Papergirl Cardiff Update

A quick update on what's happening with PapergirlCDF...the submissions deadline has been extended to next Saturday the 4th of June. This was a bit of a relief for anyone who was struggling to meet the 27th of May deadline, especially since this is a busy time of year for a lot of people.

Next Thursday the 2nd of June there will be 2 print workshops for children running in The Printhaus, Llandaff Road for young people and their parents to learn how to screen print and make some art for Papergirl . The workshop times are 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm. Spaces are limited, so anyone interested will need to register. For more details, check out the PapergirlCDF blog here.

We are also looking for people to take part in the art distribution bike ride on the 18th of June. If you are interested in taking part you need to fill in an online form on the PapergirlCDF blog. We also need volunteers to help package the art, put up the exhibition and help with other stuff. If you're interested in helping out please get in touch!

Finally, if you're still wondering what Papergirl is all about, here is a link to a lovely video from Papergirl Capetown which sums up what's great about Papergirl

Learning by experience

Following on from the last post I have been thinking about we discussed last night regarding the project pitch idea for the new website and how we tap into what we have learnt so far. I've tried to sum up the initial stage in its most simple form in the diagram below:

Essentially initial idea process for ARKADE worked a bit like this:

1. Laura had an idea
2. We all liked the idea
3. We decided to invite other people to 'get involved' and pitch further ideas
4. Everyone discussed and voted on their favourite ideas
5. We asked everyone to sign up and volunteer time or resources
6. We set a date
7. We had lots of meetings with lots of different people to evolve the idea and problem solve as we went along

OK so it wasn't quite that straight forward but what was apparent that if its a good idea with integrity people want to get involved. What was amazing was the number of people turning up every week - voting with their feet if you like and the amount of time and resources people gave. So I guess I feel the website should have a similar process, something informal, inspirational and above all else fun!

Now the serious bit......so we have a democratic and organic process and we want to evolve it to create opportunities for other people to pitch projects. ARK may potentially invest money and will have a staked interest so how do we manage this pitching process without shutting down creativity? What processes and criteria do we need to put in place?

If anyone has any examples of similar projects we can learn from please let us know.

The week that was - Empty shop ideas meeting

So what a week. We have been busy and busy and a bit more busy. I think this is the week we will look back and realise that it was the week that tipped. Monday was a meeting with everyone at Cardiff Design Festival and it's first planning meeting for 2010. On the same night and at the same time (ish), Igloo regeneration held an open invitation to investigate the wants for a Digital media centre at Roath Basin next to the newly announced BBC studio's.

Tuesday came quickly on Monday's heals with the empty shop ideas meeting. The turn out was great with about 20 people or so. There were loads of ideas and we will be developing these more over the next week or so. Then Wednesday our traditional club night was a bit of a quiet one but we did sign our lives away by registering as a limited company (by guarantee). We are then hoping to apply for Community Interest Company (CIC), which after many months of debate seems to sum us up now and where we want to go in the future. Charity didn't seem to fit neither did just a basic business. Time will tell whether we have to change it again, but for now we are all very excited about what's going on, if not a wee bit tired.


ideas session on Tuesday nights empty shop evening


No room to put anymore ideas down at the empty shop meeting

socialARK

PHEW! This week was a quiet week for ARK with time to relax and chat with new ARKee Noel, or as i later called him Leon (as Laura pointed out my mind must be working backwards!) I think this just summed up how we all felt after some pretty intense workshops the last few wednesdays to get the National Assembly railway consultation project finished. Thanks to all who participated and a special big thanks to Simon for pulling it all together, a few late nights I think! The report looks fantastic with some really interesting ideas that challenge what accessibilty means. Hopefully the assembly finds it thought provoking. Simon will be posting the report soon so we would be interested to hear what you think?

It's great to meet new people who just drop-in to find out what we are all about and hopefully Noel will be back along with everyone else a week wednesday (21st) as next wednesday we are off to TEDx Cardiff so maybe we will see you there?

Wednesday Club and the evolving face of ARK

We have been looking into the formation of ARK for a number of months now. ARK is an unusual beast as it is many things to many different people. With everyone getting something out of ARK's various guises we are trying to sum up ARK and it's activities, these are the very first steps.



Please comment below

Day trip to the Brixton Project

Well Laura and I arrived safely back from big London town last night after our research day trip to the Brixton Village Project. We met with Dougald Hind founder of the Spacemakers Agency, the driving force behind the project who gave us a guided tour and an amazing insight into the project. So what did we find learn?

Well after a hearty breakfast in the local greasy spoon we got down to business and began shopping......sorry researching! Brixton has a busy local market community and at the heart of it sits the Granville arcade, however like many of the nations arcades many of the shops have gradually become empty over the years and in desperate need of a little TLC. But thanks to the Spacemakers Agency and their work in bringing life into the empty spaces this little market arcade is thriving once more. The market has a mix of original stalls selling fruit, vegetables & fish alongside the new cafes, restaurants, galleries, workshops and boutique shops.

