The People's Pier: The popular culture of pleasure piers and cultural regeneration through community heritage
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Brighton
Department Name: School of Media
Abstract
'The People's Pier' is a research project that investigates community piers as an emerging form of community hubs. It focuses on two related aspects of the pier and community connectivity; first how communities of place may be strengthened in their confidence by taking collective action to safeguard a local heritage asset like the pier and second how the community pier and its popular culture heritage can be utilised to build positive relationships across different groups and empower the community. However, regeneration processes are complex and not always inclusive; they can be both divisive and inequitable. The project will therefore also explore processes of disconnection and conflict around the pier as a community space.
Community ownership enterprises are often regarded as an outcome of an existing community's collective effort and ability to rally around a common interest. This project takes a different view by considering how communities connect and emerge through community ownership and related processes such as collective action to 'save' and develop the pier. Such processes involve both connections and disassociation and may be understood as a community making processes in themselves.
Further, the project seeks to explore how the rich popular culture heritage of seaside leisure piers can be used as a resource for the benefit of the community. In doing so the proposed project opens up new areas of enquiry within the Connected Communities programme. It places popular culture at the heart of community building and it affirms popular culture as part of a community's cultural heritage, thus challenging traditional perspectives on heritage.
This research is conducted in collaboration with two community partners who are at different stages of realising their goal of restoring, developing and sustainably running a community enterprise pier: The Hastings Pier Charity and The Clevedon Pier and Heritage Foundation. Together we have identified some of their immediate and more long-term challenges. These include: activities to engage the respective local community beyond a core group of grassroots advocates; points of tension between different potential audiences and stake holders as the pier begin life as a new type of space - the pier as an urban community space; strategies around making the popular culture heritage of these historic environments resonate with contemporary audiences beyond a nostalgia for the Victorian heydays of pier enchantment.
Taking this view, we are building on the Connected Communities perspective that heritage is in our communities. But the project is not just looking back, it is primarily interested in how the current and future experiences of the community piers can be enriched by its popular culture heritage. The project also deliberately seeks to find ways of engaging with the whole of the piers' past, by giving emphasis to their more recent, post-war cultural history, which is often overlooked.
The research is set against a background of wider debates about culture-led regeneration. Following the demise of the British seaside holiday and the decline of other coastal industries, the local communities of Britain's seaside resorts have for decades been associated with physical disintegration, with financial decline and social deprivation. The success of the Hastings Pier community shares scheme, and other similar community ownership ventures, suggests however that local seaside communities take action that actively contributes to regeneration. Whilst the broader scope of government investments or trends in seaside tourism contextualize this project we are primarily interested in the remarkable resilience demonstrated by local community organisations mobilizing around the most iconic of seaside landmarks the pleasure pier, as exemplified by the community piers of Clevedon and Hastings and the potentials that opens up for generating, sustaining and developing community engagement.
Community ownership enterprises are often regarded as an outcome of an existing community's collective effort and ability to rally around a common interest. This project takes a different view by considering how communities connect and emerge through community ownership and related processes such as collective action to 'save' and develop the pier. Such processes involve both connections and disassociation and may be understood as a community making processes in themselves.
Further, the project seeks to explore how the rich popular culture heritage of seaside leisure piers can be used as a resource for the benefit of the community. In doing so the proposed project opens up new areas of enquiry within the Connected Communities programme. It places popular culture at the heart of community building and it affirms popular culture as part of a community's cultural heritage, thus challenging traditional perspectives on heritage.
This research is conducted in collaboration with two community partners who are at different stages of realising their goal of restoring, developing and sustainably running a community enterprise pier: The Hastings Pier Charity and The Clevedon Pier and Heritage Foundation. Together we have identified some of their immediate and more long-term challenges. These include: activities to engage the respective local community beyond a core group of grassroots advocates; points of tension between different potential audiences and stake holders as the pier begin life as a new type of space - the pier as an urban community space; strategies around making the popular culture heritage of these historic environments resonate with contemporary audiences beyond a nostalgia for the Victorian heydays of pier enchantment.
