Community arts: making a difference - in it for the long term

Interview by Belinda Kidd with Loraine Leeson and John Phillips.

Both of the organisations they co-led – for John, the Paddington Printshop (co-founded with Pippa Smith in 1975), and for Loraine, the Docklands Community Poster Project (co-founded with Peter Dunn in 1981) – are often seen as key players in the community arts movement. However, at the time, they did not see themselves as central, although clearly having much affinity with it. The key area of difference was around direct creative participation. The important issue for both was to make a difference in their local communities: supporting community activism through facilitating a dynamic visual presence. This did not always involve people directly in the creative process, which is often seen as a key defining characteristic of Community Arts, although the term co-creation, which is now increasingly used, does describe their approach – for example see the approaches described in Creative Communities, an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded research programme hosted by Northumbria University.

The Paddington Printshop created many posters supporting community action in West London. Sometimes people from the community would make their own images facilitated with technical support from the Printshop, but in other cases the posters would be made by staff members in consultation with people from community action groups rather than directly by them.

The Docklands Community Poster project made large photo murals about the redevelopment of the London Docklands, displayed on purpose built hoardings, developing the ideas for the images through an intense dialogue with local activists. However, the images were designed and created by the two lead artists, Loraine and Peter. Their organisational structure, a community co-operative, involved individuals such as Ted Johns of the Association of Island Communities and Maureen Davies of the Wapping Parents Action Group. All members of the co-operative were directly involved in consulting on and signing off the images to be used.