Held in BALTIC Front Room and chaired by Andrea Phillips, BALTIC Professor, Northumbria University, Director of the BxNU Institute and editor of Social Housing-Housing the Social: Art, Property and Spatial Justice (Sternberg, 2013).
Part 1: How does higher education impact on local housing and how are artists and students responding?
Wednesday 6 October, 18.00-20.00
- Lydia Hiorns: Director of Shieldfield Art Works an arts organisation based in Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne. SAW believes art and creativity are integral parts of human life, and with art’s unique ability to articulate, question and enquire, we can enact positive change in our communities and the world. As a project of the Methodist Church, SAW is built upon Christian foundations of seeking truth, challenging injustice, social activism and operating for the common good.
- Julia Heslop: Artist and postdoctoral research fellow in Architecture at Newcastle University
- Laura Yuile: Artist and PhD student at Northumbria University.
- Jill Holder: Retired schoolteacher and a Shieldfield resident for 37 years. Jill lives in one of Shieldfield’s older houses (it was built in 1904 has a lot of history). As a volunteer Jill helps run the Forum Café which has been open for six years and has become a local community hub – a safe space. Jill has an allotment where she grows vegetables and flowers. Sometimes she has so many she shares with neighbours and friends at the café.
- Mike Jeffries: Geography Department, Northumbria University. Mike explores the lo-fi and DIY city using games, zines and collage.
- Andrea Phillips (Chair): BALTIC Professor at Northumbria University, Director of the BxNU Institute, writer, organiser and collaborator.
Part 2: What connects student housing with land ownership,use and everyone’s rights to the city?
Wednesday 27 October, 18.00-20.00
Panellists:
- Tim Bailey has been an architect for nearly 30 years and is based in the Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne. His practice, xsite architecture, has worked on regeneration and commercial development across the city including a student accommodation scheme in Shieldfield.
- Lily Arnold is a Leeds based community worker and artist. She sometimes does huge paintings on big walls, and sometimes is fixing things at her local community centre. You can get in touch through her Instagram
- Ysanne Holt is Professor of Art History in the Department of Arts, Northumbria University. Her research is concerned with practices of visual and material culture in Britain, particularly contemporary experiences of northern cultural landscapes and environments. In 2010 she was involved in organising a Northumbria University - Shieldfield Community Collaboration (ENGAGE) developed out of concern over the impact of increased studentification in the locality.
- Mara Ferreri is Chair of the Social & Cultural Geographies Research Group, Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, editor of the Radical Housing Journal, and author of The Permanence of Temporary Urbanism: Normalising Precarity in Austerity London (Amsterdam University Press,2021).
- Andrea Phillips (Chair): BALTIC Professor at Northumbria University, Director of the BxNU Institute, writer,organiser and collaborator.
Find out more at: www.saw-newcastle.org/prospect-us
14 September – 25 November 2021
Prospect Us explores the social, emotional and political impact of commodification of land, rapid urban development and studentification in Newcastle. Through art, satirical games and discussion we’ll examine the power imbalance between landowners, developers, long-term residents and students.
What prospects do students have, having been lured by a glossy prospectus into paying high rents to private accommodation providers?
With land seen as a commodity to squeeze out the maximum profit,what prospects does this leave the people and communities who inhabit the land,but don’t own it?
How can we convince developers to serve the communities they produce as well as the communities they displace, and not only prospect for profit?
Prospect Us seeks to bring different groups together through exhibition and events to discuss and share knowledge about the effects of studentification, and the commodification of land, housing and communities. A collaboration between SAW, BxNU institute, Newcastle University, artists and researchers.
