This is Derby Reimagined: S.H.E.D School Tour

S.H.E.D was commissioned by Cultural Campus and Arts Council England Youth Performance Fund to support the planning and evaluation approach for the project through using S.H.E.D as a creative and cultural space for artistic practice and discourse with a targeted number of schools and their local communities. From Jones’ perspective this research activity enabled S.H.E.D to ask the following research questions: • What impact can a mobile arts space designed for talking have on cultural, social and political discourse? • What impact will S.H.E.D have on its partners and on the theory of place shaping? • How does S.H.E.D facilitate an opportunity to rethink about the ambitions for S.H.E.D to be a literal and metaphorical vehicle for the transformation of dialogue? In Partnership with This is Derby Cultural Producer and Derby Theatre the S.H.E.D facilitated workshops with cultural delivery partners to plan a bespoke series of activities and events within S.H.E.D and programmed a tour to 5 schools. The schools were selected and the locations for the site-specific engagement of S.H.E.D within their school grounds was researched and carefully planned. The participating schools were St Martins School, Pear Tree Primary School, Kingsmead (The Castle), Derwent Primary School and Firs Primary School. Delivery partners were, Quad, Artcore, Baby People, SifoniaViva, Deda, Derby Theatre, Blazers Basketball, Drummersize, pound fit, EMCCAN Carnival Group, Derby County Community Trust Football sessions and Hubbub. Over the course of the tour S.H.E.D and cultural coordinators, working closely with Dr Jones, facilitated sessions on dance, sport, drama, music, art, film making and carnival. In addition to this, the research activity /tour also supported data collection through its creative programming of activity, acting in this way as a consultation space. Questions such as “what is Derby to you?/Where do you feel safe/unsafe?/What would you like Derby to be like in the future?” To this end, S.H.E.D was able to operate as a dialogic site through its bespoke design as an Inter/transdisciplinary vehicle for (social) scientists/humanities scholars to interact with artists and engage public/others. S.H.E.D was commissioned by Derby Theatre and the Derby Opportunity Area Partners, through the Arts Council England Awarded Youth Performance Fund. This research activity with S.H.E.D was to support the planning and evaluation approach for the project using S.H.E.D as a creative and cultural space for artistic practice and discourse with a targeted number of schools and their local communities. S.H.E.D engaged with 1,351 school staff and children.

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