I learnt a lot from the walks and the leading up to it.
Research
Certain topics were harder to research than others, there is a plethora of information about nautical things. But still, it is collecting fragments across the internet, despite English Heritage saying the museum was constructed in 1836, I have also seen claims of 1837-39 and this is repeated in other areas in the town itself.
In presenting my own research, I have my activity sheets which don’t go into much of the history, then my Fleetwood Sketchwalks Page which covers things in a bit more detail but I don’t want to overwhelm people with dates and times and names and so on.
From following the maps whole sections of the town were built later than I thought, and other places removed in my lifetime, like Carlton Court on the high street which was only built in 2000 replacing buildings that were over a hundred years old.
There were still questions around the park, why was the town hall never built there? Did the local authorities act in the 1970s play into the town’s decline? Containerisation and the max depth of the channel with its constant need for dredging certainly changed the course of the town.
How do you reinvent a town that started as a transport hub, which then became the Northwest’s answer for fishing, and a military outpost. Now all those things have gone, and the tourist industry is tourists coming on the tram to the market and the ferry. What’s next for the town how can we improve things with the arts?
Marketing
The Facebook ads seemed to get some reach, but I didn’t get anything out to schools before the start of the summer. As did reaching out through Facebook groups, we had someone I had messaged after they saw my post on a Facebook group and they came down the next day.
We did put up posters in various community buildings, but 90% of the feedback said they found us through Facebook. With two saying Eventbrite, one Instagram and one through seeing it in the window of the hub. And some word of mouth but that seems to have come through people seeing the events on Facebook too.
Marketing is hard, in my head I know who my audience is, but reaching that audience is harder. I think being a bit more visible in the places they are already might be useful but finding where they are is harder. I think pop-ups with demos in various places
Age groups, so we had a lot of demand for an older demographic and they don’t necessarily want to be with the younger generations, so going forward aiming sessions at either.
Running the workshops
We aimed for the time of year when the weather is usually the best, but even then we had wet and blustery days. Though these don’t put me off, and most of them weren’t wet when we got on the walk, the mere prediction of bad weather put people off.
From this, I think we would be better off trying to run sessions from the various community hubs in the town. This will help us be in places where people are already and help us access preexisting communities.
I would like to vary the teaching method a little more, but being out and about limits what we can do. Once again if we have set locations inside buildings this will be easier.
I want to be more group-led, let people choose the activities, ahead of time, and have displays, 3D models, videos, and more learning opportunities that people can see in front of them.
Maybe have a historian with us who can talk through things, talk about the intangible heritage of the town, and record more stories of people from here.
The next steps
This is ongoing, I started along with various ideas and things in my head started growing into grand ideas, and I need to breathe and scale back, and the point is to like I said before try and find the community where they are, I am in talks about doing pop-up exhibitions across the town, sharing what I have done and what people have a
One thing that came out of this is colouring sheets and activity sheets, both of which I will be reaching out to the community to share them too. I have done test prints and I like them, I just need to work out how best to share these things online for people to download for free.
For me, with how I am I don’t think 10 workshops in 30 days isn’t the wisest for future projects to stretch things out over a longer time. With set locations and not dragging my cart around town. Also, I would love to work with more of the volunteers for organisations like the Civic Trust and the Museum.
I have a few ideas that I don’t want to share, just seeds of ideas at the moment.
These workshops were made possible by our partners Healthier Fleetwood and funding from Arts Council England.
