Categories: uncategorized
Date: 13 June 2011 09:06:04
No, this post isn't about whether booking the Wombles for Glastonbury was a bad thing or not; it's about the new "scene" that is quietly emerging in Durham. I posted yesterday about People's Bookshop opening next Saturday. Then sitting in church I was alerted to the fact something bigger is going on around here - something I should have woken up to before now.
First off there is Transition Durham, they are an exciting group who have been growing over the last couple of years. To be honest I think I'd gotten so used to reading their e-mails and thinking this is exciting, but I really have no time to be doing anything else that I hadn't fully registered the total of what each e-mail was adding up to and the movement which was growing. I think it was sitting in church, listening to the sermon and hearing "they are only a small group with about 200 people involved at present". This woke me up, I know about social movements and average sizes - 200 people involved is actually quite reasonable for a community based thing - this equates to something significant and worth keeping an eye on happening. To put it in context it is the same size as the "average medium sized church" and larger than several of the local Methodist chapels combined.
Then in the almost the next sentence I was hearing about a community arts event happening in a local shopping centre this week - organised by a group who work in empty shops. Apparently there are a local group called Interface Arts involved.
One of the many things I think is really exciting, knowing what I do about these projects, is that they are actually genuinely integrating town and gown.
In addition to this, and not mentioned in the sermon, is the growing live music scene in the city. Ents 24 gives a small flavour but it is much wider than this.
Sometimes going to church is really worth while in terms of making you wake up and smell the exciting aroma of the new brand of coffee!