03/08/2026
What happens when creativity is used to build community?
Over the past three years, This Is Nelson has shown that arts and culture can do much more than produce exhibitions or events. It can create relationships, build skills and confidence, strengthen partnerships and build structures that can give people a genuine voice in shaping the future of our town.
By opening up disused spaces including 3B Systems, Pendle Rise, Althams travel agents, Victoria Pavilion, and enjoying creativity and connections outdoors in places like Lomeshaye Park, Hodge House and Nelson Town Centre, artists worked alongside residents to transform spaces into places for conversation, creativity and community action. Young people developed new skills through collaborations with artists including RESOLVE Collective and Agony Massive, while People's Assemblies, shared meals and Talkaoke conversations created space for local people to connect, listen and make decisions together.
Along the way, something bigger emerged. The This Is Nelson Collective grew organically as residents, artists and partners came together around a shared vision for Nelson, with collective decision-making and a kind of participatory democracy increasingly led by the community itself.
As one participant reflected:
"We met through This Is Nelson: it’s brought people together in ways you wouldn’t expect."
For In-Situ's Zoya Bhatti, the programme also shaped her own practice as an artist and facilitator:
"The methodologies developed and tested through This Is Nelson: place-based, trust-led, genuinely collaborative - have naturally rippled into other areas of my work including Hillo Hub, around place-based practice, partnership work and space activation."
While This Is Nelson has come to a close, the relationships, conversations and approaches it has developed continue for In-Situ, Super Slow Way and Building Bridges and Pendle Council through Taste of Transformation, Climate Lab Pendle, People's Assemblies and other collaborative community-led work, building on the belief that lasting change begins by listening, creating together and putting trust in local people.
In-Situ Super Slow Way Building Bridges Network Pendle Council
