Dudley Time Rebel Mission 2023
Five stories of local creatives breathing life into Dudley Creates — a 100 year cultural strategy in ACTION
This is just one telling of the Dudley Time Rebel 2023 mission story. There have already been so many wonderful moments of storytelling during this mission: at celebratory gatherings, on radio programmes, and in the many stories told in conversations that have flowed from the experiences of Time Rebels and their co-creators on the High Street, in cafes, shops, at the market, in parks, community gardens and on bus trips. This particular telling is a tapestry of those stories brought together to tell how this mission has been central to the start of a much much longer story — a 100 year story of cultural action for flourishing futures in Dudley.
Dudley Creates is a 100 year cultural strategy in ACTION. Not a report on a shelf collecting dust. It is the manifestation of a bold commitment by local creatives to flourishing futures for people and planet through local cultural action. It emerged from the weaving of years of creative collaboration, experiments, shared learning, and imaginings by a group of Dudley creatives and the local communites they co-create with.
These creatives are testing and stewarding an ecological approach to caring for the cultural landscape in Dudley. An ecological approach sees all elements of the cultural landscape as interconnected, interdependent and of equal value. It values co-creation, collaboration, reciprocity, collective governance, and shared learning in the open. It seeks to erode blocks to flows of creative action, resources, and cultural capabilities that in turn unlock cultural democracy, collective imagination and long term thinking. This is cultural action supporting climate justice, and community regenerative resilience in the face of polycrisis.
Dudley Creates emerged from the generous shared learning and bold experimentation by Dudley Time Rebels over three year long missions. They dared to reject the dominant story of scarcity and decline, and instead used their cultural super powers to spark collective imagination and ask What If? What follows are five stories of the third Mission and how it has begun to put the ACTION into Dudley Creates.
Before we begin, why tell a story? Why not write a straightforward report? There are a few good reasons for prioritising storytelling.
“So the only way to store data long term, like proper long term, is in intergenerational relationships, where data is stored in narratives, intergenerational narratives.” — Tyson Yunkaporta
Firstly, the ideas, actions, wisdom and reflections that make up this story often started life as snippets and glimmers of stories told by Time Rebels — first as imaginings shared between Rebels for alternative Dudley futures on a cold December evening, then stories emerging through conversations with participants, then again during learning and reflection time as data was foraged, harvested and mulched into the ecosystem compost; we saw stories celebrated and animated at gatherings, and through story catching and harvesting devices like zines, videos, collage, poems, illustration, installation and audio.
Time Rebels and their collaborators and co-creators have been storytelling, story-catching, story-collecting, story-interpreting, story-creating and of course story- inhabiting throughout this mission.
Therefore it feels important to share the collective learning also as a story telling moment to help weave together the many stories that make up the tapestry of cultural and creative action over the last year.
Secondly, these Time Rebel cultural actions were designed by Rebels to be relational and surface our gifts and many knowledges. Stories help care for and name these gifts and relationships so they might be nourished, celebrated and shared. A report is rarely relational; quite the opposite; it is often an artefact at the end of an exchange, often transactional in nature — a report will not serve the ongoing relational quality of this cultural action — we hope that story can.
Finally, this is the third Time Rebel Mission in Dudley — their stories are all related — weaving together within the ethnosphere, (the cultural air we breathe) to be part of a bigger story of change and creative action for flourishing futures for all in Dudley. Honouring the stories that come before us and after us is part of a practice of Stories of Place — this is part of that practice.
Culture is made visible by and transmitted through our stories, and it is through stories that together we shift our culture, by creating spaces to safely imagine alternative narratives, and learn how to adapt to the unknown (Looby MacNamara). Stories are a significant navigation aid as we bridge to new possible worlds. In short — Stories matter.
So let’s begin. There are five stories to share. You can read them below or listen to an audio recording here.
Firstly, a story of prioritising relationships and networks over partnership boards
The first story is a story where as a community of beings (human and more-than-human) we put relationships first. Organising in a cultural and climate emergency demands leadership from the most diverse array of lived experiences, perspectives and knowledges possible. Now is not the time for elite groups in boardrooms, determining the cultural landscape based upon a static outdated document and the perspectives of a very small sample of people, with all the concentration of power and limitation of insights this creates. Instead this is a time of shared responsibility through convening an open network of cultural collaborators that creates spaces for meaningful connection, ideation, creativity, reciprocity and sharing of knowledge at open gatherings so we can embrace a plurality of perspectives and culture making for collective good.
