Public arts project draws on Preston City Deal

Five artists and a writer who took part in the first event have returned to deliver a programme of creative activities and collaborative artworks focused on areas involved in the £430m City Deal scheme which aims to deliver new jobs and housing to the centre and peripheries of Preston.

Artists Olivia Keith, Gavin Renshaw, Emily Speed, Ian Nesbitt and Ruth Levene, with writer Lauren Velvick, are carrying out research focused on their own areas of interest, including mapping memories, cycling infrastructure, spaces for play, boundaries and intergenerational housing.

The project, which follows an invitation from the city council, comes after last year’s pilot project, The Expanded City, in which the same artists mapped the physical and social aspects of the edges of the city in the areas that will be affected by the City Deal.

“Olivia is mapping, preserving and sharing memories of north west Preston, an area undergoing rapid change,” said a project spokesman. “Gavin is examining the current cycling infrastructure within the district and developing his own routes.

“Emily is interested in space that will be allocated for play within the City Deal area. Ian and Ruth are drawing on their previous research of walking the metropolitan boundary to question what it means for a city to be developed and expanded.

“And Lauren is researching new and re-emerging forms of ‘household’ that come about when families live intergenerationally and adults live together in shared housing.”