Why do you think people in the South Holland and Boston areas don’t get more involved in the arts?

I wonder if, even thought art and creativity ought to be fun and interesting, many people see it as being a bit of a chore, or like work even. Maybe it’s too much of an effort. Taking art to people rather than the other way around is important. Participation should be at the convenience of the participants! Another issue is cost – not just money but time too.

What do you think should happen to encourage people to get more involved in the arts locally?

Bring down barriers to entry at the beginning. Maybe excellence can come later? Don’t mention art perhaps? Don’t make a big fuss about things – leave it for people to help themselves, or learn themselves about what an installation or exhibition does or is for.

What ideas do you have for exciting, innovative ways to get more people involved in the arts in the area? Please also estimate how much it might cost.

As part of a project we ran in East Lindsey, we held a ‘Creative Technology Day’ to showcase innovative technology that can be used in artistic and creative endeavours. It created a lot of buzz, with people able to play with 3D scanners, find out about 3D printing, use a digital knitting machine, find out about using games consoles in art, and so on.

Later in the project, bits of technology will be bought and installed in various locations around the Lincs coast in East Lindsey.

Similar installations in community arts spaces, perhaps catalysed by a Creative Technology event, could bring an innovative edge to a bid, and would help engage different audiences with the project – ie people come to play with the toys, and inadvertently start to create and engage with other people’s work.

Taking this idea further, having as part of a community arts space an area for ‘creative hacking’ – producing software and hardware for creative and artistic ends might be a really interesting experiment. Potential to bring together engineers and computer programmers with artists.

Costs don’t need to be too high for the event as you can borrow the tech. Need some money to invest in stuff for permanent use – perhaps around £150k including maintenance etc, depending on what you buy! A creative hacking space just needs room and some people – hackers tend to bring kit with them, and forage for other stuff.