Summary

This case study explores how Creative People & Places Hounslow developed community-led approaches to heritage and visual arts commissioning through its visual arts programme. Through two projects – Market Stories and High Street Stories – it shares how artists and residents collaborated to uncover local heritage and expand the meaning of heritage in the borough. The projects have resulted in clear learnings for others looking to commission creative projects that genuinely empower and engage artists and the local community.

Introduction

Creative People & Places Hounslow is part of Arts Council England’s national investment in engaging new audiences in the arts. CPP Hounslow’s visual arts programme tours exhibitions across six libraries, reaching over 250,000 people annually. It is guided by the Hounslow Exhibition Collective, a resident-led group who shape the programme’s direction.

Over the past two years, engaging residents in the visual arts programme has been expanded through two projects that have focused on the heritage and stories of often overlooked communities in the Borough. These projects have used community-led approaches where artists and community members are working collaboratively and in response to each other. This has formed a new way of working with artists that genuinely engages with communities; whilst also providing communities with an artistic response that explores their findings in a new way.

This case study explores the development of these projects and the challenges tackled along the way.

Market Stories – developing the project proposal

In 2022/23, Hounslow-based artist Alexis Parinas worked with the Hounslow Exhibition Group and CPP’s Visual Arts Producer to develop a bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for a project that would explore the heritage of Hounslow’s diaspora food markets. Securing this funding in late 2023, provided an opportunity to deliver a large project of community engagement alongside two exhibitions for the touring programme.

Why heritage?

Hounslow is well known for its historic houses e.g. Chiswick House, Syon House, Boston Manor, however, this project set out to broaden the understanding and representation of heritage in the borough through exploring the history and cultural significance of Hounslow’s diverse communities. The project wanted to unearth, record and place value on these perspectives that are often overlooked within the heritage sector.

The project – process and challenges

The project was led by CPP Hounslow’s Visual Arts Producer, with lead artist Alexis Parinas and a dedicated volunteer coordinator. Over 20 volunteers were recruited and trained in oral history and photography, including access to cameras and voice recorders to use for the project. The volunteers, including those in Hounslow Exhibitions Group (now named Hounslow Exhibitions Collective), contributed over 800 hours of their time to the project. They took photos, conducted interviews and took part in events.

Alexis Parinas led the artistic direction of the project, both sharing skills and ideas with the volunteers whilst also reviewing their work and basing their final outcomes on the photography and stories that they gathered. This exchange was empowering both for the volunteers who could see their work being engaged with and transformed but also for Alexis (read more on Alexis’ learnings and reflections here ). Alexis also engaged with a group of secondary school students, creating a new video artwork from the sessions and led public events and workshops.

I found the project very inspiring, as it is a subject that interests me very much as a local, an artist and a foodie! – Volunteer

However, the project also faced challenges. The project’s wide scope and long duration made sustaining engagement difficult. Open-ended volunteer roles led to some confusion, and limited in-person meetings hindered connection.

Building trust with participants required significant time, which some volunteers found discouraging. The complexity of explaining the project and its technical requirements also posed challenges, especially when engaging people unfamiliar with creative or oral history work.

It was particularly notable to me that many people didn’t understand why documenting their lives and livelihoods were important, let alone why it was important for them to be involved. – Alexis Parinas, lead artist

If you don’t know the person at all, really, it’s hard to have a, you know, a free flowing conversation. – Volunteer co-ordinator

The volunteers produced an archive of over 300 photos and 15 long form oral history interviews; these interviews were recorded, transcribed and stored at Hounslow’s local studies archive and digitally on the visual arts programme website . Two exhibitions were created; Market Stories, which shared images from the archive alongside excerpts from the transcribed interviews; and Markets, Memories and Mangos by Alexis Parinas, who used the archive as the basis for their commission.

High Street Stories – using learnings from Market Stories

Following the positive reception to the Market Stories exhibition, CPP Hounslow secured funding from Hounslow Council to develop a new project exploring the heritage of Hounslow High Street. This was a smaller project, to take place over six months. It provided an exciting opportunity to learn from the successes and challenges experienced in the Market Stories project as we continued to explore new ways to engage with and understand Hounslow’s heritage and to develop meaningful structures to engage artists and residents.

There were a few key successes from Market Stories that we decided to use again to shape High Street stories:

• Commissioning a lead artist who could hold and shape the artistic direction of the project and develop a visual arts outcome for exhibiting. Hannah Lim was commissioned to develop six tile artworks, using the stories and material gathered by the volunteers
• Recruiting a group of resident volunteers to lead the gathering of content and stories. Over the course of the project, volunteers interviewed and photographed more than 20 business owners on the High Street, capturing their stories. As with Market Stories, the materials they gathered was both used to inform Hannah’s works and developed into an exhibition itself
• Recruiting a dedicated volunteer co-ordinator to support the volunteers and ensure training was provided
• Using photography and interview techniques to gather personal stories of Hounslow’s diverse residents, particularly focusing on reaching those who had never had their stories recorded in this way before

There were also areas that we adjusted, using learning and feedback from Market Stories:

• Volunteer recruitment: introduced a clear role description that ensured volunteers could take ownership of the project from the start and secure their commitment to seeing the project through. The role was renamed ‘story collectors’ and they were compensated with high street vouchers to widen participation.
• Volunteer support: alongside guidance on interviewing and photography there was an emphasis on communication and building trust. Meeting in person was prioritised, which helped create stronger connections between the volunteers.
• Communication and accessibility: language and techniques were simplified (e.g., ‘interviews’ and ‘story collecting’ instead of ‘oral histories’) and clear information packs were provided to share the project aims and outcomes
• Scope and schedule: Narrowed the geographical focus to Hounslow High Street with a shorter timeframe and smaller group of volunteers which improved engagement and consistency.
• Expanded use of community spaces for exhibiting: artist Hannah Lim created six tile artworks inspired by the collected stories. These were displayed in local shops and spaces along the high street creating an art trail bringing the outcomes directly into the spaces they were inspired by.

“This project was an opportunity to create an exhibition and art trail with the local community at the very heart of it. I loved getting to know local independent businesses, the owners, staff and their stories. Learning about the creativity, resilience and generosity of local people in the face of the changes the area has and is undergoing; the pandemic and cost of living crises; as well as the move to online retail was inspiring!” – Mandeep Kaur Gill, a Hounslow resident and “story collector” for the project

Conclusions

Through Market Stories and High Street Stories, CPP Hounslow has challenged traditional approaches to heritage in the borough by broadening and diversifying understandings of what heritage can be, and who can be involved in shaping it. These projects explored new ways of working to ensure residents could be genuinely empowered to shape the project outcomes whilst supporting local artists to explore ways of working that place community voices at the centre of artistic commissioning. In doing so, they demonstrated how collaborative models can produce meaningful outcomes for both communities and wider audiences engaging with the exhibitions.

Looking ahead, future projects could build on this learning by:

• Developing engaging and accessible roles for community volunteers. This includes ensuring role descriptions are clear and defined and training and incentives offered where appropriate
• Bringing artists and residents together to explore ways they can genuinely collaborate, ensuring residents have clear ways to contribute and that artists have space to learn from residents whilst also developing their own practice
• Taking time to build relationships and trust and building this into project plans, including thinking through the language being used and the relevance of the intended outcomes to potential participants
• Embedding opportunities for long-term engagement so that artists and community members can sustain involvement beyond a single project

These recommendations will help strengthen the sustainability of community-led commissioning and ensure that heritage and creativity in Hounslow continue to be shaped by those who live and work in the borough.