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Solent Unviersity Southampton logo
Solent Unviersity Southampton logo

Solent Showcase: Place-based creativity that gets to the heart of communities

Solent Showcase is a place-based arts organisation that champions the creative potential within all of us. We put communities at the centre by supporting people to develop the art and creative projects that they want to see at the heart of where they live. We push the boundaries of what this can be by challenging perceptions of community art, and what is traditionally viewed as amateur art, by co-creating high-quality outputs with community members and artists.

We are part of Solent University, providing a gateway for Solent’s community participation and involvement. We create the bridge between curriculum and community, making sure what we do is rooted in, and contributes to, research and sharing of knowledge. This is based on over 12 years of experience of using exhibitions as an investigative tool to shape and develop what is successful in terms of socially engaged and place-based practice. Personal scrutiny of our practice, evaluation with inclusive consultation and participatory research has helped to develop a high standard of collaborative practice with students, artists and communities.

We support our Solent University students to come on the journey with us and develop their professional practice and employability skills, taking cultural activities directly to community spaces, responding to what communities tell us they need. We support academic staff to link their research to communities and deepen their social impact.

We are creative and imaginative agents of change whose aim is to be part of a network that nurtures stronger community spirit, participation and engagement and act as a trusted connector to other cultural organisations across the city and beyond. As part of the journey we are also embedding sustainable practice intrinsically into every community project and supporting communities to keep developing their own carbon literacy.

We are mobile, we are free to adapt to different places and to differing community needs.

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