The Expanded City - Stage One

The Expanded City is a three-stage project, which investigates the changing nature of cities. During the last decade, urban development was largely concerned with transforming post-industrial city centres into retail and residential developments. However, projects such as Preston’s City Deal scheme – part of a national initiative to encourage economic growth in key cities across England – increasingly involve building cities from the outside in. For 10 years In Certain Places has focused on and shaped developments within the city centre of Preston. The Expanded City extends the methods and approaches refined over the last decade to new contexts and locations; the city’s edges. What are the contributions artists can make to the external perceptions and internal experiences of inner city and suburban places? How can that inform debate about the imminent future of these places in terms of urban planning and cultural provision? Following an invitation by Preston City Council, In Certain Places has been working with commissioned artists Olivia Keith, Gavin Renshaw, Emily Speed and duo Ian Nesbitt and Ruth Levene, and The Decorators. The artists have investigated the physical and cultural topography of the outskirts of Preston, ‘deep mapping’ the areas marked for growth. Through a focus on the practical and political aspects of issues such as housing, play and leisure provision, transport infrastructure, emotional connections to the land, and environmental stewardship, the artists have developed projects which raise questions about and offer suggestions for the future of Preston and other expanding cities. All the artists share an interest in boundaries, routes, edges and the urban/rural binary, and work across a range of media, including film, photography and performance. The commissions will explore the social and physical aspects of the places, their relationships with the city centre and the potential implications of planned developments. Writer and curator Lauren Velvick contextualised and provided a critical narrative for the development of the work of the artists in a regular Expanded City blog. Stage one beginning in 2016 saw the beginning of research and development. The work of this first phase is summarised in the 2016 publication produced by Lauren Velvick, the project's ‘writer in residence’. The publication contextualised and provided a critical narrative for the development of the artists’ work. This phase also saw the Expanded City Symposium. The symposium which took place in Woodplumpton and District Club in the north of Preston, presented the first stage of research in the Expanded City project. Alongside presentations about urban demographics by economist Paul Swinney, the production of community spaces by design collective The Decorators, and a performance lecture by Ian Nesbitt and Ruth Levene, the day included a bus trip around the City Deal areas, where Gavin Renshaw, Olivia Keith and Lauren Velvick presented their work-in-progress

THE EXPANDED CITY - STAGE TWO

For 10 years In Certain Places has focused on and shaped developments within the city centre of Preston. The Expanded City is a three-stage programme of artistic research, interventions and events, designed to inform a series of planned infrastructure projects on the outskirts of Preston. Part of Preston’s ‘City Deal’ – a central government initiative which aims to encourage economic growth by addressing strategic infrastructure challenges – the scheme includes the creation of over 17,000 houses as well as new roads and amenities. In the first stage of The Expanded City project (2015-2016) commissioned artists Olivia Keith, Gavin Renshaw, Emily Speed and duo Ian Nesbitt and Ruth Levene investigated the physical and cultural topography of the outskirts of Preston, ‘deep mapping’ the areas marked for growth. The artists share an interest in boundaries, routes, edges and the urban/rural binary, and work across a range of media, including film, photography and performance. This second phase running from 2017 until 2018 was a continuation of the artists' active research and saw the project expand with a series of Network events which brought external perspectives from experts and local communities directly into the development of the artists’ work. These included; Ruth Levene and Ian Nesbitt's 'Precarious Landscape Bus Tour' with archaeologist Bob Johnston; Gavin Renshaw's 'Routes in, Routes Out' in conversation event with cycling journalist Jack Thurston; Olivia Keith two week residency at the Final Whistle Cafe in Cottam culminating in a workshop 'Traces of Place'; Emily Speed's in conversation event with architect Lee Ivett on the topic of playspace 'What do we need in a Space for Play?'; and Lauren Velvick's 'Open House' event, an informal evening of music and discussion about the politics and practicalities of housing, leading to the creation of an 'Open House' publication. The second phase featured the 'Lie of the Land' symposium, a day of artworks, presentations and conversations, which drew on research undertaken by the artists to explore how our everyday lives are shaped by the ownership, management and development of land. The symposium featured talks by Peter Hetherington – journalist and author of the book 'Whose Land is Our Land: The use and abuse of Britain’s forgotten acres', and Julia Heslop – a Newcastle-based artist whose self-build housing project, 'Protohome' (2016), examined participatory alternatives to mainstream housing provision. The event also included a bus tour to sites in and around Preston, during which The Expanded City artists presented their research into issues of housing, cycling infrastructure and the changing landscape. The symposium was accompanied by 'The Expanded City Map' created by artist Claire Tindale. The map geographically locates and gives details of the main research insights generated through the projects by the commissioned artists This phase saw the finalisation by The Decorators of two pieces emerging from their research the 'Learning from Preston' report and the 'Garstang Road Stories' audio artwork. (https://podtail.com/en/podcast/the-decorators-on-air/garstang-road-stories/) Ruth Levene and Ian Nesbitt's research culminated in May 2018 with them curating 'Notes from a Precarious Landscape' – a community exhibition curated by in a vacant house in a new development in Cottam, North Preston, which included contributions from residents of Preston and its surrounding villages. The exhibition explored the ways in which the land around the city is changing or has changed in the past. Emily Speed’s research in phase two of The Expanded City culminated in the project ‘Model Village?’ in June 2018, during which she worked with members of the public, including local residents and school pupils of all ages to construct a temporary model village on the site of a housing development. Participants were asked ‘What would your dream place to live or play in look like?’ and had the opportunity to use coloured clay to build their ideal home, and make a mark on the village by creating, extending, squashing or customising its buildings, trees, parks and streets. Gavin Renshaw's research in this phase concluded with the production of a cycling map for Preston which collates routes, information relevant to cyclists, such as storage, topography and traffic black spots, and existing cycle infrastructure within a single, visual inventory. Olivia Keith's project 'Traces of Place' involved a two-week residency at the Final Whistle Café in Cottam during the summer of 2017, in which she collated memories and contributions from local people.. As a direct result of her work and the conversations hosted, Olivia was invited to contribute to the 'Streets of Change: Beattie’s Preston and Beyond' exhibition at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, where she created 'Setting in Place: The Making of a Jellied Map of Nether Bartle' a performance installation in two separate venues, Bartle Hall and Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston. Another outcome from her research was the creation of a linocut 'Nether Bartle map' as a prompt for discussions around naming and place. The Expanded City has been developed in response to an invitation from Preston City Council, to inform a programme of infrastructure projects on the outskirts of the city proposed by a £430m City Deal scheme. The City Deal scheme aims to deliver new jobs and housing, by addressing strategic transport, environmental, community and cultural infrastructure challenges