Taking this view, we are building on the Connected Communities perspective that heritage is in our communities. But the project is not just looking back, it is primarily interested in how the current and future experiences of the community piers can be enriched by its popular culture heritage. The project also deliberately seeks to find ways of engaging with the whole of the piers' past, by giving emphasis to their more recent, post-war cultural history, which is often overlooked.
The research is set against a background of wider debates about culture-led regeneration. Following the demise of the British seaside holiday and the decline of other coastal industries, the local communities of Britain's seaside resorts have for decades been associated with physical disintegration, with financial decline and social deprivation. The success of the Hastings Pier community shares scheme, and other similar community ownership ventures, suggests however that local seaside communities take action that actively contributes to regeneration. Whilst the broader scope of government investments or trends in seaside tourism contextualize this project we are primarily interested in the remarkable resilience demonstrated by local community organisations mobilizing around the most iconic of seaside landmarks the pleasure pier, as exemplified by the community piers of Clevedon and Hastings and the potentials that opens up for generating, sustaining and developing community engagement.
Planned Impact
The PI, CO-Is, community partners and advisor have carefully developed a set of pathways to impact that are achievable within the limited duration and recourses of the project (see pathways to impact).
The proposed project introduces new communities to the Connected Communities programme through a clearly demarcated two case study approach, but the theoretical and practical framework set up in this small pilot study has the potential to be expanded on in future projects that would involve a larger circle of stake holders. The convenor of the People's Piers UK informal network, Jesse Steele, has written to confirm there is already interest in our propsed research and that they would be interested in being involved on a follow-up to the current proposal.
The proposed research is also of specific interest to stakeholders (including policy makers and community groups) within the heritage industry, regeneration initiatives and the area of community-based ownership, because of its cross-cutting themes of community ownership and management of heritage assets and community led regeneration initiatives.
Its broader theme of seaside popular culture and heritage resonates with much wider audiences with an interest in the British seaside and its history, evidenced not least by the enduring popularity of BBC two's production 'Coast' (9 series since 2010).
The immediate impact will be the contribution the research will make towards the experiential and engagement objectives of the community partners. Approaches to outreach that are informed by the research data generated and its theoretical contextualisation will be tested and potentially have a positive impact on the organisations' realisation of its aims as well as enhance the experience of the target groups.
The project will develop a set of methodologies and research design which will, alongside the results of the project, be embedded into future, scaled up follow on projects. We very much aim to build enduring relationships between the local communities and the research institutions.
The two core impacts, derived from the research as a whole are:
1) Connecting community pier organisations resulting in knowledge-exchange and the identification of practices for other communities to utilise as they consider community enterprise.
2) A means of utilising the popular culture heritage of the seaside piers to engage with groups in the local communities that the community groups have identified as under-represented in their target audience, thus further empowering the people's pier organisations in the work they for the benefit of the community.
The results of the popular culture heritage archive research (conducted in collaboration with established teams of volunteers who are already building oral history repositories and digitalising visual material) will first and foremost inform the organisations' engagement with young audiences but will also be of interest to the local communities of Hastings and Clevedon more broadly, as well as academics such as musicologists, cultural historians and landscape historians of the 20th century.
The proposed project introduces new communities to the Connected Communities programme through a clearly demarcated two case study approach, but the theoretical and practical framework set up in this small pilot study has the potential to be expanded on in future projects that would involve a larger circle of stake holders. The convenor of the People's Piers UK informal network, Jesse Steele, has written to confirm there is already interest in our propsed research and that they would be interested in being involved on a follow-up to the current proposal.
The proposed research is also of specific interest to stakeholders (including policy makers and community groups) within the heritage industry, regeneration initiatives and the area of community-based ownership, because of its cross-cutting themes of community ownership and management of heritage assets and community led regeneration initiatives.
Its broader theme of seaside popular culture and heritage resonates with much wider audiences with an interest in the British seaside and its history, evidenced not least by the enduring popularity of BBC two's production 'Coast' (9 series since 2010).
