Eyeview
Partners: Torbay Culture, The Great Place Scheme
Funders: Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Lottery Fund
Location: Torbay, UK
Date: 2018–20
Through 2019, Eyeview supported artists and communities to animate and re-imagine Torbay’s culture and heritage. Site-specific commissions, participatory projects and community actions gathered people together, activating key heritage assets and platforming new work in collaboration with local, regional and national partners.
Eyeview formed part of Torbay’s Great Place Scheme, a pilot scheme funded by Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. With this support, Torbay Culture sought to build the foundations and infrastructure for change, towards a thriving cultural offer in Torbay that is sustainable and embedded in all parts of life.
Building on a spirit of exchange, Eyeview worked to catalyse new work and ways of thinking, nurturing a solid base from which the energy of Torbay’s cultural sector could grow. This was underpinned by embedded support and capacity building, interfacing with other aspects of the Great Place Scheme, to layer culture into our developing sense of place.
Public-facing work included:
Conversations (March to December 2019): A series of happenings, feasts, presentations and dialogue through the year, bringing people together to ask questions, debate, share ideas, places and perspectives.
(Extra)ordinary (June 2019): Site-specific works and partnership projects by artists and communities that animate and take over extraordinary and unexpected places, cultural treasures and sites in Torbay’s unique natural environment.
Wavelength (November 2019): Experimental commissions with artists and technologists, culminating in a celebration of sound and light, illuminating the overlooked and unexpected.
These films provide a snapshot of Eyeview’s 2019 events programme, including some of the artists and communities involved.
Through Eyeview we:
Raised aspirations for culture in Torbay and challenged local perceptions of place and identity, bringing arts to people’s everyday lives especially to those who think culture is not for them.
Re-engaged people with the town centre and re-connected residents and visitors to the coast.
Revealed and celebrated what makes Torbay unique, developing a sense of pride among residents.
Developed Torbay’s reputation as a cultural destination and a centre for world-class participatory arts, attracting new tourists to the area.
Integrated and enhanced Torbay’s existing cultural offer, building a sense of cohesion across the sector locally, empowering new relationships with practitioners from outside the local area, and helping to establish emerging local artists – leading to a more resilient cultural sector.
Realised the ambition and potential of Torbay’s cultural assets, including venues, festivals, landscape and intangible heritage.
