Thank you to everyone who has contributed their time over the last few months to build a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by the harbour and ideas for the future. There has been extensive engagement to inform this work – firstly to build a collective idea of the harbour as it is today (Bristol Harbour Atlas), and secondly to develop a vision for its future. Further work on this will be shared in the Spring 2024.
Stage 1 Engagement: What Is
Engagement focussed around establishing the places, qualities, opportunities and challenges which currently exist in the harbour: a collective portrait of the existing condition. This stage has involved a number of complementary engagement strands designed to:
- Capture the views of those who are established protagonists and/or users of Bristol harbour, including key stakeholders within and adjacent to Bristol City Council, established water user groups, and boaters.
- Capture the views of communities and residents who may not be making use of the harbour today, or whose use of the harbour may not have been well captured or explored in the past, including residents of South Redcliffe Ward and, through our collaboration with Rising Arts Agency, young people with an interest in the city and its harbour.
- Capture the views of Bristolians in general, at this stage through a dedicated online platform.
Engagement has demonstrated that the harbour is widely loved and appreciated, and is vital to Bristol’s identity. There is broad consensus about what is good about it, most particularly its versatility, its openness, and its cultural and heritage significance. There is broad consensus about the biggest threats and weaknesses, with issues of access, public transport, water quality and the threat of over-development dominating across the board. But there are of course some issues, notably traffic-heavy routes & spaces and car parking, that are more contested.
Stage 2: What Should Be
This stage has shifted the focus from the present day to the future of the harbour area as a whole, to develop a series of aspirations for the future of the harbour. This stage has involved a number of complementary engagement strands designed to:
- Capture the views of the general public and visitors to the harbour, including school parties. The focus of this was an interactive temporary exhibition entitled ‘Shaping Bristol’s Harbour’ held at the M Shed.
- Capture the views of less heard from voices from across the city – including some of Bristol City Council’s Community Champions and their communities, as well as an on-going collaboration with Rising Arts Agency, leading to the commissioning of six Youth Storytellers to explore the harbour from diverse perspectives
- Capture the views of Bristolians in general, at this stage through a dedicated online platform.
Youth Storytellers
We would particularly like to say thank you to the rich contribution that the Youth Storytellers have made to this project. A number of creatives from Rising Arts Agency’s community were commissioned to generate ‘short, sharp’ creative commissions that explore the harbour from diverse perspectives and using multiple forms of media. This has enabled us to hear from communities that are typically not reached by more traditional engagement programmes.
These are our storytellers and here are their stories:
Dolores McGurran - Multimedia Artist - Young Night Time Workers
Ellayah Woodward-Lindsay - BS5 Feast for Change
Kiara Corales - On Water
Lindsey Allen - Collaging the Harbour
Olamiposi Ayorinde - Movement as Therapy
Sid Boyer - A Trans Dreamt Harbour
Thank you to everyone who has contributed their time over the last few months to build a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by the harbour and ideas for the future. There has been extensive engagement to inform this work – firstly to build a collective idea of the harbour as it is today (Bristol Harbour Atlas), and secondly to develop a vision for its future. Further work on this will be shared in the Spring 2024.
Stage 1 Engagement: What Is
Engagement focussed around establishing the places, qualities, opportunities and challenges which currently exist in the harbour: a collective portrait of the existing condition. This stage has involved a number of complementary engagement strands designed to:
- Capture the views of those who are established protagonists and/or users of Bristol harbour, including key stakeholders within and adjacent to Bristol City Council, established water user groups, and boaters.
- Capture the views of communities and residents who may not be making use of the harbour today, or whose use of the harbour may not have been well captured or explored in the past, including residents of South Redcliffe Ward and, through our collaboration with Rising Arts Agency, young people with an interest in the city and its harbour.
- Capture the views of Bristolians in general, at this stage through a dedicated online platform.
Engagement has demonstrated that the harbour is widely loved and appreciated, and is vital to Bristol’s identity. There is broad consensus about what is good about it, most particularly its versatility, its openness, and its cultural and heritage significance. There is broad consensus about the biggest threats and weaknesses, with issues of access, public transport, water quality and the threat of over-development dominating across the board. But there are of course some issues, notably traffic-heavy routes & spaces and car parking, that are more contested.
Stage 2: What Should Be
This stage has shifted the focus from the present day to the future of the harbour area as a whole, to develop a series of aspirations for the future of the harbour. This stage has involved a number of complementary engagement strands designed to:
- Capture the views of the general public and visitors to the harbour, including school parties. The focus of this was an interactive temporary exhibition entitled ‘Shaping Bristol’s Harbour’ held at the M Shed.
- Capture the views of less heard from voices from across the city – including some of Bristol City Council’s Community Champions and their communities, as well as an on-going collaboration with Rising Arts Agency, leading to the commissioning of six Youth Storytellers to explore the harbour from diverse perspectives
- Capture the views of Bristolians in general, at this stage through a dedicated online platform.
Youth Storytellers
We would particularly like to say thank you to the rich contribution that the Youth Storytellers have made to this project. A number of creatives from Rising Arts Agency’s community were commissioned to generate ‘short, sharp’ creative commissions that explore the harbour from diverse perspectives and using multiple forms of media. This has enabled us to hear from communities that are typically not reached by more traditional engagement programmes.
These are our storytellers and here are their stories:
Dolores McGurran - Multimedia Artist - Young Night Time Workers
Ellayah Woodward-Lindsay - BS5 Feast for Change
Kiara Corales - On Water
Lindsey Allen - Collaging the Harbour
Olamiposi Ayorinde - Movement as Therapy
Sid Boyer - A Trans Dreamt Harbour
