A social enterprise with connection, imagination, and culture at its heart

On the East Quay of the harbour in Watchet, Somerset, is a colourful and surprising looking array of shipping containers. They are home to a paper mill, a printmakers, Geology and Ecology experts, nine artists, two art galleries, a creator space and a project space. Plus five stunningly designed pods that you can stay in, and a cosy Kitchen serving up amazing coffee and food. Together, these spaces are East Quay, created by local people “as an example of holistic community regeneration showing that communities can come together to build their own future.”

On a drizzly Friday morning in July I visited East Quay, on the way home from a holiday in north Devon. I was particularly excited because Jess, one of the founders of the social enterprise behind East Quay, had said she could pop by for coffee while I was there.

East Quay, Watchet (on a drizzly July morning)

I have been intrigued by the work of Onion Collective CIC since I first saw photos of their community workshops popping up on social media, perhaps 10 years ago. Onion Collective was founded by Jess, Naomi, Georgie and Kelly, to involve local people in shaping what was possible in their town and making it happen. I was drawn to their creativity, the ways that they were working so hard and consistently to start and deepen conversations with local people (their neighbours), and their generous sharing as they learned along the way. It was great to meet Jess and ask her all about how on earth they brought something so amazing which serves so many purposes into being, and how they make it all work.

Jess and Georgie are quoted in an article about Onion Collective and East Quay Arts Centre as saying:

We really want to build an ‘imaginarium’. Every town should have a temple of imagination a place where you can go to imagine what you want the area to be like. We’re all stuck in who and what we think we are, but we should be able to imagine different possibilities.

Our CoLab Dudley team wholeheartedly agree. When we first secured premises for a dedicated  ‘lab’ on Dudley High Street we called the main space an Imaginiarium. In 2020 we wrote:

The Imaginarium marks a threshold between the High Street of the present and the past with the High Street of the future. Our aspiration [is] for The Imaginarium to invite, encourage and help bring shape and story to a collective understanding of the future local people dream of.

We have a long way to go if we’re to follow in the footsteps of pathfinders like Onion Collective, but little did I know as I left East Quay that grey July morning that we were soon to be working together 💕

‘Out of the Box’ – an exhibition with pieces made by local artists to celebrate 10 years of the container gallery on the quayside in Watchet. They were each asked reflect on what ten years of Contains Art means to them, by building their own to-scale replica shipping containers. I was astonished by the diversity of responses… and how many things you can do with a box as your starting point!

Having had a coffee with Jess, a yummy breakfast in East Quay Kitchen and brilliant time looking around the exhibitions, it was homeward bound. And then a message from Jess pinged through – she’d forgotten to mention some work they are doing on mapping relationships in communities, and wondered if CoLab Dudley might be interested. Well the answer to that was obviously YES!

3 months and 3 Zoom meetings later, we’re delighted to be inviting people involved in community action in Dudley to join us in mapping the ‘Understory’ of community action in Dudley Borough, using a process developed by Onion Collective. The mapping will take place in late November 2023 and we’ll be exploring the map with Onion Collective to develop insights into what it tells us in late January 2024.

See our news article for more information and a link to sign up: Join us to map the ‘Understory’ of community action in Dudley Borough

In the shop at East Quay – I belong here!

This blog post is one in a series about Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Emerging Futures Pathfinders. CoLab Dudley is among 22 initiatives they have identified as working day in, day out, to reimagine and redesign the world they want to live in, and the world they hope to leave behind. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation have shared observations on characteristics present in this future-building work. They have drawn attention to the work that Emerging Futures Pathfinders, like Onion and CoLab Dudley have an ecosystem mindset.

Pathfinders are generous as well as generative. They set out to work in a way that is open and generative on behalf of the wider ecosystem – sharing learning, dilemmas, and giving away their models and assets for others to adopt and adapt. They are led by a next generation of ‘social entrepreneurs’ whose practices are firmly rooted in a collective approach to leadership that goes well beyond organisational boundaries.

As the founders of Onion Collective explain on their website:

We set up Onion Collective CIC in 2013, when plans for a major development of flats on the marina quayside of our hometown in  Watchet had just fallen through. Rather than witness more commercial development that had no community benefit, we realised that by pooling our skills and resources we could help empower our community to make the decisions about what developments take place themselves. We spent two months asking people ‘What does Watchet need for a stronger future?’ From that consultation, we then built a purpose built Visitor Centre and restored Boat Museum in 2016,  and in 2021 opened a £7.3m arts Centre called East Quay.  We are now developing a mapping tool with gaming company Free Ice Cream called Understory, and have a pilot facility growing mushrooms and mushroom products called Mycomill. The experience we have gained from these projects mean that we can now help other communities achieve the same.  

We are excited to be working with Onion Collective on Understory, and have hopes for further and deeper collaboration following this dive into Understory.