The immediate impact will be the contribution the research will make towards the experiential and engagement objectives of the community partners. Approaches to outreach that are informed by the research data generated and its theoretical contextualisation will be tested and potentially have a positive impact on the organisations' realisation of its aims as well as enhance the experience of the target groups.
The project will develop a set of methodologies and research design which will, alongside the results of the project, be embedded into future, scaled up follow on projects. We very much aim to build enduring relationships between the local communities and the research institutions.
The two core impacts, derived from the research as a whole are:
1) Connecting community pier organisations resulting in knowledge-exchange and the identification of practices for other communities to utilise as they consider community enterprise.
2) A means of utilising the popular culture heritage of the seaside piers to engage with groups in the local communities that the community groups have identified as under-represented in their target audience, thus further empowering the people's pier organisations in the work they for the benefit of the community.
The results of the popular culture heritage archive research (conducted in collaboration with established teams of volunteers who are already building oral history repositories and digitalising visual material) will first and foremost inform the organisations' engagement with young audiences but will also be of interest to the local communities of Hastings and Clevedon more broadly, as well as academics such as musicologists, cultural historians and landscape historians of the 20th century.
Publications
Brydon L
(2019)
'Our Pier': leisure activities and local communities at the British seaside
in Leisure/Loisir
Brydon, L
(2017)
Live Cinema: Cultures, Economies, Aesthetics
Brydon, L
(2016)
'Pierdom' by Simon Roberts
in NECSUS European Journal of Media Studies
| Title | Popular Culture on Clevedon Pier brochure |
| Description | A fold out colour brochure on the topic of Popular culture entertainment on Clevedon pier through the ages, produced by Nick Nourse (Bristol), Olu Jenzen (Brighton) and Phil Curme (Clevedon Pier and Heritage Trust). The brochure is designed to work as a supporting document to the audio post interpretation in the Clevedon Pier visitor centre providing cultural and historical context to the audio narratives (personal memories from the pier) but also as a stand alone take away publication. The main audience is the general public, including younger audiences so the publication foregrounds colour and images and is written in an accessible language. The themes covered include: Jukebox culture; Teddy Boys and Girls; Dancing on the pier and Youth culture and teen romance. The content is based on historical research into the local youth culture of the 1950s and 60s drawing on academic sources, the pier's archive material and oral histories collected as part of the research project. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | The brochure demonstrates how the 'Nissen hut' dance hall now is recognised as an important part of the pier's history. At the outset of the project an initial scouting trip revealed that virtually no documentation or interpretation about the Nissen Hut was available in a fairly extensive gift shop with postcards, memorabilia, historical pamphlets and books. The make shift dancehall is mportant because it fits into the wider story of the history of live music in Britain, and yet you would never know it existed. Possibly in use as a makeshift music venue since the 1930s. By the 1950s, the Nissen Hut held a jukebox and a small counter selling coffee and cakes, essentially a classic coffee bar on the pier. Teenagers would congregate to dance. When the rebuilding work started in 1982 all the shelters were taken down, and the hut went as well. The oral history material collected demonstrated that the Nissen hut was absolutely central to many people's memory of the pier. |
| Title | Popular Culture on Clevedon Pier podcasts x 4 |
| Description | Four mini-podcasts that form part of the Clevedon Pier Visitor Centre interpretation. The podcasts provide content for the audio post in the visitor centre. Visitors pick up a receiver and make a selection of which audio track they want to listen to. The four podcasts are collages of interview material recorded as part of the People's Pier research project's oral history data collection. The themes covered are: Jukebox culture; Teddy Boys and Girls; Dancing on the pier; Youth culture and teen romance. Contributors narrate their experiences of having enjoyed popular culture events on and around Clevedon Pier in the 1960s. These oral histories are crucial to the interpretation for several reasons: firstly, they offer testimonials of a period in the pier's history that is under-represented in the interpretation offering as a whole, secondly they foreground lived experience and the significance of the pier to local everyday life; and thirdly they inspire to consider the place of the pier in the lives of young people, and area the pier organisation recently has begun to address through their outreach activities programme. The podcasts are supported by an illustrated brochure providing wider cultural and historical context to the audio narratives. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | -The pier organisation has decided to give space to the popular culture heritage of the pier, an area that was previously scarcely represented in any of their materials -The visitor centre quality is enhanced by authentic voices telling their personal stories in a lively manner - General public can form a different view of the pier through taking part of its lived experience - Younger generations learn about the youth culture of their grandparent's generation |
