Here at The Living City we have been exploring different key topics with the people of Preston and local artists. We conducted 100s of hours of interviews with people from our community and also commissioned artists to create works responding to the lockdown and to our Preston Voices archive.

The Preston Voices archive comes from interviews we conducted over lockdown. For this part of the project we interviewed a cross-section of our community – not just the usual suspects. We interviewed DJs, musicians, a bus driver, a taxi driver, fitness instructors, healthcare workers, full-time mums, grandparents, company directors, farm workers, office managers and music promoters. We wanted to reflect the diverse community that makes Preston a Living City.

Over the course of 100s of hours of interviews key topics emerged and we’ve structured the website around those topics. Come on in and look around…

Topics

Arts

Conversations with artists and musicians, commissioned work from artists and discussions about the future of The Arts, the live music industry, creative activism and more.

Community

Hear what people think about whether coronavirus has damaged or restored our sense of community, whether communities cared for each other during lockdown, and we document Preston’s response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Diversity

Preston’s voices discuss racial equality and Black Lives Matter, how face masks impact deaf people and the importance of equal representation in our communities.

Education

Hear how education was impacted by the lockdown including audio from a high school student, parents discussing home schooling and written thoughts on whether than pandemic is reducing imagination in education.

Fear

Listen to people talking about their fears associated with the pandemic, lockdown and the future impacts the pandemic will have for young people

Family

Preston people talk about missing family, how life changed during the pandemic, how Preston families adapted during lockdown. Artist commissions portrayed people missing their families.

Greenspace

Hear people’s appreciation of Preston’s green space and see some of our artist photos and commissions which incorporate Preston’s parks.

Grief

Preston people open up about the hardest parts of lockdown and their grief. You can also explore some of our artist responses to grief.

Health

Our interviewees talk about mental health, physical health, their experiences of coronavirus and general health fears.

Housing

Hear how the type of housing we have impacted how positive our experience of lockdown was. We also hear views on homelessness and whether this will re-emerge as lockdown eases.

Isolation

Isolation and loneliness were a near universal theme mentioned by our Preston voices. See the work of local photographers capturing isolation, people of Preston discussing loneliness and conversations on the long term impacts of isolation.

Jobs

Discussions on the future of office work, why more needs to be done to create equal access to jobs and challenges faced in our jobs during the pandemic.

Media

Posts on how much Preston people trust the media, what they think about censorship and the language used on the news when talking about the virus.

Mental Health

Listen to Preston’s voices discussing how the pandemic has affected them emotionally as well as artist responses to the lockdown and its impact on mental health.

Money

Many people opened up about loss of income, economic fears and their opinions on where government money goes and should go.

Night

Hear from DJs, musicians and music fans about the pandemic’s detrimental impact on Preston’s night time economy, discussions on the future of independent music venues, the U.K music scene and nightlife across the city.

Online

Preston people’s experiences of working and socialising from home and the power of technology, and we ask ourselves questions such as if virtual connections will continue to replace physical ones and if online socialising makes us more lonely.

Shop

What Preston people told us about shopping local, supermarket changes and what it was like to work at a supermarket during the pandemic.

Values

Reflections during the pandemic on what is really important.

Mood

Listen to Preston’s Voices sharing what made people feel guilty during the pandemic, how the pandemic has impacted us emotionally and reflections on our anxieties.

The Living City project is produced by They Eat Culture, & supported by the Community Lottery Fund & Arts Council England.