Culture bid lights up Tunstall but leaves some traders in the dark
By Katy Jones
toke-on-Trent like many cities applying to be the City of Culture in 2021 flourishes in its heritage. Also known as the ‘Potteries’, if you ever fancy a cuppa and an oatcake make your way to Stoke. What’s more, the tea is most likely to be served in a cup crafted here in the Potteries, after all we’re famous for our ceramics and pottery.
Burslem, Tunstall, Hanley, Longton, Fenton and of course Stoke are the six towns that came together to become one city in 1910, to form our present day Stoke-on-Trent. Pottery is a specialism that enthused the arts, technology, science and creativity to get to where we are. The pottery industry thrived and employed thousands of artists from all around the country, from designers todecorators.
People from all across Stoke-on-Trent have been coming together to prove to everybody else across the country that we deserve the title of the ‘City of Culture’.
The City of Culture is a title given to a city in the United Kingdom whereby the city creates a national cultural event programme for one year. It is judged on culture, sport and media and aims to celebrate culture and bring social and economic benefits to an area.
Darren Henley, the chief executive of the Arts Council England is just one of the big names who is encouraging Stoke’s bid. He argues that cultural education should be given to everyone, and that the City of culture bid is not impossible to achieve.
“In 2003 Hull was one of the crappiest town in England and now it’s on the list of top cities to visit.Culture is what brought it together.
“Stoke has got a great story and narrative to tell and we want to help you tell it,” he said.
Events stemming from all areas such as theatre, music performances, comedy clubs, the Golden Lights event and many more are being put together in the hope that weas a city can shine bright above the rest.
Deborah Rogers, the founder of the art organisation ‘The Cultural Sisters’ and a keen supporter of the bid has thrown herself into the project.
“All of us when first asked about our thoughts on Stoke being the City of culture were like ‘what Stoke!’ and it seemed like something that is beyond us, but once you start imagining it and puttingyourself into it, it becomes much more fun and real,” she said.
“The Golden lights event is basically the unveiling of a big tall sculpture which contains hundreds oflights inside it. These will be filled with lots of personal messages from people across stoke. Bybuilding something this big, it will act as a monument for Stoke whether we get the bid for being the City of culture or not.”
The sculpture stands at a magnificent 21 metres high, making it higher than the renowned Angel ofthe North and costing approximately £130,000. It contains around 1,500 hand blown glass prismswhich had been filled with messages.
Organisers behind the project have said that the LED’s alongside the reflecting prisms will create anear- permanent glow.
The messages which had been placed inside the bulbs all contained a personal message from peopleof all ages. Some of which showed great emotion.
“A cure for cancer.”
“Peace in the world.”
“Please god help Angela get better.”
These are just a few of many that used the sculpture as a way of sending a prayer out to the world. Deborah along with many others used her fantastic skills in the art industry to help bring those messages to life.
“It’s funny, people have always slated the arts saying that we shouldn’t waste money on it and itshould go to something else like hospitals or schools. But what they don’t know is that it’s a greatuse of time and money. Art makes people feel alive and make places look lovely. It lights up the darkness in the world and that’s what we wanted to show through the sculpture,” she said.
It’s clear just by speaking to Deborah that events such as this are important to people. She getsexcited when she talks to me about the project and she fills me with this over powering need to getmyself involved.
Despite large efforts to put Stoke on the map, not everyone is interested in backing up the bid. Various shop owners in Stoke don’t agree with the bid and don’t believe that Stoke has thepotential.
Nick Cook the owner of Stokes Oatcake shop is against the bid and doesn’t contribute in any way toany events which could help see Stoke win the bid.
“It’s a waste of a bid and a terrible idea. It’s just another way for the council to waste money.”
Amanda Chadwick the owner of ‘All good things’ shares a similar outlook with Nick. She explains how stoke is a different place to what it used to be and doesn’t see that it’s got enough now to win the bid to be the City of Culture.
“Right now talking about Stoke-on-Trent as a whole we don’t have a lot to offer. The most disappointing part of it is the Potteries as it’s all gone, either to museums or the skip. That waswhere the culture was and it isn’t there anymore. Stoke is deemed to be quite a poor area and not alot of people are well educated unfortunately and this makes us look a bit of a joke. Around here atleast 50% of the shops are charity shops and rest are bargain shops, because people in the areacannot afford high quality products.”
It seems that there is still a long road ahead for Stoke and many opinions to try and change. It’s up toeach and every one of us to take pride in our city and make it worthy of the ‘City of culture’ title.
