Entertainment, Gossip, Comradeship

At the start of the This is Nelson, Christian Bell was one of three locally based artists who were commissioned to do a micro-residency to explore a topic meaningful to them about Nelson. Christian did extensive research into the history of Nelson, uncovering stories, films and archive material centered around Nelson's radical socialist history, branching off into research into the opening of the aspirational Pendle Rise shopping centre, and the complex colonial past underpinning Nelson's name and that of the Lord Nelson pub. This artist-research was presented at Building Bridges in an artist sharing, and informed the way the programme evolved over the course of the 4 year Town Deal programme.