By Ruth Catlow and Elly Clarke
Elly and Ruth have been organising workshops and conversations for Furtherfields’ latest project in Felixstowe, Reimagine This Coastal Town. This correspondence followed a 2-day workshop that took place in December 2025 at Hamilton MAS with artists and young visionaries from Felixstowe and East Anglia, exploring crossovers in art and ecology, and possible futures of the town. Creative Participants: Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield) and Elly Clarke (co-curators and hosts); Lora Aziz Josh Hall (Possible Worlds) and Simon Read. Young Visionaries: Lily Hammond, Courtney Hessey and Stan Willey.
Elly: Monday 5th January, 2026
It’s not yet been a month since our two-day co-creation workshop in December, but it already feels so long ago. Christmas happened. Betwixmas happened. And the New Year happened. And then the Venuzeulan president was kidnapped in an extraordinary Stranger Things-style military ambush led by the US president, and the world is waiting for the next rupture [which turned out to be the violently suppressed uprising in Iran.] This is the world we live in, breathe in, are trying to survive in, trying to remain calm in, keep healthy in, care in, look after our bodies and the bodies of others and other species in. But it is also the world we are resilient in. The world we are creating in, imagining in, dreaming in, loving in and living in. The unignorable multiple troubles of our current era – ecological, political, economic, and technological – mean that more and more people are talking about the things that are not working… And these, I believe, are the cracks where (to reference Leonard Cohen) the light can get in. Discussion about the desire for change is entering more and more conversations – and that is a good thing.
For me, and I think for the others, the workshop provided a moment of pause, of calm, of happy being together-ness with people I knew, and people I didn’t. We intentionally structured the workshop only loosely, to give space and time to acknowledge the many ills of our times, but also, importantly, to feel what we actually are feeling in this context. The result was the embodied, palpable sense that so long as we keep meeting and being together over a selection of teas, oranges, and Stan’s delish homemade curry, and forget about the 1-hour meeting format with strictly prescribed lists of actions, we might just be ok.
Thinking together, and sharing collective experiences with people aged in their 20s to 70s made time expand in a way that most templates of organisation today do not allow. Through Simon, we were taken to 1980s Thatcher’s London with the closing down of art spaces. As he was talking I thought of Derek Jarman’s films from that period, and earlier – [for example, Studio Bankside, 1971, which shows the gritty post-industrial site of what is now Tate Modern, occupied by queer punks gleefully cavorting around burning barrels] – even though I don’t think he was part of that scene. Meanwhile, Courtney, who has lived in Felixstowe all her life, speaks for the people she meets. She asks, “but when are we actually going to do these things? What is the action?”
Workshop lunch – Reimagine This Coastal Town Co-creation workshop in Felixstowe, December 2025
Ruth: Thursday 8th January
Yes Elly, I was struck too, by Courtney’s sense of urgency for action.
I’ve just got back from the Listening to the Land Day, a symposium dedicated to artistic and scientific animist practices (as part of the Oxford Real Farming Conference for agroecology and food sovereignty). There, I was reminded that imagination is the place where reality starts for us, and from where we create the blueprint for our actions. When we discuss our hopes and desires with others, we seed patterns in the imaginal realm.
During our workshop at Hamilton MAS, we seeded patterns for future conversations, imaginings, and action not only with other townspeople but also the more-than-human life in the town and its surroundings.
Everyone made crucial contributions to the development of our upcoming public art commission in Felixstowe. The ideas flowed and grew between us as we discussed the proposal by one of our younger LARP participants last spring called Rewilding the Ruins. This proposal also inspired and enthused visitors to our exhibition last summer. The act of ceding sites abandoned by humans to other creatures of the town honours human heritage while recognising the biodiverse communities that emerge and thrive there. Lora suggested the term “renaturing” rather than “rewilding,” as we are prioritising biodiversity in relatively small sites rather than introducing apex predators to large areas of land.
Hopefully, the artwork that Lily goes on to make will not only inspire everyone in the town to get involved in our creative activities and other practical environmental actions, but also support a conversation about how everyone can make simple but important nature-connections – just by turning curious attention to the other lives that thrive in these places.
Life loves to be appreciated! Noticing and appreciation are the first steps to caring.
There was a moment in the workshop where I heard you talk about the importance of love. We were talking about political developments down the English East coast and the wider Earth crisis, and how to “stay with the troubles”.
You asked, “How can we care for anything if we don’t first love it?”
This really struck me because after years of working with critical practice in the artworld I was shocked to realise how rare it is to hear someone talk about love. And when the embers of love fade, the world becomes arid, and our eyes and hearts dull.
Noticing and appreciating the brambles that provide food and shelter for insects and birds around the old military placements of Landguard, and the peacock butterflies that overwinter there, and loving the magical foxes that make their homes in the quiet spaces of abandoned railway stations might be the most important thing anyone can do.
