27 October 2021
People, Profits or Prospects
Prospect Us explores the social, emotional and political impact of commodification of land, rapid urban development and studentification in Newcastle. Through art, satirical games and discussion we’ll examine the power imbalance between landowners, developers, long-term residents and students.
What prospects do students have, having been lured by a glossy prospectus into paying high rents to private accommodation providers?
With land seen as a commodity to squeeze out the maximum profit,what prospects does this leave the people and communities who inhabit the land,but don’t own it?
How can we convince developers to serve the communities they produce as well as the communities they displace, and not only prospect for profit?
Prospect Us seeks to bring different groups together through exhibition and events to discuss and share knowledge about the effects of studentification, and the commodification of land, housing and communities. A collaboration between SAW, BxNU institute, Newcastle University, artists and researchers.
Panellists:
– Tim Bailey has been an architect for nearly 30 years and is based in the Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne. His practice, xsite architecture, has worked on regeneration and commercial development across the city including a student accommodation scheme in Shieldfield.
– Lily Arnold is a Leeds based community worker and artist. She sometimes does huge paintings on big walls, and sometimes is fixing things at her local community centre. You can get in touch through her Instagram
– Ysanne Holt is Professor of Art History in the Department of Arts, Northumbria University. Her research is concerned with practices of visual and material culture in Britain, particularly contemporary experiences of northern cultural landscapes and environments. In 2010 she was involved in organising a Northumbria University – Shieldfield Community Collaboration (ENGAGE) developed out of concern over the impact of increased studentification in the locality.
– Mara Ferreri is Chair of the Social & Cultural Geographies Research Group, Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, editor of the Radical Housing Journal, and author of The Permanence of Temporary Urbanism: Normalising Precarity in Austerity London (Amsterdam University Press,2021).
– Lydia Hiorns (Chair)
Find out more at: www.saw-newcastle.org/prospect-us