Nelson Re-imagined is curated by associate artist Andy Abbott, this programme has drawn on his research about post-industrial towns and alternative economics.

Through artist residencies, interdisciplinary talks and public sharing events, artists have been invited into dialogue with local people to ask and uncover questions around what is possible and connecting the dots with existing ground up action, volunteer-led activities, local resources and underused spaces. 

Early residencies 
Throughout the programme, the legacy of early artist research residencies can be traced into community led and co-developed projects.

These have built on questions resulting from time artists have spent with the community which have then been explored and possibilities surfaced and tested and built on throughout the duration of the programme, including “What if Nelson’s food was governed by locals?” Making use of identifying disused spaces, considering how to access nature from the town centre, and asking what if young people take over a space? What might community ownership of assets look like in Nelson? 

Following on
As the TIN programme progressed, artists Hwa Young and Rob St John looked at leisure time within the town….asking, what role can artists play in collectively imagining, based on our memories of a place and its associations?  

The programme culminated with artists RedPlentyGames producing an interactive game for Nelson, drawing on the history of Nelson as a historic centre of municipal socialism and the cooperative movement. 

The game, along with the accumulative work of this programme, has helped us think about how we might work with our communities to move the town in a more cooperative, sustainable and self-sufficient direction.

Talks programme 
Alongside this, Andy organised a series of Interdisciplinary Talks pairing together artists, academics and activists with ‘local experts’ to inspire and generate prompts, provocations and questions that will help raise the ambition of what is possible here and what a Nelson Reimagined could be.

The talks took place around key topics such as community asset transfers, food sustainability and community growing and alternative approaches to economics. These were opportunities for the TIN team, volunteers, collaborators  and community members to find connection and inspiration in projects based much further afield that were shared and contextualised around Nelson’s specific situation, with opportunity for shared learning and exchange. 

“In a moment when it is increasingly clear that ‘business as usual’ is not working for the planet or 99% of its inhabitants - what other ways of being together, supporting one-another, and making use of resources do we have?

Where are these alternative models already being tried and tested and what potential is there to build upon the learning from these experiments in doing differently?”

What are the questions that remain?
 
How can we build on the initial work we have started of augmenting and supporting these locally grown responses into very real, radical and viable economic and democratic alternatives? 

What can we continue to learn from Nelson’s historic and present responses to inequality and economic deprivation that can guide us further towards collectively re-imagining its future?