New creative placemaking programme commissioned for Stockport town centre

Stockport Council has commissioned cultural organisation, FutureEverything, to deliver a new creative placemaking programme in Stockport town centre. 

The programme is funded primarily by the Arts Council England’s Cultural Development Fund (CDF), aims to make Stockport a centre for creativity and digital innovation in the North and comes as Stockport marks being Greater Manchester Town of Culture for 2023.

Over the next three years, FutureEverything will commission a range of collaborative art projects aimed at engaging more people in culture and bringing residents into the town’s historic centre. Projects include a digital, mobile artwork which will visit locations across the town; an artist-in-residence; and a major digital art commission, as well as participatory workshops.

FutureEverything hopes more creative opportunities in the town will stimulate and inspire new ideas about the place, challenge perceptions about digital art, architecture and public space, and transform engagement with the town centre.

The creative placemaking programme is part of a wider, town centre reinvigoration initiative Stockport Creative Campus led by Stockport Council. Stockport Creative Campus aims to transform Stockport’s town centre by helping to develop and expand the digital and creative industries already established in Stockport allowing the sector to flourish and grow.

Alongside FutureEverything, Stockport Council has appointed other organisations including Manchester Metropolitan University, MadLab and IN4. The partners all have a defined role in working to establish the digital arts neighbourhood, developing the digital skills of residents, communities and forging pathways for creative graduates in Stockport.

FutureEverything has now completed a consultation programme actively engaging with the diverse communities in Stockport, including Sector 3, Stockport College and arts organisations such as Arc, to shape a bold and innovative Vision & Action Plan for the next stages of delivery.

Chris Wright, Executive Producer at Future Everything, said:

“We’re delighted to be working on Stockport Creative Campus. FutureEverything has a reputation for delivering digital arts and creative placemaking programmes such as this place (of mine) with collaboration at their heart.

“As an organisation, based in Greater Manchester, we work locally, nationally and internationally, which will add value to the quality of the work that we programme in Stockport and provide opportunities for it to reach new audiences.

“We believe that arts and culture have an important role in helping us rethink and reconsider our town centres. Culture can act as a catalyst enabling us to come together, opening up new perspectives and empowering us to imagine and enact positive societal change.

“We will work with artists and communities across the town. Our unique approach of unifying storytelling, digital art, and participation will see us reflecting and responding to the past, present and future of a changing place. We will celebrate and bring to the fore the values of people, community, creativity, history and environment that give Stockport its distinct identity.”

Cllr Frankie Singleton Cabinet Member for Culture, Communities & Sport at Stockport Council, said:

“This is a brilliant opportunity, launched during our Town of Culture year for residents to be a part of a cutting edge digital arts project and to appreciate the opportunities provided by digital technology for unleashing creativity in our communities.”