| Title | The musical heritage of Hastings Pier podcast |
| Description | This 30 min podcast was produced by the team, drawing on music history research and the community partner's archive. The content is made up of oral history recordings, sound effects, and music. The podcast is a designed to take the listener on a journey through the Pier's musical heritage from the 1960s onwards. Emphasis is given to the experience / ambience as the aim is to make the podcast an immersive experience. The podcast is a pilot created for research purposes only. It has been used as part of participatory methods workshops with different groups of participants (young audiences, under 26 as well as a group of 26+ years olds of mixed ages) to collect data on how today's visitors to the pier relate to its popular culture heritage despite the radical redesign of the pier after its collapse / fire that means the buildings relating to live music performances and dancing no longer exist. The podcast also aimed to showcase lesser know parts of the pier's musical heritage -such as the music of the 1980s and 90s and the significance of the venue for the emerging rave scene in the 1990s into the 2000s. The podcast as a research tool engaged participants to discuss popular culture heritage and regeneration, to comment on how they experienced the pier through the podcast's immersive soundscape, to comment on an audio artefact as an educational tool, and to evaluate how it would work as a mobile form of the pier's interpretation. From the community partner's point of view the podcast served as a creative point of reference that has spurred them to think about how the musical history can be communicated in lively ways. Due to rights issues making a music heavy podcast publicly or commercially available is currently beyond their remit. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | The pilot has inspired the community partner to consider to what extent the musical history speaks to audiences and how the community archive plays a role here. The community partner has trained volunteers to conduct oral history collecting and volunteers have become increasingly interested in 'sound' also beyond recording narratives. Other forms of social media - like Spotify - has been used to make the music accessible to the public via curated playlists that directly relate to the musical heritage of the pier. Based on this research the community organisation has decided to seek to engage with young audiences and particularly the hard to reach group of 15-25 year olds through their musical lives and this summer will see a youth led music festival on the pier. |
| URL | https://open.spotify.com/user/21kgmy5n7w62d4gboxrrkn6jq/playlist/4LremjRRltXG7M1sITEJ1t |
| Description | The project has identified that tensions around the notion of heritage and popular culture are present in discourse relating to what a community pier is (or could / 'should' be). Such tensions include competing interests and value systems of a professional heritage management approach (such as that of the pier organisations) and the 'fan' approaches of more loosely organised grassroots interest groups or networks. Furthermore tensions around what aspects of the pier's history are valued and preserved; and tensions around competing uses of the pier (including prescribed and non-legitimate uses of the space). The concept of the 'community pier' brings these tensions directly into play as it constitutes an emerging new way of relating to a town's pleasure pier. Nevertheless we have also discovered that local residents have significant attachment not just to the pier as a landmark or structure but to its popular culture heritage. An oral history component of the project collected testimonials and memories from Clevedon residents who were teenagers in the 1950s and 60s and these confirmed the significance of the (no longer existing) dancehall at the end of the pier to youth culture at the time. This finding has impacted on how the pier organisation approaches the curating of the visitor centre interpretation material relating to the history of the pier, and this 'temporary' and shed like structure is included as an important part of the pier's heritage. Previously the emphasis has been on the early days of the pier's history and its 'original' Victorian look. At Hastings we have explored how the history of the pier can be told through music. We developed a pilot for a music led podcast that audiences can listen to wearing headphones whilst moving about on the pier. This may become a significant tool for engaging with diverse audiences for the new Hastings pier which is more like an open urban park space than a traditional pleasure pier. A key finding is that such immersive storytelling is