Look around you. What do you see? That’s art. Art is Everywhere in North Lanarkshire. Not just in galleries and on walls, in books and frames. Art isn’t just a place you go to or a thing some creative people do.  Art is Everywhere in North Lanarkshire. It’s in the trees, if you pay close attention, you might see a burst of colour in the bark. Feathers scattered across a field, people laughing at a bus stop. That’s art. Art is Everywhere in North Lanarkshire. It’s in every relationship, every conversation. It’s what makes us human.

We’ve been thinking about this a lot through our community research project Measuring Humanity. How to capture the unmeasurable aspects of the human experience? To feel, to relate, to connect is fundamentally human. To feel, to relate, to connect is fundamentally linked to our health and wellbeing.

But how to ‘prove’ this? How to ‘evidence’ that when people come together in community, their health and wellbeing improves? Is it true that ‘if you can’t measure it, it does not exist’? Or are we ‘measuring’ in a way that doesn’t give us access to some community members’ truth(s)? Thinking of ‘evidence’ in a way that doesn’t acknowledge the role of creativity and neglects to give us access to the human experience? And what is ‘truth’ anyway?

We want to access the ‘truth’ from people in North Lanarkshire by connecting with art, nature, the environment and everything else around them. We’re trying to reimagine what the future of North Lanarkshire might look like. These questions are particularly interesting to us:

• Would you say where you live is a creative place?
• What does ‘art’ mean to you?
• Have you seen any art locally?
• Is there anywhere you would describe as ‘artsy’?
• Tell us some of your favourite places in North Lanarkshire and why…
  -What does it look like?
  -Does it have a particularly smell?
  -How do you feel when you’re there?
  -Where in North Lanarkshire do you feel the safest?

• Do you get into nature in NL and enjoy the outdoors? Why/why not?
• If you could change anything about NL, what would it be?
• Are there any hidden gems in North Lanarkshire we need to know about?
• Tell us about your journey getting to NL (prompts – did you travel from far away/were you and your family born here etc?)
• Do you want to stay in NL? (prompts – why/why not? if you want to leave, where you do you want to go? Why?)
• What does the future of NL look like?
• If you could change anything about NL, what would it be?

We want to fill North Lanarkshire with amazing art that is accessible and everywhere.

Applications for artists have now closed, but thanks to a number of grants available to cover the cost of production of works, there will be lots of exciting outputs from this. Follow our Twitter account for photos and information along the way!

North Lanarkshire Council are working in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, Scottish Community Safety Network, Tron Theatre and Youth Theatre Arts Scotland on a research knowledge exchange. The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council with funding distributed by the University of Edinburgh.

This project aims to put arts at the heart of multi-sectoral strategic planning, ensuring North Lanarkshire leads the way to ensure sustained access to the arts for all ages and use it to tackle education, health, community safety, social justice and social-economic inequalities.