Project Description

20 June 2021 — 20 May 2022


We have the MEANS

Exciting real world projects and opportunities for people to make their own experiences.

‘We have the MEANS’ is our new initiative for local people in Cheshire East to shape their town’s future by leading and making the artworks, cultural events and experiences that go in it.

Partners

  • Discover Shift Cheshire East Cultural Team Logo
  • Macclesfield Community ArtSpace

Locations

Across Cheshire

People Powered

We will bring people together to form teams and work on real-world projects across their town. Participants will gain practical making skills to be stakeholders designing the local “experience” economy (including in a Covid-secure way). Planning, organising, promoting and building their own experiences: artworks, performances, games. The project will culminate in an arcade to showcasing the town’s talents and celebrating community-made culture.

Resources will be reused in each new project, and video tutorials will share and recycle knowledge. Our aim is to snowball – With each workshop series and project building on the skills, resources and knowledge from the project before and utilising community skills. Each will be a catalyst for creative exploration based on open themes that celebrate the town and its people, with participants designing, making and then sharing with others. We aim to involve more participants, develop their ideas, find new opportunities and increase confidence.

How it Works

MEANS will help us create a production line: to regularly make innovative, community-driven artworks and projects (focused on developing production teams/resilient networks rather than owning specific assets/spaces). This means we can:

  • build up experience and skills iteratively. Groups won’t have to start from scratch for every project but will already have stakeholders, resources, templates, structures and audiences in place and we can ensure that everything made is Covid-safe.
  • make more ambitious artworks, scaling-up, involving more people and making more interesting collaborations. Making more ideas become viable and achievable. Giving more participants confidence to become makers. Breaking down ideas in a modular way – allowing specialisms and innovation in parts of our work.
  • put proper feedback systems into our work to let us learn and improve. Focusing on building integrity and quality into our work and making things that people want and communities need. Showing makers that their ideas can make a difference.
MEANS will allow us to get better at explaining our processes so others get involved and develop our artists/makers skills and participatory practice: using online digital platforms and recording videos to share skills more widely, working in new ways and broadening our skill base. Making future community owned makerspace, eco-hub or tool library conceivable.
It will allow us to develop a shared distinctive practice as community artwork makers and define the language and methods of our work.

Workshops & Showcases

We will be releasing workshops and showcases here. If you would like to get involved or be kept informed, please get in contact here.

We have the MEANS Gallery

Macc Hackathon Watery Monsters Experiments

Our crew

We are IDST!

More about us

IDST! are a group of makers, artists, techies and experimenters working together to make community artworks.

Creating artworks, performances, games and events that are playful, purposeful and people powered and celebrate community strength.

Collaborating with others, training and running experiments, workshops, and projects so people can learn and get involved and communities can own their ideas.