Laura and I met with Dougald inside the Brixton Cornercopia (a great little cafe which even produces its very own Brixton Brown Sauce which you can only buy with the Brixton Pound!) and had a chat about the project including some of the difficulties in making a project like this happen as well as the great successes and the growing weekly visitors. We also spoke about ARK and the trials and tribulations of establishing a network and what we had achieved so far. Reassuringly Dougald had gone through a similar experience and passed on a few handy tips which we can share with you next Wednesday. We were then given a full guided tour and were introduced to some of the owners and creators.

A true testament to the community spirit was the many co-owned shops and spaces such as The Wonderful World of... this lovely little shop had a quirky mix of renovated furniture, fair trade clothing and hand-made lanterns. Like many of the shops they also run workshops encouraging visitors to 'get involved' and become part of the market community. We also popped into Workshop where they sell a range of  products made from reused and recycled fabrics plus you can try your hand at sewing and upcycling your own clothes, or for the little ones check out the Okido doodle shop.

What was clear was that community integration and involvement at every stage was key ensuring both the new and old tenants could work alongside and support each other. Weekly meetings have become a key part of the process encouraging face to face communication to help build and maintain the community. Dougald and the team are doing an amazing job in facilitating and coordinating the project and the commitment by all is truly inspiring!

So a big thanks to Dougald and everyone we met for being so open and helpful, it will be a big help with our own empty space project and if you are interested in getting involved come and chat to us next wednesday in CAI (we are the ones with the pink socia-bull)

Empty shops update

Cardiff city centre has a number of empty shop spaces and so we thought ‘wouldn’t it be great to use them?’

My own particular interest is in design, performance and theatre and so I expressed an interest to my fellow ARKies in setting up a project to turn an empty shop space in Cardiff city centre into a place for performance, storytelling and exchange. At the moment we’re working on finding an empty shop to do the project in, as well as gathering a group of people who would like to take part. A few Wednesdays ago we had a session to come up with ideas for the project and to discuss how it could take shape and some really interesting ideas came out of it.

Then there’s an exciting week ahead – lots of meetings, discussions and visits, including one to the Brixton Village project which I’m really excited about.

I’ll keep updating as things develop, but if anyone wants to get involved come along on Wednesday or get in touch. We’ll be the ones sat around the cow…

Project 6 - Happy Spaces

We have finally managed to get through all of the ideas that were generated from the launch and got one final project that was very popular during the event. Along with dead spaces there was also a call for Happy spaces. Spaces that would concentrate on wildlife and getting away from things. this is going to be the sixth project we will be looking at. We will be launching a small pdf brochure of the life of ARK so far. If you wish to receive a copy just let us know.

ARK Project announced

Following ARK's launch at the ATRiuM, Cardiff. We have now come up with the first few projects that we will be working on in the coming months.

Project 1 - Lost & Found

Centred around reuse and urban psychology, Lost & Found will investigate issues of ownership, sharing and the good old British weather. Lost & Found aims to bring awareness to the general public through fun one off events. If you are interested in this project please let us know. We will be looking at how to move this on next Wednesday.

Project 2 - Cycling Safely

During the launch Cycling was brought up repeatedly we are therefore going to investigate aspects of Cycling within the Cardiff area. The recent passage from Government figures seems to mean it for us.

"Cycling deaths and serious injuries have soared by a fifth as more people have taken to two wheels during the recession, Government figures showed today. The number of cycle deaths and serious injuries in April-June 2009 totalled 820 - a 19per cent rise of the same period the previous year."

Source - Ray Massey, Daily Mail

Project 3 - Dead spaces

Having personally been an avid user of public transport over the years I wanted to investigate the possibility of bringing back the age of when travelling was an experience, and seen as an adventure. If you would like to investigate concepts and ways forward along these lines then let us know.

Project 4 - Pop up Education

Close to Simon's and Lynsey's heart the Pop up education project, will aim to encourage the development of opportunities to both transfer knowledge and develop 'time banks'. We will also be looking at the unusual and different in how 'education' is delivered. If this sounds interesting let us know and we will be investigating this over the next few weeks.

Project 5 - Word Hospital

Central to ARK has always been heavily invested in inclusivity through the use of simple everyday language. We just needed a name for the project. Word Hospital coined by Mathilde Lopez will become this ongoing project. It will be involved through all of ARK's projects to bring understanding to the language that is currently being used within the social and ecological design sector. Through the project it is hoped that words and the meanings of these words will be re-evaluated and lead to a better understanding for both 'experts' and the general public.