In September 2024, people of all ages—residents, workers, visitors, holidaymakers, and passionate fans of Felixstowe in East Suffolk—came together to time-travel into the future of this coastal town with their friends and neighbours.
This small-scale event to explore community needs and aspirations was a key step in shaping Furtherfield’s future in the town, as we plan our relocation from London to Felistowe. Film-maker Hydar Dwatchi created a film about the event.
It’s important to use our imaginations to create the futures we want
“It just reminds us that we have to bring our creative imaginations to the future that we want. – It’s playful, it’s going to make a lot of people think, it’s going to surprise a lot of people” – Adrian
This experience made it more fun and less worrying to exploring the future
“It brings up serious issues while you are allowed to have a bit of fun with them. But also in a way allowing you to disassociate so your prime self doesn’t have to worry about them, because it’s this future self” – Mark
It’s important to respect ideas and feelings of young people in this town
“It’s great to involve younger people who don’t always get involved in these conversations because we feel a bit disenfranchised, and we feel a little bit pushed out by the older generation sometimes. In Felixstowe, it seems to be an older population…we are trying to get a place for younger people to be collectively together and work with you guys so we can make something we are ALL proud of. It’s just great to have a platform to be able to share ideas and feelings about Felixstowe and have them listened to and respected by everybody.” – Courtney
🚢The port was founded in 1875. Looking back 150 years, we can see the changes it made in this town.
During this event we asked ourselves how, in 50 years, we will we look back on this time with all the changes we know are coming, including new developments and shifts in climate?
🌞Felixstowe is a place that radiates healthful living and wellbeing. The land and sea support livelihoods, leisure and blooming biodiversity. The port, the largest in England, provides crucial national infrastructure and contributes to a healthy local economy. In the summer holidaymakers flock here.
🌬️But things are always changing here and in the wider world. In May, Furtherfield invited local residents to chat about the futures we want. In July, we shared what we discovered with three creative practitioners from the region: Mimi Doncaster and Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Together we created an immersive future fiction that formed the basis of a public event to work on the future together!
⏰We created a timeline of Felixstowe since the port was founded in 1875 and added events of historic or personal significance.
✨Then we chose our time-travelling characters. Starting as a young person, or an elder we decided what our character cares about?
We travelled all the way to 2075, the year the Multispecies Port of Felixstowe opens.
This event was co-devised by Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield), Mimi Doncaster, Ann Light (University of Sussex), Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Thanks to Hamilton MAS for hosting the co-creation workshop and to Cuppa for hosting the community conversation that inspired and informed our work. Thanks to Courtney Hessey for guidance on youth empowerment
In an 18 month project Reimagine This Coastal Town in Felixstowe over Summer 2025 and 2026 we are going to host a programme of events, workshops, and an exhibition, culminating in an eco-social Live Action Role Play (LARP), co-produced by 18+ young adults and eight creative practitioners from the region.
A proven way of generating visionary new worlds, we aim to inspire community-led environmental and social transformation in Felixstowe, enabling residents to collectively reimagine its future in the context of eco-social change, with a particular focus on youth empowerment and reaching marginalised communities in the town.
This project will be realised in partnership with The University of Sussex, Level Two Youth Projects, Hamilton MAS, and the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group and with support from Arts Council England and the Suffolk Cultural Fund.
Research shows that young people worldwide are deeply concerned about the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. As the generation that will be most affected, they have the power to drive change—spreading new habits, attitudes, and technologies. However, they also face significant barriers to meaningful action.
What is Felixstowe Youth VOICE?
Felixstowe Youth VOICE is a series of creative workshops co-produced by Furtherfield and young people (18-30 years) from the Felixstowe Peninsula. Through art, storytelling, and collaboration, we explore how creative practices can empower young people to lead positive eco-social change and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In these workshops, we:
🐝 Step into the worlds of local species through experimental role-play, discovering what truly matters to them.
