I have lived in Chester for around five
years over that time I’ve got myself too
involved in a lot of different things
and it’s largely been in response to a
need or I needed to cause a change now I
wasn’t on my own in this there was a lot
of people at the time who felt that a
change was needed so I’m going to tell
you how a collective movement started to
happen when I first got to Chester there
was a bit of a problem
Chester wasn’t supporting its culture
creators and it wasn’t supporting its
creative culture it was really focused
on its history and there’s really
nothing wrong with that at all but what
was suffering was this Chester was
losing its call to creators see we’ve
got a student we’ve got a unit here full
of students who would look into Chester
at the time and not see a perceivable
and functioning creative industry which
is a big problem so if you’re going to
finish uni and then look at Chester at
that time there would be you wouldn’t be
able to see something that you could go
into therefore you would leave therefore
we were losing Talent and that’s a
massive problem and I also talked to
some businesses and they were saying
that they couldn’t seem to find the
creative people in Chester that could do
the work that they needed to the
standard that they needed but I didn’t
think that was true because I’ve met
people who were here and working to a
level that was very very high and there
were very very talented people so they
were definitely here were the people
that needed him couldn’t see them and
that was the problem now I’m not saying
that the history is not culture of
course it is but black culture was
created ages ago what we needed was the
new stuff because it’s changed and its
new and it’s exciting and it brings
people in so you want to go to a city to
find out what’s happening now
so Chester used to have that I think but
it just wasn’t been nurtured at the time
so here’s the big idea
we need to find and get together the
culture creators of Chester because if
you want a creative industry you need to
support it with a contemporary culture
because that’s an appetite so if we get
people together the culture creators we
have a spark that people will be drawn
towards and those businesses that may
have been outsourcing to bigger cities
Manchester Liverpool London we’re now be
able to find creative talent in Chester
and use that talent and every time one
of those homegrown interactions happens
right
everything gets a bit more visible so
you’ve got kind of maybe business or
rebrand or get a poster done or
something that goes on a wall and then
the next business along kind of looks at
that and goes oh that’s really cool
basically everything gets a bit more
visible and then that money’s getting
spent in Chester so we’ve got the kind
of little creative economy going on and
so basically what’s happening is it’s
that can can can a snowball a little bit
so every time you get one thing happens
it gets a little bit more visible the
next thing happens again it just goes on
like that and hopefully at the end of
the day we’ve got a creative hotspot
that people would look from outside
Chester and see and they’d see us as a
creative resource so effectively that
flow of work would reverse and it would
basically it would kind of mean that
people were looking into Chester and
bringing their money into Chester and
supporting our scene and feeding our
contemporary culture so I thought I
could potentially do something offer
into this – to create at that spark so
this was called the one chair project
and it was there to make a big noise
about this contemporary culture it was a
Twitter campaign and basically I was
going to photograph the cultural heroes
of Chester so I asked the people of
Chester can you give me the name of your
contemporary cultural hero apart um
twisters in this tonight
yeah so and that’s what they did and I
was going to photograph those people in
this chair and they would then be
showcased in a big exhibition in front
of the city as if to say look we’ve got
loads of town here get behind it these
are your people so that’s what I did
launch the Twitter campaign it went
absolutely bonkers straight away I
wasn’t ready for it there was people
retweeting and sharing and just getting
in touch and giving me all these names
and we even got an article in the local
paper now this is when Tom pops up hello
Tom is a guy that presented himself at
this point he’d heard about what I was
up to and he just I think he felt some
of the same frustration I felt he moved
up from London a couple of years before
and he just said kind of helped so I
said yeah of course you know we used
that frustration as a fuel it fund the
flames you know it became the reason
that this project had to do its job and
do it well so we got to work and we got
to work doing these portraits so these
people they had to come and sit in the
chair in the same spot and then effect
that space around them so they brought
their own props and stuff and then we
ended up with something creative so it’s
kind of like a metaphor for the bigger
picture I’m gonna pop you down mate it’s
and at this point I met these two guys
so the first one is Alice and I’ll tell