compelling to audiences of different ages. This is an innovative take on the more established form of a heritage audio trail. The podcast features music from five decades of popular entertainment on the pier and is educational about different period's youth cultures. As such it can be utilised to build positive relationships across different generations and empower the community. A further research theme probing the potential for open-air cinema as a means to engage local audiences to enjoy their pier as a community space, tapping into the site's history of spatiovisual pleasures whilst also making productive use of its more youth-orientated (audio-visual) popular cultural heritage. We argue that the pop-up cinema is conducive to the architecture of the open plan piers and fits the more events-orientated operational model adopted by pier organisations aspiring to set new goals for the functions of traditional Victorian seaside piers in the twenty-first century. However, whether open-air pop-up cinema on piers is sustainable and can offer significant value in relation to the more long-term project of seaside regeneration is open to questioning. A number of factors, such as their dependency on suitable weather, the varying standard in terms of vision and sound quality, and the economic uncertainty associated with securing revenue from one-off events suggests a limited value and legacy. Nevertheless, innovative and quirky cinema events in unusual spaces clearly do have a place in contemporary seaside culture and, as this chapter concludes, open-air cinema is increasingly accessible to community organisations due to new technologies for projection and models of affordability. We posit that open-air cinema enthusiasts will continue to explore exhibition spaces in creative ways that stimulate not just new experiences of films, but new experiences of the exhibition space as impacted by cinematic 'insurgent place making' (Merker 2010 cited in Harris 2015: 593). With this in mind, any further redevelopments of British pleasure piers should be wary of building too many sealed structures that deny these enthusiasts the aesthetic, immersive and social pleasures of being outside. Further, pop-up cinema has proved to be conducive with the economic model of the community pier in the twenty-first century, which requires flexibility and adaptability. It also fits with an approach that seeks to strike a balance between commercial and cultural-led strategies, as demonstrated by Clevedon Pier and Heritage Trust's preference for a mainstream film for their pier's screening whilst embracing the DIY set up. Re-purposing a pier for film screenings in the context of the community pier model inevitably involves a consideration of a multitude of complex issues, including questions around programming, audiences' appropriation of the space, and opportunities for collaborations with other business or community organisations. This complexity should not, however, dissuade the custodians of community piers from designing and delivering outdoor screenings. As this chapter has explored, such special events renew enthusiasm for these Victorian structures, tap into a latent pier-cinema relationship and fuel the UK's developing live cinema culture. |
| Exploitation Route | From the oral history collected we have produced 4 Podcasts for an audio post installation in the new Clevedon Pier visitor centre with accompanying brochure. The full recordings will go into the pier's digital archive and can thus be used in future by other researchers or community groups. Findings from the Silent Disco Podcast Case study will be used by the National Heritage Open Day organisation. They also form the basis for Hasting's pier youth engagement initiatives such as the upcoming youth live music festival. Key findings are also used in the organisation's HLF funding applications for further youth engagement activities. The Clevedon Pier and Heritage Trust is exploring hosting a series of deck top open air cinema events in the Summer. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/thepeoplespier/ |
| Description | The Clevedon visitor centre will feature information about the 'Nissen hut' dance hall and jukebox culture. This is a new development and departs from a previous prioritisation of its Victorian heritage. From the oral history collected we have produced 4 Podcasts for an audio post installation in the new Clevedon Pier visitor centre with accompanying brochure. Findings from the Silent Disco Podcast Case study will be used by the National Heritage Open Day organisation and the Hastings Pier. The findings also inform the Hastings Pier youth engagement initiative to host a youth live music festival on the pier in the summer of 2017. They have also made use of the findings in their HLF funding applications for further youth engagement activities. The Learning and Education Manager Beatrice Rapley notes: 'This inspired us to try to pitch for further funding to develop the work we had started and in an attempt to address the challenges we had faced (especially in recruiting young people to take part in the Silent Disco). As a result of this work, my job share partner, Susan Kent and I have submitted a bid to the HLF for a larger pot of funding under the 'Kick the Dust' scheme in the hope of empowering young people to make heritage sites in