“We’re trying to build on what it is that people find fascinating about where they live – to uncover hidden assets and things that are important to local people – in order to understand how to engage with regeneration in a sensitive, sensible and sustainable way.”
Art Gene co-founder Stuart Bastik is discussing the Seldom Seen Islands of Barrow route guide, the latest project developed by the artist-led research facility as part of its Barrow-by-Design test concept. The guide is an OS-sized map that uncovers fascinating facts and hidden histories about the area, using content generated primarily through conversations with local people. But the project is also about understanding how the past can help to inform the future through, as Bastik describes it, “social rather than economic regeneration.”
“It’s part of a whole suite of projects we are working on that are expanding around Morecambe Bay. They all begin with maps that capture information about the social, natural and built environment and that we then feed into our design process. By capturing all this information, we can help to design futures. So the project is about informing future developments and building sustainable local economies.”
The guide is produced from the perspective of going on a walk around the area with a local person. “These may not be nationally significant places that are picked out, but they are very important within the local’s perception of the places where they live,” says Bastik.
“The project is also about providing places and spaces around the Morecambe Bay area – these might be viewing structures or might be as simple as revealing a view by taking down a hedge. There’s a whole range of different means to reveal the bay as one moves around it in different ways.” The plan is to build these ‘places and spaces’ over the next five years, once four more maps in the series have been published.
Re-visioning
Art Gene developed Barrow-by-design in 2011 as a way to work with Barrow Borough Council to explore ‘the role of artists, architects and communities in re-visioning the regeneration of the social, natural and built environment’. One of its projects, a Visitor Centre on Piel Island, opened last month in the island’s council-owned Ship Inn pub.
“The Piel Island Visitor Centre project was key to extending the reach of Barrow-by-Design from the industrial heart of the town and out into the wild and remote, internationally recognised wildlife habitats which collectively form the Islands of Barrow,” says Bastik. “And the Peoples’ Museum – a display within the Visitor Centre – is about extending interest in the islands of Barrow across a whole range of things, from industrial heritage to natural heritage.”
Bastik describes Barrow as a “fascinating place” and is particularly interested in the collisions of industry and nature that dot the landscape. “It’s one of the few places in the country that still has a manufacturing base in the form of nuclear submarines – from that perspective, it’s a rare survivor,” he says. “But Barrow is placed in a position where it’s at the heart of the political debate because of its submarines, which is a difficult identity for the town to carry. The town suffers for it, but at the same time it’s at the heart of its economy.”
Seldom Seen Islands of Barrow route guide launch event, Wednesday 4 September from 6pm, Art Gene Gallery, Barrow-in-Furness. Copies of the guide can be purchased during the launch, from Barrow Dock Museum or online, price £7.99. art-gene.co.uk
