Art as an agent of urban change (Presentation and Workshop/Performance)

For Feral 2023 Rebecca Davies and Anna Francis were invited to present a keynote presentation on The Portland Inn Project for day one of the Festival, and to lead a performance workshop to guide participants through a visioning game show, drawing on their social arts practices where participants would be invited to navigate and deconstruct structures and decision making processes.

The session asked: How do we as artists and citizens avoid having to climb into the trojan horse for a place at the table and represent ourselves in decisions that affect our lives?

Presented by the social media famous Hayley and Bill, it's a pub quiz meets monopoly style event. YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY! is a show of frivolity and fiscal dynamism where the aim of the game is for you and your team to create a vision for and spend a cut of a fictional arts and civic budget for your respective communities. Public sculpture or Community Garden? Fireworks display or Kate Bush for a day? THE MONEY IS YOURS (terms and conditions apply, you didn't think this was going to be EASY did you?!!)

The Portland Inn Project CIC (EN)

Artists Rebecca Davies and Anna Francis created The Portland Inn Project CIC in 2016 in a residential area of Stoke-on-Trent. In collaboration with other artists, organisations and residents, a pub was renovated and a whole new local dynamic was set into motion. They say, "We believe in the power of art: as a tool to communicate our history, represent the needs of local people and create a space for communities to come together and learn."
This project, that they will present during Feral, advocates for people-led change, and champions the importance of art in driving that change, and in cooperation with public services.

Rebecca Davies is from London and lives in Stoke-on-Trent. She has a deeply embedded and collaborative practice that crosses illustration, design, performance and event. Her work explores the role of art in making change, as a device and platform, to represent and communicate complex stories and politics.

Anna Francis is an artist and researcher whose work aims to create space to discuss and reframe city resources, through participatory art interventions. She creates situations for herself, the public and other artists to explore places differently. In recent years the interventions which Anna has worked on focus on the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and use an action research process to recognise untapped resources, plan responses to disused sites in the city, take action to change the way these sites are viewed, and potentially, make changes, which can be temporary and sometimes permanent. Through this, Anna aims to gain an understanding of the role of artists, arts organisations and communities in the development of places.