you about Alice she she’d started this
chapter of a thing called gfn I don’t
know if anyone’s heard of it
gfn is part of a national movement it’s
called good for nothing and where people
give their time and their skills and and
they they basically respond to an either
and asked to create a change or make
something happen so that was really kind
of similar to us because of its
different approach gfm was attracting a
lot of kind of like-minded creative
people so there was this pot of people
forming there as well and that was
really good we could see that happening
so we would do not and they were doing
that okay great this guy is called Andy
Foster he’s an architect and he’s a real
forward thinker so he invited me and Tom
and Alice to this big event that he put
on alongside the business club called
the future of business in Chester
Conference and that was quite strange
for us I mean it was a big room with
about 100 or so of the business heads
and the leaders of the city didn’t
really feel like I fit in at that point
but it was really good because we were
hearing off all levels of people that
there was a need to move forward and
make change and that was amazing and
that was a turning point because it
affirmed that the need that we perceived
in the first place was was absolutely
real and also one of the counselors at
that point came to us and said I’ve
heard about what you’re doing I found
you some money I’m going to fund it so
she funded the exhibition and we had
that to go forward with and put this
thing on in front of the public of
there it is but there was a stage before
that we had a very difficult time
getting this thing on it took was a year
and we just kept coming up against nose
and one thing to say here is if you’ve
got someone who’s in a sort of a job
between the bottom and the top and
they’ve got a lot of kind of Hoops to
jump through and a lot of responsibility
on them
it’s very easy for them to say no
because if you say yes you put yourself
on the line and you have to do more work
and nobody likes to do more work so we
pulled some strings in the end and
finally got a space but it took a year
and we kept each other motivated this is
it it was in an empty shop and because
we’ve put so much effort into getting it
we thought how can we take this a little
bit further because you’ve all been to
an exhibition right you go once probably
for the free wine the opening night yeah
sorry but it’s true
so yeah I mean we thought what else can
we do so it became about collaboration
and has anyone heard of co-working just
put your hand up if you have that’s kind
of like quite a few of you right yes so
for the rest of you it’s it’s the kind
of thing where freelancers get together
and they can hire a desk and work in
space with other freelancers as well and
it’s really good and it’s really healthy
for a lot of reasons because it brings
people together now in Chester at the
time there was a there was a space
called industry being run by these guys
Andrew and Rhys and we said look do you
want to jump in with us and put a
co-working space alongside the
exhibition so that that space was being
used to its full potential so we did and
together we kept that co-working space
open for the duration of the exhibition
which was three months six days a week
free coffee free Wi-Fi just really
inclusive we did loads of stuff whilst
that was on so we did workshops we had
the MP did a meeting we had a gfn hack
we had business lunches we bought
people’s sandwiches we got people
together and we even had a radio show
doing a little broadcast from in there
so that was cool and it was really good
and it was a home for positive movement
and the next thing that happened was
because that hub was very kind of
attractive to people thinking that way
there was a lot of communication going
on there was a lot of collaboration
going on I meant a lot on conversations
around this kind of theme this big idea
and we wanted people to be able to
follow each other’s conversations rather
than trolling through individual
accounts of this that and the other so
we made the hashtag make Chester and we
coined that and we gave it away so that
everyone could use it we actually this
was designed by Andrew from industry and
you can see it’s it’s actually become a
brand they became a brand for what we
were doing and that’s a little corner
piece just clicking anything coming
together and so yeah and we started
using it to name things this is so we
started using it to name things it was
the first thing that we did was make
Chester talks and they were even into in
the in the space and they were really
good really well attended again they
were put on there to motivate people and
free wine by the way we’ll get you an
audience so there was two quotes from
that night that really kind of summed it
all up for me and the first one was from
a guy called hems de winter now you
might recognize that name because he’s
on your program and he’s speaking a
little bit later but what he said was
this people are coming together like
they never have before there’s this
energy that is finite that we have to
harness and he was right and the second
quote is from a guy called Simon Grenon
he’s an artist and he said you get the