There’s already such a spirited mutualism here in places like Cuppa, our community cafe, and community growing project Edible Felixstowe. And plans are afoot for other inspiring projects to create new pathways for young people to make this town their own in imaginative and creative ways. By generating loving attention and care for other beings, we aim to create the conditions necessary to support these emerging plans for coordinated, human and more-than-human action in the town.
And so the things that remain with me from that day are: Josh’s rage for the cruelty of the politics on the streets of Great Yarmouth and the creative and loving social engine, he and his partner Gabby have established to counter that cruelty, with good food served at a mutual aid cafe (visit the Bakehouse) and bitingly funny poster campaigns; the light in Lora’s eyes, she talked about clambering through barbed wire and brambles to the source of her beloved local river, and the importance of regular encounters with that spring to her spirit. Also, the joy of introducing a group of school children to plum trees, having them pick and taste them for the first time; Lily’s calm love of beauty, pattern and colour in the lives of other beings; Stan’s quick, imaginative, and inspiring transformation of proposals into plans he would like to realise for a local permaculture, growing, and anarchist zine production project. Simon’s slow (years-long) conversations with the estuary are based on a deep ecological knowledge and relationship gained over decades. All contrasting with, and complemented by, Courtney’s sense of urgency.
I realise there is something we can do right now – all of us – and that is to greet the birds as friends every morning. Get to know individuals, observe their ways, learn what they do and what they like, and where they live. We can do that already – all of us – without any additional money, resources, knowledge, plans – and we will probably find ourselves more connected and alive.
Billboards in Felixstowe – with artists Elly Clarke, Simon Read, Josh Hall, Lora Aziz, Ruth Catlow, with Nick the dog.
Elly: Saturday 20th Jan
Hi Ruth,
This sentence: imagination is the place where reality starts for us, and from there we create the blueprint for our actions. is where I want to start… Because I love the poetry of the fact that it was at a Real Farming Conference that you were reminded of imagination being a blueprint for everything. Because to nurture growth – of plants, of ideas, and of communities of all species – requires a balance of care and knowledge, but is also subject to many factors beyond anybody’s control: the weather, climate, labour, health and, increasingly, politics. In the case of Yarmouth, where Josh and his project are literally feeding love to the local community through food, space and shelter, love meets and has to (try to) negotiate with [the largely unloving views of] the right-wing whose flag/ging erections repeatedly signpost their presence. Whilst Felixstowe is not currently suffering this degree of extremism, it would be remiss of us, and irresponsible, not to acknowledge that this is part of the wider context (and climate) our project is landing in.
Your descriptions of Lora’s joy at the climbing over barbed wire to her beloved spring, (and the video of her dipping her child’s feet into it); Stan’s zines and Simon’s slow, ongoing encounters with life (and lives) of the estuary – and Courtney’s urgency, alongside the spirit of mutualism you highlight – are all fuelled by love. As I said in the workshop, I do think that love never gets enough acknowledgement or space when discussing art and nature, and the climate crisis. Love is about noticing – as you say, the brambles, the birds, others around you. It is about at/tending to what is around us. Love naturally inspires and invokes interest and curiosity, which is crucial to the desire and labour of building a better world. So perhaps if Love got more of a look in, if s/he could be part of our group with a name badge pinned to hir chest, we could ensure s/he was involved in all aspects of planning and dreaming, which could offer some important signposting when we need it….
And Lily, when delivering the final edits to her incredible artwork these past days, spoke passionately about how the work was created out of ‘so much love’ – which is evident and palpable. So love is in the work we are doing here. The mentor species are wearing it. The colours are showing it. The fox’s steady gaze holds it. The ruins of Felixstowe are receiving it.
Lunch with Bryony Graham, Director of Hamilton MAS, with Ruth Catlow, Simon Read, Stan Willey, Josh Hall and Lora Aziz.
Ruth: Wednesday 31 January
Yes, Elly, yes!
And to close, I want to reflect on a familiar criticism: that directing our imaginative attention toward interspecies thriving somehow diminishes or distracts from the urgent political struggles of humans across the globe. As if care were a choice, and as if we must decide between loving other people and loving other beings on this planet.
After six or seven years of working with creative practices for interspecies justice, I have learned the opposite. When we come to understand our well-being as bound up with that of other species, we gain sharper insight into the many dimensions and mechanisms of oppression that operate within human societies as well. And we discover that love is not a zero-sum game – not a finite resource. Loving other beings opens new ways of loving, new imaginaries for care and new capacities for justice.
Through public Live Action Role-Play (LARP), workshops, exhibitions, meetups, and conversations, you are invited to explore new ways of seeing, being, and belonging in coastal communities. Dive into a year of activities – playful encounters, fun gatherings, creative connections, community talent-and-passion-sharing, artistic opportunities, and engaging conversations on the issues that matter.