Hastings more accessible and welcoming.' Findings on musical venue research were presented by Co-I Matt Brennan in the documentary Re: A Pier (Lauchlan 2016). The Clevedon Pier is exploring community collaborations for hosting deck top open air cinema events in the Summer - based on the project pilot and evaluation. Clevedon Pier held at least one open air cinema event in the summer of 2017. The Hastings Pier hosted a youth music festival in the summer of 2017: ZOOQUARIUM - A Young People's Music Festival, 15 July 2017 in a step to revive the youth music scene on the pier and engage young people in their local music heritage. The BBC did a feature on jukebox culture on Clevedon pier based on the project research, interviewing further members of the local community in the same vein and featuring an interview with one of the researchers from the project (Norse). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
| Sector | Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | BBC West Inside Out West feature on Clevedon Pier, based on the People's Pier research |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | BBC West TV filmed an Inside Out West feature on Clevedon Pier, based on the People's Pier theme and featuring an academic form the project team. Broadcast date 11 September 2017. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b094fhjd/inside-out-west-11092017# starts at 18:35 mins There were also a couple of lead-in pieces to this on BBC radio: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05dm01y# 51 mins (one of the rock n rollers) and 01:45, an interview with Joe Sims (presenter of the Inside Out West programme). And the project gets a credit at the end. In addition there is a short News Online video cut from the main programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-somerset-41212090/how-early-jukebox-put-clevedon-pier-on-the-map |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b094fhjd/inside-out-west-11092017# |
| Description | ITV local news interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Short interview on local ITV news about the People's Pier project in conjunction with The Clevedon Pier Open Day. Good publicity for the project and the increased the pier's profile as a community pier. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Media and Popular Culture Study day at Hastings Pier |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 40 University of Brighton Media Studies BA Hons students were invited to take part in a study day on Hasting Pier, focussing on the development of mobile and digital media products for the heritage sector as well as engaging student in current debates about popular culture and heritage. Digital Producer Natasha Waterson introduced the students to examples of digital interpretation products used in different heritage and museum environments before they were set a brief to work on that specifically involved Hastings pier's heritage. Working in teams, students developed and pitched their ideas for new events, permanent exhibits or smart phone apps to engage visitors while on the pier, or to extend a visit afterwards. Natasha has worked closely with the pier on their digital media suite for the new visitors' centre on the pier, that takes a 21st century approach to telling the almost century and a half long history of the pier, using interactive multi-touch tables and other forms of digital media, and the students were particularly keen to get the industry professional perspective on working with digital media within settings such as exhibition spaces, museums, visitor centres, tourist attractions and similar. In this hands-on session, using Hastings Pier as a case study, students considered key factors such as the audience, the content, interaction and desired outcomes when developing digital media for heritage interpretation and engaging with visitors. The winning team pitched a particularly strong concept that aimed to bridge low-tech activities and mobile phone use, encouraging cross-generational use. The People's Pier research team's pilot podcast which explores how to tell the popular culture heritage of the pier through music and oral history was used as an illustration of how digital and social media can be utilised to create engaging and immersive experiences of 'lived heritage'. In relation to this students also looked at other examples of popular culture heritage sites from across the world, from Dreamland Margate amusement park in Kent to AC/DC Lane in Melbourne, from the the one-time home of the Sex Pistols on Denmark Street, London to Elvis Presley's Graceland. Students gave very positive feedback on this event and the module was later commended in the formal Course Board with a special mention of the study trip. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/thepeoplespier/2016/06/22/study-day-on-hastings-pier/ |
