THE hopes, concerns and thoughts of a community as it moves on from the pandemic are the inspiration of a new arts project.

ARC Stockton is running the project, which involves people from the town and their thoughts and feelings about now and the future.

What's On Your Mind? involves 14 artists, who are now interpreting their individual responses in new pieces of work.

Creative director Paula Clark said: "It’s been a really interesting project so far and I’ve loved working with the different communities to uncover what they’re thinking about and then identifying artists to respond to these thoughts.

The Northern Echo:

“So often people feel their opinions don’t matter and are not cared for, especially people who are already marginalised. What’s On Your Mind is all about having conversations and actually listening.

"ARC wants to know to how people feel right now coming out of the pandemic, what feels urgent to them, what are their fears but also hopes and dreams for the future.

"It’s so exciting to work for an arts organisation who wants to have that dialogue at the core of the work. I am absolutely delighted to be a part of it."

People who regularly use the venue took part in the consultation, with themes emerging about how the town is changing and whether people feel welcome.

It has involved people from across the community, from refugees and asylum seekers, to young people, disabled people and those from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Artists will come up with their responses to people's comments.

The form each piece will take is up to the individual artists, but they will all be made available to audiences digitally, whether that’s a video, online exhibition, streamed live performance, or an interactive piece.

Two new pieces of work will be released each week from Tuesday until Friday, December 3, and will be available to watch free of charge via ARC’s website and social media channels.

The first two What’s On Your Mind pieces will be from punk poet Henry Raby and filmmaker and sound artist Dermot Daly.

Henry’s work will be released on Tuesday, and Dermot’s on Friday, October 22.

The project is being funded through an Arts Council England grant.

One of the aims of the project is to give ARC’s audiences and users more of a say in the work of ARC Stockton and to ensure its work reflects what’s important to its communities.

Annabel Turpin, ARC’s chief executive and artistic director said: “Although we’ve continued to offer events and activities throughout the pandemic, our building was closed for many months and so this feels the perfect time to carry out a major listening exercise.

“This isn’t just about listening to local people though, it’s about using the creative skills of artists and the new digital platforms we have developed to make their views heard.

"We’re delighted to have Paula on board to lead the programme, and can’t wait to see what artists create.”

More information can be found at www.arconline.co.uk.

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can also follow our dedicated Teesside Facebook page for all the latest in the area by clicking here.

For all the top news updates from right across the region straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on newsdesk@nne.co.uk or contact 01325 505054