About Us

TAP’s core aims are to use creativity to enable communities to set their own agendas and take action where they live - improving their local environment and in turn, instilling pride, ownership and agency; improving mental health & wellbeing and increasing appreciation for understanding of the value of culture in everyday lives.

Take A Part value arts and heritage. We are experts in engaging people creatively in places, their identity and through investigating where people live and how they come together, we develop audiences for contemporary art and heritage through collective doing, supporting long-term changes to communities.

Based in Plymouth, we work in areas that have historically experiences social and economical injustices to collectively work with people in the area to work to take more agency in their future by using creative approaches to tackle local needs and set agendas. Using creative ways of working to bring people together to make decisions.

Our long-term, embedded process starts with listening and supporting communities to set agendas that reflect and address community need and diversity embedded in an asset based community development means of working. Building on the positive people, experiences and knowledge that communities have and can share. Our genuine processes leads us to co-commissioning exceptional national and international artists and heritage experts to collaborate in those communities and draw attention and therefore support for those ambitions.

Crucially, the process of creating the work itself is as important as what is created and the outcomes of quality are highest because they are sustainable, wanted, embedded and meaningful.

If you are interested in how we work, or wish to collaborate with us, check out our Statement of Intent here.

Take A Part started in 2006 in Efford, Plymouth, as a series of pilot projects supporting the area’s regeneration. Engaging residents in contemporary art processes allowed for a deep and creative impact into the regeneration of the area - this supported the core aims of the Efford Master Plan by supporting health, young people, skills development, access to green space and physical changes to place. You can read our ‘Efford: Capital of Culture’ case study here.

By 2011 Take A Part had grown, working in other areas of the city, and by 2014 we began to work regionally and nationally to support other organisations, advocate for socially engaged practice and spread our reach.

In 2016 we launched the UK’s first biennial symposium on socially engaged practice, Social Making, establishing ourselves as leaders of socially engaged practice in the South West region and since then, we have developed a successful line of consultancy and partnership commissions across the UK and internationally, supporting local authorities, arts organisations, educational institutions etc to widen their audience reach.

In 2018, we were awarded the prestigious Arts Council England National Portfolio Status for the 2018-2022 period, securing our programme for Plymouth. In 2020, our founder and CEO Kim Wide received and MBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours List for 'Services to Social Engagement in the Arts' the first time social practice has ever been awarded at this level.

If you would like to make a real difference to underserved communities in Plymouth, please visit our ‘Support Us’ page for more details. You can help us make a real impact in people’s lives.