| Description | Open Air Pop-up Cinema on Clevedon Pier |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This pilot cinema screening on the pier was a first ever outdoor film screening on Clevedon Pier. The live cinema event was planned and delivered as a collaboration between the research team, the Clevedon Pier (community partner) and The Clevedon Curzon Community Cinema. The purpose of the event was to trial an innovative way of utilising the pier as a community space, engaging communities beyond the pier's core audience (45+) and utilising the space for activities beyond promenading. The film - Pirates of the Caribbean - was chosen based on two objectives: to host a family friendly event exciting young people about the pier, and to test the appeal of a location specific themed film (e.g. being 'at sea', dressing up as pirates) relating to the notion of cinema-as-event. Audiences were invited to inhabit the pier deck by bringing their own blankets, chairs, picnic hampers etc. 73 audience members attended - across all ages - and mainly from the local area. The event served to forge / strengthen community working partnerships that we hope the community partner can benefit from going forward : these include the collaboration with the Clevedon Curzon Community Cinema - who organised the screening rights / licence and advised on marketing, a local outdoor media equipment provider who went above and beyond in their service because of their investment in the idea of a community pier and the local Sea Shanties performers who performed lived for donations to charity and contributed immensely to the atmosphere during the event. The pier is looking to repeat similar events. This event was free but the audience gave indication of what they regarded as a good ticket price point to fund similar events going forward. The pilot also revealed technical and logistical challenges - the weather, the tide, the manpower required to set up the screen - combined offered real practical challenges. Th pier's profile as family friendly and 'fun' was raised. The audience feedback was overwhelmingly positive and encouraging: please do more of these types of events on the pier - we will come and support it. Whether open-air pop-up cinema on piers is sustainable and can offer significant value in relation to the more long-term project of seaside regeneration is open to questioning. A number of factors, such as their dependency on suitable weather, the varying standard in terms of vision and sound quality, and the economic uncertainty associated with securing revenue from one-off events suggests a limited value and legacy. Nevertheless, innovative and quirky cinema events in unusual spaces clearly do have a place in contemporary seaside culture and, as this pilot demonstrated, the notion of the pier as a community space really resonates with local audiences. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/thepeoplespier/2016/09/13/open-air-pop-up-cinema-on-clevedon-pier/ |
| Description | Presentation and workshop at the National Trust Heritage Open Day forum for organisers and heritage site managers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | 15-20 representatives from Heritage Sites / organisations attended a presentation and workshop at the National Trust event 'Heritage Open Days' fair for organisations that participate or plan to participate in the yearly Heritage Open Days events, co-delivered by Olu Jenzen (PI) and Beatrice Rapley, Learning and Education Manager for the Hastings Pier charity. The presentation offered a behind the scenes account of our Silent Disco event on 10-11 September 2015 that formed part of the Pier's Heritage Open Days programme - from technical and physical challenges to successes. Using Hastings Pier as a case study, we explored the different ways in which the research team engaged communities in their shared heritage and related this to workshop participants' own setting. Particular focus was given to the use of media technologies to bring to life 'intangible' heritage and lived experience. Date of event: 14 April 2016. In the qualitative feedback participants commented that they enjoyed learning about 'Real life experiences of participants - case studies bring projects to life' and 'The innovative approach to the interpretation and presentation of the Pier' and that it inspired to ' Looking at new way of engaging audience and emerging audience to world of theatre' New knowledges they acquired included: 'Idea of Spotify to prolong engagement' 'How to make the intangible tangible' and participants felt encouraged to: 'Find out more and champion the success- encourage other people to consider uni sometime in projects' and 'Explore how we might use popular culture to present an alternative story of the building'. Several reported they would '[...] consider using digital and/or mobile media as part of our organisation's interpretation or community engagement'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Silent Disco on Hastings Pier |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The silent disco on Hastings Pier was an event that aimed to test the potentials and limitations of telling the popular culture history of the pier through music. It was a collaboration between the research team and the Hastings Pier Charity, organised in September of 2015 as part of the Nationals Trust's Heritage Open Days. The research team produced a 30 min podcast audio file featuring oral history recordings, ambient soundscapes, and lots of music by bands, artists and DJs who have performed on Hastings Pier from the 1960s to the present day. We used the silent disco technology, often used at big music festivals, to be able to broadcast the content to a group of people at the same time, enabling them to enjoy the podcast side by side on the