Working in a Co-Creation Method with a Community

What does it mean to work with a community in a co-creation method? Why should you and why is Arts Council England pushing for it in their Let’s Create Strategy?

I’ve had the pleasure of working with the communities of Slough in my role as Creative Producer for HOME Slough, a Creative, People and Places project for 15 months. It was my first time engaging with ‘community arts’, a term I’ve always found challenging and presumed it was a dirty phrase in the arts world, looked down upon by the arts elite. In reality, ‘community arts’ could easily be interchanged with ‘community creation’, ‘community led’ or ‘co-created’.

What is Community Co-Creation in the Arts?

When working in the arts we often talk about the art, the excellence of the work in a world leading arts sector. All of this though places the emphasis on the final product, something audiences will want to see because it is good. What’s missing is the consideration of the audience, and their needs. 

Co-creation with communities reframes the process and end result of the art. It places the audience at the start of the process and considers how through consulting with them the work will be directly informed by their input. The end result, whilst important is reframed to be about the process that led it to the work being created.

What I’ve learnt is how rewarding co-creation methods are with community members. During my time with HOME Slough I got to work on multiple projects that saw the community centred at the beginning, throughout and at the end of the work. Every decision was factored with them in mind, not as a box ticking exercise but rather utilising their unique skill and understanding of the place (in this instance Slough) the work was to be mounted in to be reflective of the community receiving the work.

Some of the most rewarding work I undertook in co-creation was leading panels of community members through commissioning processes for new art and arts activities across Slough. Over £50k of arts activities directly commissioned by the community through call outs, panel discussions, curatorial guidance and placing the community as the arts initiators. 

Why is it so co-creation so rewarding?

Its arts democracy in action. It’s the community as stakeholders, determining what happens in their community for their community members. It’s not about being told what to see at their local arts venue, but giving them control over what they could see, through their programming and their actions. It’s rewarding because it bypasses gatekeepers and go straight to the benefactors; the audience; the community. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the community ask for a festival, shaping the idea with them, programming it, giving them a budget, and then X months later putting on a 3 week festival that is attended by over 4000 Slough residents. (I’m talking about LOVE Slough in this instance).

No wonder Arts Council England have placed a greater emphasis on co-creation in their Let’s Create strategy and for anyone who is completing a National Lottery Project Grant at the moment you’ll know the importance of community within your answers. 

But there is a warning to give too. Not everything and not everyone is, nor should, be doing co-creation work. It’s a skillful role, it involves patience, commitment and a real understanding and more importantly an investment with a community. You can’t just do it because Arts Council England is telling you to. It has to be part of a considered and organic process.

Top tips for working with Communities in a Co-Creation Method

1. Be Patient
Working with community members is tough. It requires a large amount of patience on your side to navigate the complexities of intersectional community relationships. Also community members have work, caring responsibilities and are often volunteers, you have to work at their pace and this requires patience.

2. Handholding is Key
When I say ‘handholding’, I don’t mean this in a parent/child relationship. It’s not about power dynamics. It’s about supporting and guiding a community through a process. We, as arts professionals, might know the reason why we contract at this point, why we create the budget at the beginning etc, but for community members this may not compute. That’s okay. It’s about learning – on both sides! – and steering through gentle handholding.

3. Listening
You have to listen. Be a sponge. Be an Agony Aunt column watching the letters pile up. So much of co-creating with communities is active listening. It’s not about you, and you’ll be wise to really take that advice. Listen with all your heart.

4. It’s more than the Art

Working with communities is about so much more than just the art. It’s about being a point of contact, it’s about supporting a community member to build confidence, to give them access to the internet, to untangle thorny community relationships and many things you wouldn’t think of.

5. You won’t always get it right

Don’t expect perfect results. Building trust with communities takes months and you won’t always get it right and that’s okay.

6. Yes, but…

It’s never about saying ‘no’, but allowing a community or community member to understand why something may not be the right decision within the process. Sometimes it’s about taking a leap of faith that actually the community member’s ideas might just work. You could surprise yourself. Be prepared to explain your decisions, even something that is super simple for you, may not be for your community co-creation. Be considered in your language.