
The TAKE ME TO project has been developed by Encounters to inspire people to share and witness what is special to them about their own neighbourhood in Peterborough, for them and for others.
Participation is completely free and people can become involved on their own, or with a friend, colleague or as a family. Up to 36 people, or small groups, from different ages, neighbourhoods and cultural backgrounds can participate provided they are available on three dates:
• A gathering to prepare for the tour at a city centre venue on either Thursday 11 November (5pm to 8pm) or Friday 12 November (11am to 2pm)
• A TAKE ME TO tour around neighbourhoods in Peterborough on either Saturday 27 or Sunday 28 November, departing at 11am
• A final celebratory gathering at a city centre venue to share your reflections on the city after the tours, on Wednesday 1 December from 5pm to 8pm.
Encounters are delighted to have been invited to create this project in Peterborough. The idea for the tours came from our desire to create and stitch together new ‘highways’ between different people in Peterborough. The project will offer a frame for participants to explore new ways to be alongside each other; an invitation to show strangers your favourite view, a place that makes you smile, even a place where you wouldn’t go after dark. In the developing of this idea, we felt it offered a kind of ‘I’ll show you mine if you show me yours’ experience, that deepens everyone’s understanding of each other, and of the city you share. And it will be tasty too – there will be locally sourced food and refreshment provided on the tours and as part of the gatherings.
People interested in being considered for participation should contact Ruth Nutter by emailing ruthn@encounters-arts.org.uk or telephoning 07951 578208. Participants under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
The Encounters team. - Attachments:
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TAKE ME TO_eflyer.pdf, 436 KB
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