North West: "Dawn Arts Project"
The Housing Market Renewal (HMR) process is one of the biggest issues facing English Heritage in the North West. EH is already making a strong contribution to the process through Research and Conservation. There was also an opportunity for the North West Outreach Officer to work with local partners to help engage the public in the process. This could be through gauging public attitudes to change, understanding what communities value about their historic environment or assisting them to preserve or record the historic and social fabric as it stands.
The DAWN Arts project is a long term project which facilitates community participation in the HMR process in Derker and Werneth in Oldham. It is about building capacity and fostering a sense of ownership in the process of change through a two year programme of arts and cultural activities.
In 2004, a launch event saw the two communities of Werneth and Derker come together in a lantern procession to link the two areas, and a community consultation event in a local park. Future activities will include arts and poetry projects looking at the history of the area, which will be displayed on the shutters of houses scheduled for demolition.
Derker and Werneth Network (DAWN) Arts is a partnership project between AKSA Housing Trust, the Community Cohesion Agency, Oldham HMR, Groundwork, English Heritage, Arts Council, Action Factory and the local community.
It aims to:
- facilitate community participation in the change affecting their neighbourhoods through the MHR process – enabling tenants and residents, in particular young people, to have a say in decisions and changes affecting their lives
- to provide opportunities for residents to work with artists and to participate in the life, image and design of their neighbourhoods.
- to celebrate the cultural diversity of communities and provide opportunities for residents from different communities to interact
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