⚖️ Unpack the justice issues behind the Earth crisis, from climate collapse to species extinction.
🌾 Turn insight into action, exploring meaningful ways to create change—for ourselves and the ecosystems we depend on.
Together, we aim to
🧭 Explore artistic methods and creative ways of taking environmental action.
🤝 Come together as a community to shape a better future.
📣 Make sure young voices are heard and take an active role in decisions that impact our planet.
💡 Empower young people to improve and create real change in the places they love.
We have been exploring how artistic methods developed by artists in Furtherfield’s community can support environmental actoin:
Multispecies role-play was developed with artists, biodiversity experts and park lovers as part of the 5 year project, The Treaty of Finsbury Park. The Hologram, is a feminist peer-to-peer healthcare system, that was initially developed by artist Cassie Thornton at Furtherfield and is now practiced by thousands of people around the world.
Organising Team: Courtney Hessey, James Garden, Lauren Bruen, and Ruth Catlow
Co-production Team: Alexander Fotheringham, Cameron Sawyer, Jamie Lea , Katie Clark, Luke Winston, and Mark Richards
Film, animation and illustration by James Garden
Photography by Chris Clayton
Part of a European Research Initiative
Felixstowe Youth VOICE is part of VOICE a European research project examining how artist-led innovation and citizen engagement can help achieve the UN SDGs. In Summer 2025, the team will showcase creative media, tools, and learnings in an exhibition in Felixstowe.
Partners & Support
Special thanks to Laura Locke at the Felixstowe Wellbeing Hub, and Level 2 Youth Projects, Felixstowe for their partnership.
This work was realised within the framework of the VOICE project at Waag Futurelab with support from the Horizon Programme of the European Union.
Our new initiative in Finsbury Park, the People’s Park Plinth, cedes co-curational and co-creational control of our cultural activities to the people of the park. It’s your park, it’s your pick!
We believe that if there is more accessible cultural activity in the park, and more people have more of a say in those activities, then the activities will be more representative of local communities and issues, more people will participate, and more people will feel more of a sense of community and connection within the area.
We have therefore developed the People’s Park Plinth to operate as a dedicated place-shaping initiative bridging the histories, values, physical location, needs, and social practices of local communities. We aim to connect people to the park, surrounding areas, and each other, through free co-creational public digital arts activities which nurture and strengthen community cohesion alongside the biodiversity of the park itself.
We will work collaboratively via place-based partnerships to support and involve communities in ambitious high-quality cultural experiences and improve access to a range of cultural activities where people live, by:
Turning the whole of Finsbury Park into a plinth for free, open-all-hours, mobile-first, co-creational, digital visual art programmes curated and created by, for, and with the local community.
To do this we will invite local people to set the curatorial remit for the People’s Park Plinth as a public art project that starts with them and the natural habitat of Finsbury Park.
Every year we will:
In 2021 we ran our pilot year for the People’s Park Plinth and tripled our local engagement.
We will shortly unveil the park’s pick for 2022: Based On A Tree Story which allows everyone to explore the park looking for tree sprites which tell the histories of Finsbury Park trees and encourage you to dance with them.
In 2023/24 the People’s Park Plinth will take on the theme of local biodiversity. Working with local groups we have developed a project called the Interspecies Festival of Finsbury Park which imagines a a not too distant future where there has been unrest among all the species inhabiting Finsbury Park. After much protest it has been agreed that a treaty of cooperation will be drawn up. But first there will be an Interspecies Festival to ensure all the species understand each other’s cultures and needs. Therefore proposals for the plinth will take the form of video presentations by a range of Finsbury Park species each pitching for which park habitat and activities should feature in the forthcoming Interspecies Festival. We will facilitate voting and then support the artist(s) in producing a series of workshops to prepare for the Festival, before hosting the Festival itself in August 2023 and presenting a virtual exhibition of Festival activities and footage.
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