Poetry Book Society

Posted: 17 May 2012

A new space, the Festival Village, will be at the heart of the Festival - a place where artists, partners, participants and staff can connect and relax. This creative social space is being built through a collaborative process, and everyone is being encouraged to get involved.

Since the Festival will include the largest ever UK gathering of international poets (the aim is one from each of the competing Olympic nations), the volunteers designing the Festival Village space are encouraging poets to become involved, either by suggesting poetry and typographics for the environment or to report on the comaking "in whatever way the authors feel appropriate. It's very much a social comaking, collaboration project where all arts are celebrated," say the organisers.

Explains Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of Southbank Centre: "Festival of the World will be a space for artists and visitors from around the world to enjoy a three-month celebration of the arts and its power to transform lives. The Festival Village will be at the heart of the Festival and demonstrates the power of what can be achieved when people join forces to work together to create something new."

The project is "a unique take on 'codesign' and 'comake' processes: volunteers from all walks of life have signed up to design and build the space from scratch, guided by Lyn Atelier and TILT, working with Southbank Centre's in-house teams. It's a bold step by Southbank Centre using fresh, young designers and totally transforming a disused space through collaboration."

More than 200 participants from backgrounds including architecture, design, visual art, photography and construction are already engaged in the project, and they would welcome more volunteers. The organisers explain that "collaborative design is an exciting new approach to designing and delivering spaces. Facilitated by experienced designers, the process involves engaging a community around a space and encouraging them to get involved in all aspects of creating and making it. The aim is to harness people's collective ideas to codesign the brief and ensure the space is truly fit for purpose. The comaking of the space also gives participants an opportunity to get physically involved in making the space in a way that is fun, safe and develops their affinity with the space."

The Festival Village is using social media and the power of its community's network to source materials including wood, paint, bricks and shelving to help make the space, as well as reach out to participants.

Those who wish to be involved are asked to visit http://festivalvillage.wordpress.com/blog/

Categories: Poetry News

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