Gathering Garden

ROOT

MANIFESTO FOR FUTURE OF PARTICIPATORY ART

SEEDS OF HOPE

BRANCHES OF LISTENING, OF CARING, OF ACCEPTANCE

OUR DEMANDS

TIME TO MEMORIALISE, TO CELEBRATE, TO LOOK BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS

ACCEPT THE LIMITS OF WHAT YOU, AND YOUR ORGANISATION CAN DO

RECOGNISE PERSONALISE AND PROFESSIONAL LIMITS

NOT ACCEPTING THE ‘NORMALISING’ STANDARDS SOCIETY SOMETIMES SET FOR US

ALLOWING PEOPLE TO BE THEMSELVES

THE ABILITY TO ASK WHY

AND TO UNDO THE CENTURIES OF CONDITIONING – AND NOT INFLICT THESE CONDITIONS THAT WE HAD OURSELVES

PATIENCE. SPACE TO REFLECT

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

DIFFERENT TACTICS OF CARE

TIME TO SIT AND ASSESS OUR OWN NEEDS

Ardis, Julie, Liz and Lucy

"In the gathering garden, community is a sound bedrock - where we grow tall and brave together. Doggedly facing and overcoming challenges through creative thinking. We question, we nurture, we tend to, we listen - carefully - together." - Anonymous

a small stone with blue flowers drawn on it — Lottie Rimmer

For participatory arts to flourish and grow
It must become like a dandelion
where one seed lands, later thousands sow

To overtake rubble from the space between stones
Peaking through abandoned pub gardens
protruding from cracks in the patios

Underneath railway bridges with no light below
In graveyards and maternity ward car parks
Among neglected things by the side of the road

Inside demolished factories where nobody shows
and fences and locked gates are all that is known
and in all other places, people no longer go

Anonymous

a poster for the Apollo Project with the text be sound, be creative, be yourself and photos of young people collaborating in an office and a gallery

Wildflowers

Creativity is the seed of life
We are the hands that sow
Through our stories and words
From various parts of our blue planet
I wish for fellow poets and creators
To plant more seeds of honesty
Because telling the truth is timeless
In order for us to grow,
We must exist as if we are wildflowers
Growing in the same soil
Using our imagination to turn our differences
into a rainbow
Through talking, writing, petitions, performance, and more
The hope that I harbor for participatory art is this:
That we can heal society and continue the creative legacy.

KG Munro