rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/ticketed_event/understanding-place-and-community-training?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-ticketed_event-area-understanding-place-and-community-training' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> Collective Encounters https://actionnetwork.org/groups/collective-encounters https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/ticketed_events/photos/000/092/883/normal/Screenshot_2026-03-25_at_11.02.27.png?1774436605 Do you use creative practices to enliven and animate specific places or spaces? The Understanding Place and Community masterclass will use accessible creative techniques and critical exercises to give you new tools for asking questions about how power works in your neighbourhood and the spaces around you, and how this may affect your place-based cultural work. This workshop is for artists, creative practitioners and cultural producers who are working at a place-based or hyper-local level and are looking to develop new tools to support communities they work with and build a more equitable practice. You might be working with practices such as outdoor arts, site-specific theatre, community-based practice, environmental or ecological art, urban or rural public art and placemaking initiatives. Attendees will gain an understanding of - How place and space are socially constructed at the intersections of power. Conceptual mapping tools to better understand place at a hyper-local level. Asset-based approaches to understanding place and community. The potential of mobilising community knowledge in place-based creative work to enact community-led change. Futher details: This training will take place online, via Zoom. It is 3 hours in total. Due to the participatory nature of this training it will not be recorded. The training will be delivered by Collective Encounters' Co-Artistic Director Aidan Jolly and Marianne Matusz (bios below) Ticket Cost: For attendees supported by their organisations the full price of a ticket is £40.00 For freelancers and non-regularly funded organisations, the price of a ticket is £30.00 For those on low income the ticket price is £18.00 We also have a small number of bursary places available for those with limited funds, please contact admin@collective-encounters.org.uk to enquire about a bursary place for this training. Access: This event will use live transcription. If you require BSL interpretation, please get in touch no later than two weeks in advance of the training. About our trainers: AIDAN JOLLY is a researcher in the fields of social policy, creativity, and performance. In 2022 he was awarded a Masters by Research from Edge Hill University and began a PhD in October 2022, investigating how local communities are developing creative strategies for transitioning to a society based on principles of social, racial and climate justice. He has a specific interest in Trauma Informed Practice. Prior to the Pandemic, his work focussed on creative and collective music and performance making, taking inspiration from world-wide cultural movements, and the history, identity and undocumented stories of particular communities and environments. He has worked with Collective Encounters since 2012 on projects relating to mental health (‘Other Ways Of Telling’), homelessness, and with veterans (‘Out Of Service’). He has more than 30 years’ experience as an artist and an activist. MARIANNE MATUSZ is participatory theatre maker, socially engaged artist, and project manager. Working with diverse communities across the North of England, she uses theatre as a lens through which we can dare to see ourselves, each other, and the world differently. She has delivered projects across many settings, including mainstream and alternative education, community venues, refugee centres, frontline mental health services and residential care settings in addition to traditional theatres. She has a Master’s Degree in Applied Theatre and Intervention from the University of Leeds, where she is now a PhD researcher exploring socially engaged arts practice as a labour of care. https://actionnetwork.org/ticketed_events/understanding-place-and-community-training