While the arts have long been associated with the economic regeneration of coastal and rural areas, places that do not conform to traditional values of attractiveness have often been overlooked. Annie Atkins reports on the ways in which this view is changing.
If I were to suggest a country walk to inspire a jaded arts professionals soul this weekend, what vision would that conjure up? A pint in a country pub in the folds of the South Downs, watching the swirling red kites above the Chilterns, sunset over Windermere, wide Fenland skies or hiking boots and the bracing air of the Peaks? If you warm to wild and rugged landscapes, you may draw pleasure and reassurance from the diversity of flora and fauna attracted to sparsely populated locations. Perhaps you imagine cultivated hectares supporting hardworking and productive farming enterprises. The rural landscape lends itself to myths of imagined communities, often compressed and welcomed as an absence of the urban.
Wherever you live, I imagine that your dream walk might not include mile after mile of electricity pylons, a vast reinforced concrete bridge (currently unfinished) slashing the skyline, or the biggest brownfield site in Western Europe. Welcome to the strange beauty of the Thames Gateway and the 1.6 million people who already call it home. Stretching over 40 miles from East London to the North Sea, it covers 18 local authorities (at the last count), two Urban Development Corporations (East London & Thurrock) and 14 zones of change (areas prioritised for development) all inspiring an awesome level of number crunching and rhetoric on Regeneration and Sustainable Communities from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
Proper planning
Regeneration in quasi-rural areas like the Gateway raises interesting issues and challenges for artists grappling with the landscape. The Isle of Sheppey may contain the largest area of wetland in the UK but also has the fifth busiest port in the country at Sheerness, importing the majority of the UKs fruit and cars. The beach is scattered with random remnants of recent archaeology brightly coloured ceramic shards from the former Twyfords Bathroom Factory. Rural regeneration here will not result in swaying cornfields and pretty pubs.
Following an extensive planning for real exercise, local people said they wanted new homes, better shopping facilities, better employment opportunities and more things to do. Proposals include 455,000 square metres of additional floor space for business use across Sittingbourne and Sheerness, 8,000 new homes (enough to house approximately 18,000 people) and a proportion of the Green Grid, offering open, accessible space across the Gateway for residents and visitors whether human, animal, feathered, fish or fowl. But dont be put off by the cold statistics of regeneration. Theres still plenty of scope for the walk I suggested at the outset. In fact, walking could be described as the new acrylic for the contemporary art practitioner. Perhaps the last time it enjoyed such high profile was around the work of Richard Long, or the Situationists. Recently it has been experiencing something of a renaissance.
Walk on
The Thames Gateway has recently inspired two walk-related pieces. On its southern arm, Four Shores, brought together writer and poet Ros Barber, architect Simon Barker and filmmaker Abbe Leigh Fletcher, with visual artist Stephen Turner, who led the project. Collectively they created four separate art walks. Conversations with local people and explorations of the area sparked ideas for artworks along the four routes. Stephen Turner and Simon Barker created semi-permanent sculptures made from white concrete and local shells, to mark the way and provide places to sit and look. Ros Barber wrote a series of epic poems inspired by interviews with local people and research into Sheppeys history, memories and rumours.
On the northern shore of the Gateway, the Essex Development and Regeneration Agency recently produced 350 miles: An Essex Journey, a publication that brings together the work of writer Ken Worpole and photographer Jason Orton. Their collaboration emerged from a piece of work commissioned by General Public Agency for Thurrock: A Visionary Brief in the Thames Gateway (2004). At the beginning of 2005, Worpole and Orton embarked on a series of journeys by foot, cycle and occasionally by car, along much of the 350 miles of the Essex coastline, absorbing the atmosphere and the landscape. The foreword to the resulting publication encapsulates why the area remains so attractive to artists: At the end of this journey we appreciated, more than ever, that the Essex shoreline is especially memorable for its obstinate refusal to conform to conventional notions of what is beautiful or picturesque.
Effecting change
Art sits parallel to significant strategic initiatives regarding the future of the Gateway and many similar areas across the country. At this particular time, when government policies seem so overwhelming to many people, art and artists are uniquely placed to mediate and contribute to change by realising projects that respond to local flavour and circumstances. The arts are a powerful driver for economic growth and regeneration, able to reflect change, with the potential to revitalise existing communities and to provide a language to articulate their fears and needs in an evolving landscape.
Annie Atkins is Resource Development Officer, Regeneration at Arts Council England, South East.
e: annie.atkins@artscouncil.org.uk; w: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk
Copies of 350 Miles: An Essex Journey are available from Essex Development & Regeneration (£15 inc. p&p): t: 01245 702400