Bristol Creative High Streets

THE PROJECT

Bristol City Council have awarded nine high streets a recovery package of £4.7m to help the city’s retail sectors recover from the pandemic, with a focus on investing in art, community and culture.

The funding aims to  encourage people back to the city’s shopping hubs and help further boost the local economy as the city emerges from the pandemic.

Play:Disrupt came on board in the planning stage to host 27 creative workshops with the public to find out how residents would like to see the funding spent.

DEVELOPMENT

As specialists in play and with a background in street theatre, we have developed a creative workshop and event to engage the public in conversation about their local area. These happen on the nine highstreets aswell as indoors with community groups. Residents’ ideas, knowledge and hopes are gathered through different activities and entry points, drawing out the unique personality of each area.  

A key activity was ROOTS – a quickfire systems exercise that devises bespoke activities to bring about changes in neighbourhoods, based on their unique challenges, resources and aspirations.

Play:Disrupt delivered 27 workshops across the city: Brislington, Church Road (St George), East Street Bedminster, Filton Avenue, Filwood Broadway, Shirehampton High Street, Stapleton Road, Stockwood and Two Mile Hill.

Images by Jack Offord.