Growing a Relationship

What is Relationship Centred Practice?

The Relationships Project defines relationship centred practice as work that ‘…puts relationships first. It unlocks potential and meets need by positioning meaningful and effective relationships as the first order goal, both an end in itself and the means by which other goals will be achieved (like better health, stronger communities, greater job satisfaction).’

How does this fit Barbican’s Communities work?

A relationship-centred approach provides helpful language and frameworks to articulate ways in which we have been working to develop long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships. We want to create work together where people have a meaningful voice, act with agency and make an impact on the organisation.

Our Community Collaborator partnership with Headway East London and our four-year Community Infrastructure Levy funded programmes, like the Imagine Fund and Community Impact Collective, are case studies of how large creative organisations can centre relationships as the foundation to their work within their neighbourhood. Through this way of working creative organisations can respond to the needs of their neighbours and contribute to social infrastructure that fosters a sense of belonging which is vital for people to feel comfortable and welcome in large cultural institutions. In our programmes and partnerships, we want to build relationships with transparency and mutual learning, where power imbalances are named and mitigated and where we hold space for the messy work of building programmes and projects together.

5 years of Community Collaboration with Headway East London

From 2019-2024 the Barbican worked extensively with local charity Headway East London as their first ever “Community Collaborator” - a new partnership designed to develop an in-depth and meaningful two-way exchange with a community partner through prolonged, creative collaboration.

Headway East London is a local charity supporting people affected by brain injury, offering specialist services to over 800 survivors and their families each year. The charity has exceptional artists as members, and the Barbican worked to complement, develop and showcase their work whilst, in turn, they supported our staff and programme to develop in new ways.

Together we worked on a series of projects that encouraged dialogue, collaboration and mutual learning - from curating an online community view for Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty; to writing a poetry anthology, ‘Where a memory lives’, with Barbican Young Poets inspired by Daria Martin: Tonight The World; creating films like Blue Planet Black Hole; dancing on the Barbican theatre stage during lockdown with Michael Clark Dance Company; speaking on panels like Connecting Conversations: Can we be Artists?; launching a Barbican Shop x Submit to Love range; and leading brain injury awareness training for over 60 Barbican staff. The partnership culminated in 2023 with an exhibition in The Curve gallery, differently various, the largest ever exhibition of artwork co-produced by people living with brain injury, which drew 5,500 visitors in 9 days.

Join us to celebrate the achievements of this unique partnership, where you can take part in creative activities from drawing, to clay and poetry; see original artwork dotted throughout the Conservatory alongside photos and videos from projects made during the partnership; learn from our experience through the evaluation report and the Community Collaboration Manifesto; and hear from the Headway members who made it happen.

Further Reading: 
The Relationships Project 
The Relationship is the Project 
Disrupt Toolkit 
The Neighbourhood Democracy Movement
Headway East London – supporting people living with brain injury