Arts, Architecture, Activism and Access: Taking Around the Toilet to New Spaces

Since April 2015, the Around the Toilet project has been exploring what makes a safe and accessible toilet space. Through the project we have shown that while toilets are often thought to be a mundane space, for those for whom a lack of adequate or accessible toilet provision is a crucial practical issue on a daily basis, toilets are 'the big necessity' (George, 2011). Arts, Architecture, Activism and Access: Taking Around the Toilet to New Spaces introduces a new leg of the Around the Toilet project. It is made up of three strands, which are directed at communities invested in the project in different ways.

Strand A continues our commitment to working within queer and disability arts, but unlike previous work adds a more explicit international dimension. It begins by collaboratively producing a film which which describes journeys taken or not taken due to in/accessible toilets. The film will be screened at queer and disability arts event in Toronto (Canada), Reykjavik (Iceland), as well as within the UK. We will also submit the film to be screened at 'mainstream' film festivals in order to widen our audience.

Strand B continues dissemination activity with architects and design professionals. To do this we will work collaboratively with Sheffield School of Architecture and the 'Live Works' Urban Room, to develop and deliver a 'Studio Pack', Re-Imagining Access, to be used with MA Architecture Students. The Studio Pack will first be used with MA Architecture Students at the University of Sheffield, before being made available to be used at architecture schools across the country. Strand B will also work closely with Gillian Kemp from Public Toilets UK to disseminate and receive feedback on the Toilet Toolkit (www.toilettoolkit.co.uk) which was developed through a previous project, Servicing Utopia.

Strand C follows numerous conversations created by the project about the infamous space of the school toilet. Working with Purple Patch Arts and using shadow puppetry, the project team will seek feedback from young people with learning difficulties on the outputs and findings produced through the project so far. This feedback will be curated by an artist to form an exhibition which school professionals will be invited to view and begin a dialogue around what makes a safe, accessible, and indeed pleasant, toilet space in schools.

The project has been developed in close conjunction with project partners. As such, capacity for impact has been considered throughout. This statement outlines the direct and immediate beneficiaries and the more indirect and longer term impact that will outlast the 12 month duration of the project. Although the beneficiaries of each project strand are not distinct from one-another (i.e. young people may be involved in queer and disability arts), we address them in strands for clarity.

Through working with queer and disability arts, Strand A particularly focuses on "embodied legacies" (Facer & Enright, 2016, 6). For example, storytellers from the Travelling Toilet Tales project will be invited to collaborate on the production of the film, thus increasing skills sets and confidence. Inter/national audiences at film screening events may find their own experiences validated, and may wish to get further involved in the project by, for example, hosting their own screening. We envisage screenings at mainstream film festivals will engage with a different audience - here the impact will be around generating discussion and changing the discourse around access and toilet spaces.

Strand B engages with architects and trainee architects in order to create material change. Approximately 20 MArch students will be directly involved in the 'Re-Imagining Access' studio within the project's lifetime, and devise portfolio work around this theme (to be exhibited at Sheffield train station). Another 160 students and numerous staff will engage with their peers' work on this project. Meetings have also been timetabled in with Oxford Brookes and Manchester Schools of Architecture in order for the Studio Pack to be used nationally in the training of architects. Other beneficiaries of Strand B will include organisations such as the IBS Network, policy makers and other bodies with an interest in public toilets, who will be invited to engage with and feedback on the Toilet Toolkit through work with project partner, Gillian Kemp (Public Toilets UK).

Strand C involves young people, youth work practitioners and school professionals as research beneficiaries. The innovative and accessible methodology uses arts-based methods to capture young people's responses to project outputs and data, which will then be exhibited and in turn impact upon school professionals at a 'communicate' event. As outlined in the case for support, we see this strand of the research as the beginning of a dialogue around school toilets, therefore impact made through networking in this strand is likely to lead to further engagement with young people and targeted professionals.

Whilst working in Around the Toilet, we have learnt that 'impact' also happens in more unexpected ways. Although already engaged in toilet campaigns, project partners have noted that whereas previously they felt like lone voices, they now feel part of a community. Others have said that they had not considered issues of toilet access outside of their own experiences. Furthermore, those sought for their professional services (such as film makers, interpreters, university media teams) often comment that they have not considered issues of toilet access before coming into contact with the project.

Publicisation will be facilitated with the support of media and public engagement teams at our institutions. We will assess and evaluate impact at advisory board meetings. As further detailed in the case for support, Slater will work closely with RA Jones to record (and train others to record) impact at workshops and events by, for example, recording public and media responses to the films, and continuing the use of the (moderated) comment section of the project blog. Impact interviews will be used in latter stages of the project. More indirect and longer term beneficiaries of any changes in policy and practice will include those for whom inadequate toilet provision currently restricts wider access to community.