Responding to Place

Cultural placemaking – creating vibrant hubs and moments of connection for communities and their local identity – is a growing focus in today’s world. As more artists move into this kind of socially engaged, place-responsive work, we’ve programmed this session to inspire, inform and engage.

This online event explores how artists respond to a place-based brief, and how best to approach a placemaking commission, giving consideration to community, nature and wider context.

Dr Zakiya McKenzie will discuss On Our Doorsteps, a Norfolk & Norwich Festival commission at Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Sweet Briar Marshes site in Norwich. For the project, she engaged with the local community to produce a writing billboard displayed in the marshes over the festival. Zakiya will discuss responding to the brief – particularly as someone not local to the area – as well as her other place-based commissions and writing.

Artist Bio

Dr Zakiya McKenzie is a Senior Research Associate in History at the University of Bristol and a creative writer exploring botanical knowledge and the legacies of colonialism. She was Writer in Residence for Forestry England (2019) and is the author of Testimonies on the History of Jamaica Vol. 1 (Rough Trade Books, 2021). Her writing appears in Women on Nature (Unbound, 2021), Gifts of Gravity and Light (Hodder & Stoughton, 2022), and The Wild Isles (2021), alongside features on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Three.

Artist Network

Our Artist Network is for artists and practitioners committed to creative education and socially engaged practice across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

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