Right Here, Right Now: Where next for culture in our city, and how? 

Wednesday 15 June, 11am – 3pm

Polly Gifford, ABCD Programme Manager

A lot has happened since the ABCD Plan for Cultural Recovery in Brighton & Hove was published at the end of 2020. The world has changed, although the pandemic is still with us, and we’ve all learnt and experienced a great deal.

It’s a good moment to reflect, but mainly to look forwards, so we’re holding an open session – both for those who have been involved in ABCD so far, and those who might be new to the conversation. As Norman Cook says, we’re the ones who are Right Here, Right Now, so we’re the ones who can make a difference.

For more details and a great provocation by Bobby Brown, see the ABCD page, and below, facilitator Julia Payne explains more about how the day will work, and why ‘open space’ is people power in action.

The lowdown on Right Here, Right Now

As someone who spends a lot of time working with people to invent different kinds of futures for the towns, cities and communities they live in – and who, some 20-odd years after graduating from Sussex Uni, has been leading ABCD’s Regroup ‘n’ Renew cultural leadership support programme – I’m really excited to be facilitating Right Here, Right Now, the ABCD open space event on 15 June.

The question at the heart of the event is ‘Where next for culture in Brighton & Hove, and how?’, and this event is your chance to talk about the change you’d like to see, and be inspired by how others feel and the vision and passions they have. Some 18 months since its launch, it’s also a chance to refresh the direction of ABCD. Change has to start somewhere, and open space events are a great place to (as Phelim McDermott from Improbable Theatre says) “engage with the stuff… I only knew how to complain about before”.

So, how’s it going to work? Read on for the low down…

Open Space is people power in action

It’s called an ‘open space’ event, because the agenda won’t be set by ABCD, but by the people who come along. In my experience, often the best ideas emerge when very different kinds of people come together. So that’s what this event aims to do: bring together people from across the cultural sector in Brighton – people of all ages, backgrounds and with all kinds of stories – to invent an exciting future, and discuss how to make that future a reality.

So what’s going to happen?

Some of you will be at Sound Rooms, gathering in person. Others will be participating in a parallel event happening on Zoom. In both cases, the process will start with a group of people coming together because they care about Brighton and its cultural sector; a group of people that’s unique, and who have never been, and will never again be, together in exactly this grouping.

Open Space ‘technology’ is simple. It’s people. At the outset of the event there’ll be a chance for anyone with a burning issue, big question or great idea to bring that to the table. You’ll share your intention to convene a conversation, it will get timetabled, and that’s how the agenda will come together. Then, over the course of the afternoon, people will join the conversations that ‘speak to them’ the loudest – gathering in in-person or zoom breakout groups. It’s people power in action.

At any one time – both online and at Sound Rooms – there might be 2, 5, 10 or even more breakout conversations going on at the same time, with people in each one working hard on the topic at hand. The ‘law of 2 feet’ (or of ‘personal mobility’) means that you can dip in and out of conversations as and when you want. The choice is yours, and the responsibility is yours. Then, at the end of each event, the participants in each will come together again, to share their reflections, learning and the actions they want to commit to after it. We end as we finish, sharing what’s important to us all.

More than just a talking shop, the aim is to get things and people moving

At ‘open space’ events, the aim is to ensure that every conversation gets documented in some way. That’s because the aim is for the event to feel like a beginning of something bigger not an end in itself. In this case, the ABCD team will be producing a follow up open space report that will inform and inspire what comes next, collectively or individually.

‘Open Space’ isn’t about any one person or organisation taking control or promising to solve everything; it’s way of bringing together people who want to address a complex issue, by focusing on what matters to them, making essential connections, and making plans. It’s about a culture of shared responsibility through which ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things.

I love the ‘atomic collisions’ that occur when you bring together people with different ‘norms’ and starting points to explore and invent new ideas and alternative realities; thinking happens that wouldn’t come about in any other circumstance, and ideas are generated that wouldn’t otherwise have seen the light of day. In my experience, after an ‘open space’, everyone involved leaves a little bit changed – and re-charged – by the experience.

My hopes for Right Here, Right Now

I’m expecting some real ‘atomic collisions’ when we get together. By the end of the afternoon, what will have happened? My hope is that everyone WILL go home a little bit different, with some new insights, some new potential collaborators and friends, a spring in their step and some clear action points to keep them busy and connected in the weeks and months that follow.

We’re all responsible for making the places we live, work and play in the best they can be, so I really hope you’ll join us to have your say, make your mark…