pier and to interact as an audience. The participants were kitted out with wireless earphones and then the open air deck of the pier was theirs to enjoy for half an hour of amazing music and a journey through the popular culture heritage of the pier. There was even some spontaneous dancing. We ran one event for young people (16-24) and one for the older audience and it was interesting to note similarities and differences between the two groups. Those who had grown up with the pier as part of their youth in Hastings were really excited to be back on the pier and the podcast triggered a lot of memories for them. The younger audience were curious about the experience and really enjoyed learning about the musical lives and youth culture of older generations, although they did not themselves have the same attachment to the space itself. Visitors could extend the experience by downloading a Spotify playlist especially curated for this event, featuring the same music as the podcast. The outcomes include: new ideas about how to engage young audiences by utilising media technologies they are familiar with/ excited about and by emphasising music over talk; indications about what it would require to take forward the podcast format if the organisation would like to develop it into an app for smartphones or personal mp3 players for visitors to the pier to enjoy whenever they want; ideas for how visitors can extend their experience beyond the pier (Social media / Spotify playlist); noting audience reactions to immersive heritage experience. The audience loved to be part of something completely different - a silent disco music event on a pier. They also commented positively on this approach to tell the history of the pier through a musical journey through time and found it interesting to learn about the different types of music and pop cultures of the different decades. The experience triggered lots of conversations about memories from the pier and what the pier meant to locals. The event was reported on by the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4pbWgN8zmcdRnHDXM2JvR5/what-did-hastings-pier-sound-like-through-the-ages |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/thepeoplespier/2015/10/27/the-musical-heritage-of-hastings-pier/ |
| Description | The People's Pier - Regeneration, community, and popular culture heritage public engagement talk at 'Brains at the Bevy' community pub |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Approximately 15 people attended the talk 'The People's Pier - Regeneration, community, and popular culture heritage' at the local community run pub, organised by the Community University Partnership Programme at the University of Brighton (CUPP). As the project PI I presented on the project origin and key findings to a non-academic audience. Three key discussions emerged from the presentation: 1) The value of the pier as a community space/ asset to the local community at a very crucial point in time when a private owner has just bought Hastings pier at a cut price and the future of the pier is looking very uncertain; 2) The labour and investment the local community has put into the Hasting Pier project on a grassroots and volunteering basis that is not accounted for at the point of sale to a private owner; and 3) ideas around models for community enterprise and outreach based on comparisons between the Bevy community pub (the venue of the talk) and the Hastings community pier. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | The People's Pier Knowledge Exchange |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The People's Pier knowledge exchange was primarily aimed to bring together the research project's community partners: Clevedon Pier & Heritage Trust and Hastings Pier Charity but a selection of other local organisations were also invited. The event was held on the 22 September 2016 on Hastings Pier. Representatives from both pier organisations participated and presented case studies alongside members of the research team. Case studies included: Hastings pier -the campaign to restore the pier and the community share offer; Engaging with heritage via popular culture - observations from research and practice; and Connecting Communities, collecting oral history, some observations from the Clevedon open day. There was also a round table discussion on the following themes which had been prepared in consultation with the community partners: 1. Audiences and demographics; potentially excluded groups in the community. Creative ideas for engaging audiences. Activities and events. Communication. Best medium / best channels / best content. 2. Community engagement. How to go deeper ... how to measure. Harmony between education and learning and commercial programmes. 3.Funding streams and sustainability; Working with HLF; bad weather, pricing and gift aid. 4. Archives. Building and maintaining archives. Community resource. Both community partners have reported they will be looking to implement ideas that they gained form this knowledge exchange. The Clevedon Pier & Heritage Trust reported they will look to step up their community engagement initiatives based on aspects of Hasting's model. The Hastings Pier Charity reported interest in Clevedon's methods around marketing and business sustainability. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |