Creative Communities, 1750-1830

At a time when the term 'community' has begun to be associated with enclaves, special interests, and problems of cultural and social cohesion, we strongly believe that there are immediate lessons to be learned from the past, and from the 1750-1830 period in particular. It is important to reach beyond local cultural gestures and look towards a more liberating sense of the civic, institutional, and national; but at the same time to infuse the national culture with elements of local experiment and integrity. This dual move is crucial to the long-term health of a community, and understanding the past is part of it. With this principle in mind, the 'Creative Communities' project seeks to advance our understanding of the relationship between creativity and community by focusing on key historical case studies. It will examine how connections between members of a community, and between different communities, can enhance creativity. At the same time, it will subject those key terms to rigorous historical investigation. The three workshops will explore the legacies and current implications of the idea of a creative community. Between 1750 and 1830 there was a flowering of cultural institutions in the form of museums, galleries, dissenting academies, periodicals, theatres, and scientific organisations, the precursors of many of today's cultural institutions. Recent scholarly work has begun to question the individualistic approach to cultural production by considering how social structures and relationships have encouraged creativity. This project seeks to develop this area of research by placing community at the heart of considerations of creativity in both theoretical and practical ways.

The exchange and development of creative ideas amongst thinkers, artists, and entrepreneurs has been at the heart of flourishing cultures for centuries, and this project recognises that model. The proposed network, centred on the Leeds Creativity Project in collaboration with the University of Southampton and University College London, will bring together established and early career researchers, as well as non-academic stakeholders, from a range of institutions, to ask and debate a number of key questions about the relationship between creativity and community. How can a 'creative economy' enhance communal well-being? What is the balance of local and national in a successful creative community? How did communities of the past creatively interact? Above all, what lessons may be learned from understanding these past examples? What kinds of creative generosity can grow from this communal emphasis?

This project engages with a range of non-academic stakeholders through an open-access website, an exhibition, and invitations to carefully selected participants from outside academia. Individuals who have already agreed to take part include Kathy Lazenbatt (Royal Asiatic Society), Sarah Lewin (Hampshire Archives), Christine Riding (The National Maritime Museum), and the Reverend Roy Yates (Thoresby Society). Contacts have been established with the Archivist and the Research Curator at the National Gallery, who have expressed an interest in the project, depending of course on the success of this application. The first workshop will be held at the University of Leeds and the Mill Hill Chapel in Leeds, where Joseph Priestley was minister between 1767 and 1773. It will involve the active participation of the Priestley Society (which includes academic and non-academic members) and the Thoresby Society (the longstanding Leeds local history society). The second workshop at the University of Southampton and Chawton House Library will involve contributions from local archivists and a public exhibition of relevant literary works that will focus particularly on women writers from the period (Chawton has significant holdings in this area). The third workshop held in association with UCL will include participants from major cultural institutions including the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Asiatic Society. Should the network secure funding, we will be in a position to seek further targeted engagement with relevant cultural institutions, embracing galleries (the Tate Gallery, the Royal Academy, and Leeds Art Gallery), museums (the British Museum, National Museums Liverpool, Gilbert White's House, and Leeds City Museum), libraries (the Leeds Library), societies (the Hazlitt Society, and the Hampshire Field Club & Archaeological Society) and current periodicals (London Review of Books and the London Magazine).

The workshop discussions will be made available as podcasts on an open-access website that will be carefully designed for usability. The website will be actively promoted not only to academics, but to such organisations as those listed above.

The network will develop connections between academics and cultural institutions designed to last beyond its initial time-frame. Given its exploratory and innovative nature, it is impossible to predict the forms that these connections might take. However, the project will draw upon the combined knowledge, practices, and histories of institutions in understanding how creativity can best be supported by funding and organisational structures. Through the involvement of non-academic members, and the promotion of its activities to non-academic users, the network will impact on individuals and institutions involved in the funding and organisation of cultural institutions and creative communities. This, in turn, should benefit members of the public who are the audience for, and participants in, these communities. A significant public benefit of this network might well be a contribution to the better targeting of funding in the creative arts.