city you deserve and he was right you
so there’s a lot of people in that space
motivated to do something to make change
and it had a message and that message
was make Chester so where do you go with
that this was finite it ended but
afterwards we did some other stuff now
the first thing that happened was
murmuration it wasn’t that it was that
murmuration and so we’d loved doing the
make Chester talks in the space and we
thought can we push this a bit further
so me and Tom teamed up with Alice and
Andy who you saw before and we put
together this big day this big day of
lectures and that was there to motivate
people to go out and do something in
Chester based on the original thought
and the original ideas that they’d
experienced on the day and we considered
everything we the way people ate
together the way people came into the
building and it’s it was absolutely
brilliant
it’s called murmuration because of
starlings so starlings of birds if you
didn’t know but they do this thing
called murmur a ting which is kind of
flocking and they do it together it’s
collective movement and it kind of is
very beautiful and but it worked as a
metaphor for I kind of make Chester
ideals and it did its job a bit better
than that actually because for that
first one to bird watchers actually
bought tickets and turned of thanks and
then stayed for the whole day and then
really enjoyed it apparently so I guess
it yeah it worked and that’s still going
on the first one was June 2016 and we do
it every year now it’s it’s started to
attract people from outside of Chester
it’s getting to a national level which
is kind of an important thing we’re
really proud of that anyways it’s going
to carry on and yeah I’ll move on so
this is torte ice magazine has anyone
seen torte ice knocking around oh that’s
quite yeah okay there’s good few of you
and we didn’t have a creative
publication in Chester so we decided to
make one this is another project that
came out of that hub space
it seems that where the writer Paul Anna
designer Kirstie we we collaborated with
illustrators and designers and creative
writers to put this document together we
put a little bit of input in there as
well and we funded it with advertising
from independent business in Chester
very generous independent business in
Chester and it’s free therefore so you
can go into Chester and you can pick up
copies of this and because it’s free it
permeates a lot better this has also
carried the make Chester ideals with it
we still use the hashtag in the mag and
yeah really get salish so we did 400
copies of this to start off with and we
launched it a year ago on Friday so it’s
a it was our birthday on Friday happy
birthday to us and and since then we’ve
gone issued to 4000 copies issue 3 4000
copies and we’re going to do issue 4 in
about three weeks time I think so again
that’s something I’m really proud of and
we’re gonna keep going with it we think
anyway those are those things some of
the things that I’ve worked on and for
my part that’s my effort into making a
change in Chester if you think that you
want to do something that’s big a big
idea a big scary idea and here are some
of the things that I found that might
help okay so the first one is the need
you need to establish what it is why are
you doing something what is it that
you’re not satisfied with that you think
needs to change and then you need your
message and your message is essentially
a solution to your need it’s it’s got to
be very strong message it’s got to be
something that people can understand
it’s got to be inclusive people have got
to be able to emotionally invest in it
then you need to collaborate get a Tom
get its arm you can borrow mine no you
can’t basically a broad range of skill
sets is what you need you’re gonna need
to promote this thing you’re gonna need
to get it funded you’re gonna need to
write coffee and get artwork and do all
sorts of stuff
all these there’s people out there
really good at doing what they do so ask
for help and if they buy into your
message they will help you the next
thing is a network so that’s kind of
business leeward but in this sense I
mean you sharers you need people to
share your message and they will do just
ask you know people do that on a phone
or computer social media and the word
gets all over the places it spreads far
and wide and a network is much stronger
than a small group or just an individual
and the next thing is I suppose
standards you’ve got to keep your
standards really high so it on and keep
you standards really high everything
that we’ve done over the last few years
has been to well aspire to a national
level and that means that if you saw one
of those projects in another city on the
planet it would it would be okay and it
will be respectable don’t work to a
local level down here because that stuff
will just end up on a cafe wall
somewhere right so that’s where you need
to be celebrate you’ve worked hard
make it social get everyone together and
you deserve to do that don’t forget it’s
gotta be fun too and I suppose the last
thing is don’t wait around for anyone to
do it for you help is not coming you are
the help right so if you want to see a change start one thank you