Culture and regeneration – The virtual fringe

Art can play many roles in regeneration. A festival of imaginary events offers an interesting way of exploring urban renewal, writes Janet Vaughan.

In 2002, Talking Birds made ?Solid Blue?, a site-specific performance for Whitefriars, a 14th century sandstone monastery marooned among the concrete flyovers of the Coventry ring road. Although a beautiful building, Whitefriars was the ninth unused building in the city that the company considered; buildings one to eight proved unusable due to neglect, inaccessibility or pigeons. Two years later, Talking Birds? festival of non-existent events, ?The Virtual Fringe?, takes the premise that all nine of these spaces (and more) could make interesting, demanding and inspiring temporary or permanent venues. It seeks to demonstrate that old buildings have a whole spectrum of uses, less predictable and more productive than museum, wine bar or (unintentional) pigeon sanctuary; and to explore the benefits of involving artists in regeneration.

For The Virtual Fringe, Talking Birds paired artists with each space and asked them to come up with a dream project inspired by, and specific to, that site. Some were also paired with virtual co-producers, in the shape of some of the city?s larger organisations. Part of each artist?s commission required them to conduct an access audit of their venue ? if physical access was limited, we encouraged consideration of practical and imaginative solutions to make the venue, and the work within it, more widely accessible to audiences. The resulting 24 (imaginary) pieces of work were programmed into a (real) festival brochure. Word of our virtual festival continues to spread, encouraging people to look at their city with new eyes, see things afresh and realise the possibilities the city holds. It does its work slowly and unobtrusively with artists, executives, retailers, students and council officers: a completely bespoke festival for every audience member?s imagination.

It is dangerous to assume that, just because it is presently fashionable, artists and regeneration automatically go together. The Virtual Fringe illustrates that artists engage with the built environment in many different ways, demonstrating differing degrees of interrogation of site and method, but those artists who can successfully engage with strategists, planners and regeneration can map, interrogate, challenge, reflect and debate. In this way they can add value, up the stakes and often prove the catalyst for more engaged, challenging, considered urban design and development.

It is incumbent on Talking Birds to keep pursuing the arts and regeneration agenda in Coventry. Through The Virtual Fringe we have certainly ? by virtue of being a lean and independent artists? organisation ? reached places others can?t. We have established that we are serious about working with the council to regenerate the city; have earned trust and respect; have proved ourselves interesting, intelligent and engaged. As artists, we have shown that we are watching what they do. We have become THEIR demanding audience…

Janet Vaughan is Joint Artistic Director of Talking Birds. t: 024 7622 9816;
e: [email protected];
w: http://www.talkingbirds.co.uk

For more information, or to commission a bespoke Virtual Fringe Festival for your town, see http://www.virtualfringe.info