How can we involve creatives in our citizen-led action?

Description

Involving local creatives in citizen-led actions can aid in combining different approaches and dynamic practices to create impactful experiences for diverse audiences (more on this in this section). There are many other ways we can build these connections depending on our needs and expectations: simply by reaching out to already known local groups or by creating open calls or hackathons. However, the focus here is to provide tools for COs to define what is expected from external collaborators, what level of experience is required, and what skills are needed. Then, tools and guidelines are provided aiming to support the process of reaching out to creative individuals and communities and promote a mutually beneficial relationship between the participants.

Why is it relevant?

Understanding the terms of the collaboration with external communities, especially with a focus on artists and creatives, is an important step as it involves external potential collaborators who might have different dynamics than those of the CO. This process can happen naturally in many cases, but it’s important to keep it in mind so that collaborations can be fruitful at both personal and collective levels.

How can this be done?

You can use the stakeholder analysis tool to find a node near you. Alternatively, you can reach out to one of the existing networks and directly reach out to creatives and organisations through there. Or in case you are aware of an existing node or association.

Make sure that you have clear what, when and how you would like to involve the creatives in your citizen-led action journey. Ideally creatives are part of this journey as early as possible, as they add value and quality to the work. A brief, in shape of a one-page PDF can help to summarize your ideas and make clear to new team members what the objectives and expectations are. Have in mind that the creatives support will add value to your citizen-led action. The creatives participation should not have as only objective to “make things pretty”. In case you cannot offer monetary support, try to find other alternative reciprocal (mutually beneficial) exchanges that benefit you and the creative practitioners (that go beyond just visibility of their work). For example: Possibly material or travel costs can be covered, or in case of a younger creative maybe they can do the collaboration as part of their placement year in their educational setting. This conversation should be held closely with the creatives, to ensure that expectations are clearly agreed upon.

In this section we provide ways of reaching out to communities outside of the Citizen Observatory, with a focus on creative talents and collectives. The collaboration with the Distributed Design Platform offers a unique opportunity to involve creatives from an existing creative network that is based in Europe and beyond.

Collaborating with the Distributed Design Platform

The Distributed Design Platform a digital hub for a community of creatives in Europe and beyond. The Platform has 17 members in Europe and over 2600 creatives that are actively working on changing the creative paradigm through their practice. CO’ have the unique opportunity to collaborate with the Distributed Design Platform coordinators to strengthen their outreach to creative practitioners and identify build collaborations for their citizen-led actions. The CO’s can work with the Platform coordinator to find international creative talents or, depending on the location, connect with local creatives in their immediate surroundings. This opportunity will be uniquely tailored to each CO’s approach/needs. Four possible ways for the collaboration are (1) Co-designing an open call for creatives, (2) Publishing of the citizen-led action on the Distributed Design Platform, (3) Maximising the editorial outreach through a curated blog post, and (4) highlighting the citizen-led action outcomes in the digital exhibition space of the Platform.

Co-designing an open call for creatives with the Distributed Design Platform

The Platform has a yearly outreach to over 60.000 people through the it’s digital presence. You can collaborate with the Platform coordinator to strategically publish your CO’s open call. This may help you find the local or international creative that you can involve in the planning and production of your citizen-led action. Together with the coordinator you will develop how to best communicate your open call, that includes highlighting the benefits offered in detailed descriptions and incorporating visually captivating elements.

Reach out to [e-mail] to co-design your open call to reach creative for your citizen-led action.

Here is an example of how an open call on the Distributed Design Platform can look like by our member Happy Lab Vienna who was looking for creatives to participate in their residency program.

Publishing your citizen-led action on the Distributed Design Platform

Over 30 different digital and physical creative events and activities take place each in the context of the Distributed Design Platform yearly. And your citizen-led action can be one of those. After your planning and development phase you are invited to share your citizen-led action prior to when it takes place on the Distributed Design Platform. Promoting your action can support the outreach of your activity and with that your desired impact.

Here is a template to submit your citizen-led action to the Distributed Design Platform.

Maximising your editorial outreach through a curated blog post

After your citizen-led action has taken place you can share the actions outcomes, insights and impact through the Distributed Design Platform blog. To this date, the digital editorial outreach of the Distributed Design Platform reached over 60.000 people through the website and blog posts, over 1.300 people through the newsletter and more than 27.000 accounts on Social Media. This is a great opportunity to share your work and give visibility to your collaborators. A blog post can support your documentation process and can be part of your impact strategy.

Here is a template on how to write a blog post.

Highlighting your citizen-led actions outcomes in the digital exhibition

There is a need for emerging talents to be able to represent themselves and their works in digital environments that share their values towards open design, collaboration, social inclusion and positive environmental impact in order to contribute to the development of resilient, professional practices for the European cultural and creative sector. The Distributed Design Platform Online Exhibition is a space in which digital and physical works, creative citizen-led actions and emergent creatives profiles intersect. The key aim of this online exhibition is to bring visibility and promotion to creative works by creating high-quality publications. You and your creative collaborators can submit your citizen-led action outcomes (after it took place) that took shape as a e.g. in a installation, mural, artwork, artifact, exhibition, or similar in the Distributed Design Platform Online Exhibition.

Reach out to [e-mail] in case you would like to discuss if your proposal is a suitable fit for the Online Exhibition.

Here you can submit your creative citizen-led actions outcomes.

Enhancing your Social Media outreach with the Distributed Design Platform

The outreach of the Distributed Design Platform reaches more than 27,000 accounts across various social media channels. You can collaborate with the Platform coordinator to strategically publish your CO’s open calls, activities with creatives, and events. This collaboration may help you extend and maximize the outreach of your activities. Open calls through social media are effective tools for encouraging public participation from local and international artists and creatives. Showcasing your citizen-led actions through the Platform's social media not only enhances the visibility of your activities but also promotes your creative collaborators. Together with the coordinator, you will develop the best strategies for communicating your activities.

Here, you can access the Platform's social media presence and find an example, demonstrated by our member Pakhuis de Zwijger, of how a collaborative communication campaign can look like.

Reach out to [e-mail] to co-design your open call to reach creative for your citizen-led action.

Useful resources

• How work works - An inventory of effects [18.] A collection of insightful articles about creative and artistic work.

• culture/SHIFT (pages 15 to 20) [17.] Is a useful guide for people who are interested in working with creatives and artists. and includes a step-by-step guide for implementing projects with creatives.

You might also be interested in …

• Why can working with culture and art-related groups enhance Citizen-led actions?

• Where can we find local creatives to work with?