The open invitations to everyone in the ecosystem over the last year actively disrupts usual hierarchies of power in the cultural landscape. There was no central table of power brokers, no tightly formed agenda, no minutes to capture a single version of the story. Rather this was convivial invitations to deepen relationships across the ecosystem, share ideas and different creative experiences, be inspired by and take part in creative action, to feel welcomed and valued for the many forms of creative expression, cultural value and collaborative potential you represent. These were seasonally themed, creative, joyful, social and celebratory spaces. The focus upon shared learning processes throughout the Mission and creative documentation at the Gatherings made visible and honoured the cultural visions and imaginings of over 400 participants from Time Rebel projects. The artists brought the learning from 5 peer learning sessions to the Gatherings helping to socialise and amplify the learning to over 100 members of the cultural ecosystem. We co-created three shared learning tools which creatives tailored to their project to support reflection around how their work, practice, project supports shifts in the local ecosystem vital signs. This shared learning process and support enables the space and time for collective sense-making that is key to this form of open governance.
We all recognise this is not the ONLY way to steward the health of Dudley’s cultural ecosystem, and so will continue to experiment with a range of models of organising that encourage networked potential and distributed power. We want to work with those that have not yet come close to this way of working that challenges business as usual, but who still want to be part of healthy co-created futures and a way of working where we ask “ What if we put relationships first?
Story number two. A story where cultural democracy unlocks who gets to imagine the future
The story that runs like a brilliant multi-colour and incredibly strong thread through this tapestry is the story of a future Dudley where everyone decides what counts as culture, where it happens, who makes it, and who experiences it? Like many places across the UK Dudley faces many barriers limiting who takes part and shapes local culture and creates cultural value. Time Rebels continue to demonstrate alternative creative futures are possible — we just need to take intentional cultural action to realise those futures.
This is a story of 29 creatives co-designing and creating projects with local people including 15 local community groups and organisations. They delivered 66 free activities employing a multitude of different creative skills and knowledges, shared in 38 different places across the borough. 433 local people participated in these creative activities in their local parks, high streets, libraries, cafes, markets, community gardens, museums, artist studios, field trips to mid-Wales and Shropshire and community hubs.
This is a happy story of creative action in multiple forms, in multiple places, with people from all different walks of life, connecting and creating together. But remember, this was possible because the Time Rebels designed with this multiplicity and the potential of cultural democracy in Dudley in mind. This is a story about Democratising Practices. We Are Makers, Reclaiming our Roots (Ekho Collective CIC), Field Works (Workshop 24) and Time To Make, designed their activities to give local people the freedom to decide how they wanted to take part and which creative activities they valued and felt most comfortable taking part in. This flexibility and responsiveness are key democratising practices supporting greater participation.
Giving Voices (Creart Collective) and Time To Make led projects where new artists and creatives can join, test out new roles, collaborate and so try out new creative skills. So this is also a story about the importance of designing for experimentation, adaptation and discovery.
Stories of Place and Field Works (Workshop 24) used open project design methods to encourage the co-design of workshops enabling local people to direct their creative curiosity and experiment with a range of creative practices. Meanwhile the Time Rebel mission itself was designed around project experimentation pathways with the regular convening of creatives over 2023 creating space to weave the threads from micro experiments and pop up activity with seed money in Spring 2023 (which created the freedom to try things out and learn); to fully designed project delivery over Summer/ Autumn 2023 that still allowed for adaptation informed by peer learning sessions and Cultural Collaborators feedback; through to final end of year showcase celebrations and what next questions guided by futures tools. This is a story about making evolving creative journeys more possible and about deepening reciprocal relationships across the ecosystem.
We know there is much more to do to erode barriers to local people feeling permission, agency and capabilities to be part of the evolution of the strategy in action and shaping the local cultural landscape. Part of the purpose of a long term strategy is to hold that thread across longer more meaningful periods of societal change. As a cultural ecosystem we must continue to hold ourselves accountable by imagining What if… everyone decides what counts as culture, where it happens, who makes it, and who experiences it?
