I’ve just got back from a few days of induction to the project, met lots of new people, and experienced some of the achievements and challenges of the Site Gallery and the city as a whole.
The Site Gallery is a contemporary art space on an extraordinary street packed with maker hubs, artists’ studios, arts centres and university buildings. I can’t stress the intensity of creativity in the area. My first impression, at least, is of an under-funded area that wants, more than anything, to make. The urge to create is in the air, it’s normal and doesn’t need to be justified – so it’s not spiked with competitiveness, it’s laid-back and friendly. People have huge amounts of time for each other. They walk down the street and they talk to each other face-to-face. As a result there is a massive amount going on. Unlike London, there are things on here that I’d go out of my way to do or see, every single night. It’s hard to sound genuine saying this, but I really think that something wonderful his arising out of this culture of default friendliness.
It helps that the Site Gallery’s new management, Laura and Judith, and the whole team, have put a massive amount of time and energy into connecting with the community. I’m glad they’re there – they’d be wasted in London. My co-happenstancer James Jefferies is exceptional, and while we don’t know quite what we’re going to build yet, we have found several things at the gallery we’d like to put our skills behind. James is a great developer and I sort of shepherd and articulate technological mash-ups. It’s obvious that we’re going to have a lot of fun working together, whatever happens. Keeping this short, but the full post is over on my blog, here.