for creative collaboration; about experimentation and taking risks; about questioning what is private and public space; about people being able to have a voice and a platform for expression. The collaboration with the Sozo Collective is therefore perfect synergy. Their energy and drive can reinvigorate us and while The Public have developed skills and systems to run an organisation which assists others, the drive for ourselves and our collaborators is creativity and innovation. I believe that this makes a perfect partnership. I know it will thrive.
Thank you to the artists, volunteers, tea-makers and all who have made the X-Ray factory such a buzzy, quirky, welcoming and fascinating place to visit. The show isn’t just about the exhibition as the whole thing has been an ongoing performance from the start. Thank you again.
When I first joined The Public it was called Jubilee Arts and was located in the disused reading room of an old public library. We had to use the loo in the public convenience in the park next door. It wasn’t that great, I assure you, but our work there and in the bus that we later acquired was all about going into communities and unleashing the creative potential of artists and communities alike, allowing the variety of voices to be heard.
The ‘re:location’ project and the resulting exhibition Radioactive therefore feel very near to my heart and indeed my roots. The group, under Dave Pollard’s dynamic and inspiring leadership, is revisiting our original challenges and opportunities as we move into the 21st century. The Public are now a much larger organisation. We are developing a new building in the centre of West Bromwich and the driver for all this has been about spaces