A third story where we follow nature’s lead — working collectively for cultural ecosystem health
Throughout this year Time Rebels have invited us to imagine what if we followed Nature’s lead and created possibility through interconnections and interdependencies? This is the story of Dudley’s diverse, connected, evolving and interdependent cultural landscape viewed as an ecosystem. The ecosystem has home grown and tested vital signs to help us all take better care of the health of cultural life in the Borough.
The vital signs encourage us to do all we can to nurture an ecosystem that is diverse and dynamic, more interconnected and visible to itself, working in the spirit of experimentation and adaptation, trying out new things, inspired by the knowledges, environment and stories of Dudley, able to value everyday non-arts spaces as places of important cultural production, recognising the abundance of flows of cultural value created when artists collaborate, when communities co-design with creatives, when the librarian, cafe owner, market stall holder and everyone in between knows that they can embrace the role of cultural collaborator and improve the health of the ecosystem for collective good.
Time Rebels have paid attention to these vital signs — intentionally connecting with different artists, different communities, different spaces, different non-arts collaborators and so have shown us more is possible when we see all the different roles and all the different elements of cultural action as valued equally and ultimately interdependent.
This focus upon connectivity bore fruit as Time Rebels brought a collaborative way of working together by asking for help from fellow creatives and actively supporting each other with their participation, guidance, materials and equipment shared, as well as signposting and sharing invitations. Intentionally taking an ecological approach to ecosystem stewardship encourages connection across cultural programmes, resource streams and practices so the lab team made introductions across different sectors such a public health and education; and signposted creatives to different funding streams and training and skills development opportunities across the Midlands throughout the programme.
Seeing the cultural landscape as an ecosystem has helped us lift up the role of place in this story. How embracing a deeper understanding of place and ways that our local places shape us and our cultures invites even more cultural possibilities grounded in the potential of Dudley Borough. Stories of Place, Reclaiming our Roots, Giving Voices, Stitchers in Time, We Are Makers, Time to Make, and Field Works, all embraced a deeper place based practice by building trusting relationships with local collaborators and communities, and by convening informed by local places, knowledges, stories, histories and futures.
Critically in terms of new stories, Giving Voices, We Are Makers, Time To Make, Field Works all gently disrupted existing limiting narratives of place through their co-creation with local people. This relational practice holds the foundations for future creative collaborations. A number of the artists feel they have greater clarity in their practice by seeing their work as more explicitly place based and developed over longer time scales, with creative projects and enquiries informing each other over time.
Our fourth story is the story of imagination as an act of liberation for all our futures
The story that all the Time Rebels contributed to is the story of a world where we nurture and celebrate everyone’s imagination. Once again Time Rebels have shown how culture and the arts can help make the impossible seem possible. With Colour Walks boldly reframing the decay and car dominance of the High Street with technicolour conviviality and crochet covered shopping trolleys; with freedoms to use new creative acts like podcasting to share untold stories that felt previously unthinkable; from the anxiety of everyday life in a perma-crisis to the restorative wellbeing of community gardens where people foraged, cared for, illustrated and unlocked nature’s remedies; from the isolation created by poor transport infrastructure and failing social systems to the liberation of imaginations drawing and walking together in local parks and on field trips; from the imagination limiting rush of daily life to meeting people where they are, on the High Street, in cafes, and local shops in order to create space and time to unlock creative talents and passion projects; from the loneliness of grief and ill health to the companionship and purpose of gentle craftivism of raising ecological consciousness by stitching beautiful bunting of endangered species.
This is a story of the many many ways Time Rebels created conditions for imagination, connection and so the freedom of cultural expression. A basic right and essential to our resilience. All the Time Rebel projects were designed to nurture cultural capability (freedom of cultural expression), to erode barriers to cultural democracy (barriers limiting who takes part and shapes local cultures and creates cultural value), and in turn create conditions for more collective imagination.
