FORGE IN COMMUNITY
FORGE IN COMMUNITY celebrates how neighbours have shown extraordinary support for one another and communities have flourished. Residents have reconnected to traditional skills and customs such as growing, making and sharing food together. And we tell local stories of community solidarity, both past and present, inspiring hope and action for a kinder future as we forge ahead together.
“While the crisis deepened, solidarity actually bloomed. There’s been an explosion of altruism and cooperation: people singing from balconies; neighbours collecting food; volunteers sewing masks; doctors, nurses and cleaners risking their lives on the front lines… In a time of extraordinary challenges, when COVID-19 seems like just the prequel to the global climate crisis, we need to assume the best in one another. As a historian, I can’t say I’m optimistic, but I am hopeful because hope impels us to act.”
Rutger Bregman, historian and author of ‘Utopia for Realists’ and ‘Humankind’.
Growing Together
As the first lockdown started, local nurseries were inundated with compost and seed orders as gardens were transformed into vegetable plots and allotments were tended with more loving care than ever before. “It is within that space, that breath, when growing or foraging, preparing, eating, drinking or simply sitting with plants, that we are able to heal… Read more »
Support and Solidarity
Communities have bonded through shared support networks. Our homes and streets have been decorated as we have found other ways connect to neighbours – spreading joy and displaying messages of thanks and solidarity. “It’s like we all feel bit more vulnerable and more aware of inequalities,” said local resident, Bee Wilson. “People are thinking more… Read more »
Nurturing Communities
‘When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.’ John Ruskin art critic, patron and philanthropist, who opened Cambridge School of Art, which grew to become ARU – Anglia Ruskin University, in 1858 As the first lockdown was announced, flour was near impossible to buy as people prepared to start baking; ‘daily exercise’ was combined with… Read more »
FORGE is an evolving project, sharing stories, ideas and actions together. We would love to hear from you.
Please email Ironworks artist in residence Hilary Cox Condron at hilarycoxcondron@gmail.com
Join the conversation on our Facebook page HERE
Hilary Cox Condron on Twitter @mshilarycoxSocial distancing has meant we have had to find lots of different ways to connect. The FORGE Community Gallery is another digital opportunity to share our creativity and ideas, and spread a little joy, too. If you would like to add to it, it’s really quite straight forward, there are instructions on the page – posts can be anonymous if you’d like them to be – and all posts will be monitored before it is made public. We would love you to join us there.
#ForgeCambridge #shapebondtransform
If you would like updates about the IRONWORKS public art programme and future community events, you can sign up to the Resonance-Cambridge mailing list HERE
