The Florence Manifesto and policies
Here at Florence we strive to focus our ethos through various methods in the hopes of benefiting our local community, environment and creative freedoms.
This manifesto is a living document which is put forward here for debate and conversation. Everyone with an interest in creativity in its widest sense, or with something to contribute, is encouraged to become involved.
Florence Arts Centre is a new take on John Ruskin’s Mechanics’ Institute (Walker, 2012). This will be a place where people develop their creative skills, making and doing and finding new ways to do things, sometimes building on the past, always looking to the future.
We will manage and run a building and an environment in which people can share ideas in a safe and supportive manner. We will reduce waste, re-use, recycle, up-cycle and support local businesses and Fair Trade.
Florence Arts Centre offers a flexible resource where people can do and make by offering workshop space; a recording studio; a theatre; a gallery; and a meeting place, as well as artists’ studios to rent. It will be an accessible space open to everyone with an interest in the arts in their widest sense.
Creativity in all its forms will be celebrated and promoted throughout the local community and beyond. The value of making things by hand is known to enhance well-being amongst all age groups (APPG AHWB, 2017).
We will assist in developing participants’ skills, confidence and self-belief to aspire and achieve.
Artists can work in collaboration with Florence Arts Centre and our partners to create a programme of exhibitions in various areas of the centre, both inside and outside.
Florence Arts Centre will support the development of residencies using our own resources and those of the local area to promote contemporary creativity. We will offer this experience to communities who may have had less chance to be involved.
We will recognise and celebrate the rich history of iron ore mining in the local area and create a mining heritage display to instil pride in past achievements.
We will seek opportunities to develop income streams to sustain the cost-effective, efficient operation of the centre, where these complement our core work and values.
We will encourage and act as a catalyst for the development of sustainable local artisan enterprises.
All-party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing. (2017). Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing is available at: artshealthandwellbeing.org.uk/appg/inquiry (accessed 23 February, 2019)
Walker, M. (2012) The Origins and Development of the Mechanics’ Institute Movement 1824 –1890 and the Beginnings of Further Education. Teaching in Lifelong Learning: a journal to inform and improve practice, 4 (1). pp. 32-39. ISSN 2040-0993 This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/14051/(accessed 23 February, 2019)