These three elements of the project designs are a prerequisite and precursor to imagining new futures. Through their differing social practices — creative installations, movement, poetry, collage, animation, craftivism, crafting and stitching, storytelling, podcasting, drawing, making, sound recording, herbalism, wild crafts, and sensory practices — the creatives made space for questioning of the status quo and invited imagining in local communities in relation to: new futures where everyone, regardless of background, has valued creative skills and cultural capabilities that are recognised, supported and shared widely in the places and communities they care about; new futures where their cultural stories, ways of knowing and heritage practices are valued, celebrated and cared for; new futures that bring narratives of possibility and flourishing in Dudley that disrupt an existing alienating narrative of deterioration, scarcity and fear; new futures where community spaces welcome folk to meet up with like minded creatives to share, support, collaborate and inspire each other; new futures where people have a deeper connection with the rest of nature that acknowledges our interdependency and need for practices of care and stewardship for all kin.
As part of this collective imagining, creatives took care to be mindful of the conditions needed for imagining that are so often absent from our everyday lives. At the end of the programme they co-curated the December Cultural Collaborators gathering celebration. In the lab — a retail unit on Dudley High Street — over sixty creatives and collaborators come together to showcase the new cultural and creative narratives patiently being forged with multiple layers of meaning making, through a multiplicity of cultural actions, and multiplicity of voices. These were narratives centred around an abundance of creative activity in everyday spaces, narratives of instinctive practices of collaboration and co-creation, and the role of cultural action in helping us as a community to reimagine our ways of being in the world, how we relate and care for each other and our more-than-human kin. This was prefiguration — the cultural future lived in the present animated by the alchemy of wonder and awe inspiring creative stories and artefacts co-created in 2023 as part of Dudley Creates.
Finally, the story of long-term thinking as a way to be a good ancestor
If we expand our understanding of cultural democracy to include future generations and the rest of Nature then we unlock the potential for cultural acts that are conducive to all life. Long-term thinking is central to this alternative future. A 100 year timeframe for Dudley Creates cultural strategy in action helps us expand our horizons to consider our relationship with and responsibility to the rest of Nature, as well as future generations.
We have learnt during the early animation of Dudley Creates that the practice of long term thinking is really hard in a world that is culturally bound to short-termism. We have discovered that nurturing a cultural legacy mindset feels more and less comfortable or important to different people in different roles and contexts within the cultural ecosystem. This can relate to the precarity of a creative life as much as the typically short timescales that shape the systems we work within. This first year of Dudley Creates has made even more evident the dominant culture of short-termism in policy, funding and organisations which continues to create barriers to the cultural potential of people and place in Dudley.
Despite these barriers, Time Rebels have lent into long-term thinking in their creative practice and developed projects that lift up longer timeframes and circles of accountability in relation to: land connections, cultural heritage, intergenerational justice, nature (intra)connection, and climate and social crisis.
The Time Rebel Missions all began with an orientation session exploring seeds of the future in the present, and asking what does it mean to be a good ancestor through their creative work. Several of the Time Rebel projects choose to intentionally explore the interaction of the past, present and future of Dudley as part of inviting local people to develop futures consciousness. For example:
- Stories of Place asks “What if we connected with stories of place from past, present and future to collectively dream of regenerative futures, and make these futures more tangible in the present?”
- Reclaiming our Roots asks “What if we were of this land again not simply travelling through? What if diaspora communities found connection to this land/ place by sharing their heritage land wisdom?”
- Stitchers in Time researched and crafted stories of thriving, surviving and disappearing species to help explore long term stewardship of place and care for our more-than-human kin.
- Getting into Hot Water asked “What if we go away to come back to inquire into water, human-non-human relations and climate change locally?”. These enquiries explore long-term thinking through the links between industrial revolution, water and climate change; and water and human relations.
Further, over the course of 2023, in the nourishing compost of this Time Rebel mission we saw the design and emergence of Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice. The School is a partnership of Time Rebels Ekho Collective CIC, Workshop 24, and CoLab Dudley, with the design also heavily informed by Time Rebel Marlene from Creart Collective. Starting in Spring 2024 Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice has been designed to make it easier for hundreds of people across Dudley borough to work together to cultivate collective resilience through nature connection and climate action. Long term thinking is at the heart of the design of the School with Climate Changemakers reimagining the long-term structures and systems which created the climate crisis and inequalities in the first place.
In closing, the story of this Time Rebel mission is perhaps best summed up by these words from Jessica Edwards who reminds us that:
“In volatile and complex planetary times, the role of the arts is more important than ever, helping us to make sense of the context in which we exist. Artists and creative practitioners are interpreters, navigators, empaths and architects, seeing beyond the immediate to what lies ahead.”
