This is one of two maps I was commissioned to make by Closing Loops of areas in Lancaster. There was a lot of walking around the area, working out what to include, talking to people as to what was important to them, and getting a feel of the place myself. I knew both sites reasonably well, but definitely was an outsider – a perfect place to begin.
Over April 2025, I invited people who lived, worked and played in the area to contribute drawings, collages and / or stories of the area. The drawings and scribbles were originally added onto four A1 sheets that only had the roads marked on them, while people talked freely about what events the drawings were inspired by. These encounters happened in schools, groups that met in the community centre and on a field one weekend, where I met the biggest range of people (and as usual was far too engaged in talking with them to take photos, so this is a recreation of what went on).
I then transcribed their stories, and along with their accompanying drawing, added these to the back of the map
The four giant maps were then scaled down to a manageable A3 size and sent to the incredible Morecambe Riso Press to be printed.
These were then given to those who contributed and people who came to events at the Wild Roots Festival in June.
It was a project to reveal the multi-layered nature of each place as well as the opportunity to dream its future. Over all these conversations what I loved the most was encouraging people to share their stories of a place. You might see in the map under its title two stick creatures. These were my benchmark drawings. They are of two deer spotted in the woods. So whenever anyone told me they couldn’t draw, I pointed to the deer. It was not a project about art, but the artistry of storytelling, place and how we might tell our stories of the place, using words, pictures, collage, or any other format possible.
I’ve written about the joy I had in finding a place for my very limited drawing skills over on substack. What I didn’t mention was that I had been wanting to make a community map since devising a mapping walkshop with Maya Chowdhry when we worked on Walk With Us, in 2020-2022. We applied to various residencies with the idea, that was as much digital (and audio) as zine-y because of Maya’s interests, and never got a bite. So while this was a far smaller scale version of our vision, it did bloom, two years later, which in the scheme of sowing seeds isn’t too long to wait for germination.
This Mapping Our Place project didn’t manage to fulfil all its ambitions – of using the maps to instigate walking tours in the areas, but that can come next time. I also made a make your own map zine which you can download and try if you’d like to have a go in your neighbour. Alternately you could ask me 🙂
