BBRoots

BBRoots was a project in Barne Barton, grown over a period of about 4 years. The project was developed initially to grow an arts action group for the community. Take A Part were invitied to work in the community by the neighbourhood regeneration team as they felt that art would add value and help galvanise community activity. Smaller projects were held to gather interest and get people talking while a larger series of works were developed and delivered in conversation with the community.

Activity included; sound recording, creative exploration of local history, development of photographic skill, a collaborative project with PCA fine art students, film recording and screening, digital mapping, architecture and a series of community murals.

Community Centre and Dare 2 B Young Ambassadors programme were projects that formed part of the a long term process, taking in community consultation, brief writing, additional funding from Arts Council England for engagement and growth of an Arts Action Group Steering Panel consisting of community members, local authority and other key community partners. It was the culmination of 4 years of engagement by Take A Part in the Barne Barton area.

At the same time Barne Barton also collaborated on some other key Take A Part projects including Nowhereisland and Plain Speaking Tours (part of BAS7) and Sculpting Saltram.

In a later key project, artists and architects George Lovesmith and Sarah Hollingsworth were commissioned by the selection panel to respond to a long consultation process involving Plymouth City Council’s Neighbouhood Team, local residents and architect Hilary Kolinski. The results were fed into a brief for work that called included:

• Gateway graphic used the community ambassadors’ digital mapping project as inspiration.
• Way finding markers spilled across the Red Brick estate and Barne Barton to show ‘hidden’ shortcuts to the park. This design used the history of the ‘70s ‘trouser march’ - when female students marched to the Hoe in boys’ school uniform to protest not being allowed to wear trousers.
• The ‘magic carpet’ feature was co-designed with young people from Barne Barton, the materials reflecting the identity of the ‘Red Brick’ estate.
• The kerby feature encourages children and young people to play this out of the road and into the safety of the park, and was informed by play and design sessions with children from the area.
• All equipment is already being used imaginatively in ways that we couldn’t have thought up - encouraging creativity and play

As the project culminated over 200 members of the community attended the celebration event. We enjoyed using the new seating and equipment, eating a delicious BBQ, talking to the artist and designer about the design process.

Key parts of the BBRoots project included:

• ‘The Dividing Line’, a social history film created by Mark Vernon and in collaboration with the River Tamar Project with the community looking at the River Tamar and people’s relationship to it.
• A mural created by photographer Dom Moore consisting of portraits of community members and parts of the community taken over a year. Young people shadowed Dom taking photos. The mural was placed on the side of a new nursery in Barne Barton.
• A multi-faceted art project alongside Plymouth College of art students which worked with bunting with a community group, photography and collage work with the local school,
• A new bridge, built at Kinterbury Creek- the community’s only access to the water. This project was delivered with Active Neighbourhoods and was designed with the community and Muf art and architects.