Everyone is welcome. Our events are free, friendly, and designed so anyone – whatever your background or experience – can take part comfortably.
Since May 2024, Furtherfield has been hosting playful encounters to explore what really matters to the community. Looking back over 150 years of change and dreaming of new possibilities for all (people and all living beings) – creating proposals for a Felixstowe that is cared for, celebrated, and thriving.
Reimagine This Coastal Town builds on this year of playful activities and builds on the priorities of the local people who joined us:
These priorities are not fixed but will adapt to the things we discover as the programme unfolds.
Reimagine This Coastal Town is an 18 month project running from April 2025 to September 2026. It includes a programme of events, workshops, an exhibition, and a series of time-travelling events in a form of immersive fiction called Live Action Role Play (LARP). The programme is co-produced for all, by young adults (18-30) and eight creative practitioners from the region. Together these lead to new community-led visions for the future of the town.
We want to
🌿 Care for Felixstowe – spark a town-wide conversation about what it means for Felixstowe to be cared for, celebrated, and thriving.
👥 Connect Generations Through Change – bring together people of all ages and backgrounds to share real stories of courage, creativity, nature-connection and resilience.
✨Celebrate Local Creativity – work and dream better together. Celebrate the imagination, talent, and cooperation that make Felixstowe unique.
🐚 Reconnect with Nature – strengthen our bonds with the land, sea, and all living beings – treating other beings as co-creators in a thriving community.
🌞 Imagine the Futures We Want – spark curiosity and pride in Felixstowe’s possible futures. Change is coming – what do we want to sustain?
The LARP events were co-devised by Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield) and Ann Light (University of Sussex), with Mimi Doncaster, Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Thanks to Cuppa for hosting the community conversation that inspired and informed our work, and to Hamilton MAS for hosting our co-creation workshops and our exhibition. Elly Clarke will be co-curating the 2026 program and the Felixstowe Youth Co-Production Team includes Courtney Hessey (26) and Stanley Willey (25) who are offering guidance on youth empowerment and creating and facilitating a wider range of methods for outreach. Thanks to the Felixstowe Community Nature Reserve & Citizen Science Group as well as the team from Landguard Nature Reserve for their knowledge and expertise on the local wildlife and biodiversity. Finally a big thank you to the hundreds of people (so far) who have joined us to shape the experience.
Since 1996, Furtherfield has organised for inclusivity and equity in art and technology. Since 2008, we have promoted their use in shaping real social change and positive environmental impact.
In 2024, after extensive research, dialogue, and collaboration with local and regional communities, Furtherfield, part of Arts Council England National Portfolio of Organisations, relocated from London’s Finsbury Park to Felixstowe, East Suffolk, with a renewed place-based mission.
We believe that imagining the possible futures of the places we care about is the first step toward creating the ones we want. And that the long-term wellbeing of ALL beings is the business of us all.
A proven way of generating visionary new worlds, we are using LARP (Live Action Role Play), a form of game where participants play characters who interact to pursue goals within a fictional setting. This kind of immersive fiction and role-play inspires community-led environmental and social transformation in Felixstowe, enabling residents to collectively reimagine its future in the context of social and environmental change, with a particular focus on youth empowerment and reaching those communities in the town that might not always feel that arts are for them.
This project is realised in partnership with The University of Sussex, Level Two Youth Projects, Hamilton MAS, and the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group and with support from Arts Council England and the Suffolk Cultural Fund.
An immersive experience to help small coastal settlements adjust to likely futures in the most positive way
With a global lack of leadership on environmental issues, many people feel they are not ready for what the future may bring and are seeking means to come together to face approaching uncertainties. They might feel that the big issues of our time are not their business, but want to influence what happens round them.
This Coastal Town is a 2-hour live action role play (larp) workshop devised by Ruth Catlow and Ann Light to help address this gap between the global and the things we can (and would be prepared to) do in coastal towns we care about: to encourage people in a neighbourhood to find each other and devise ways of managing issues that stem from their varied social and ecological interests and concerns.
Larps are events designed to spark imagination and action through collaboration. Role play, improvisation and critical thinking collide, enabling people to explore the “What ifs” about any situation, from the probable to the very unusual, and “rehearse” the outcomes they would like to see.
To learn more watch this short film by Hydar Dewachi, 2024. (10 minutes)
Initial success has led to a broader ambition: to take the techniques devised and offer them for other contexts, as well as transforming early imaginings into both real-world and fictional visions of thriving eco-social communities in Felixstowe.
These events are devised as part of an ongoing art-action-research loop that builds on years of collaboration between Ann Light and Ruth Catlow, and creative practice and research inspired by communities of experimental artists and designers working with eco-social change. These are some of the papers that study and theorise how and why this experience works.
We gathered feedback as part of developing the larp, but also encouraged people to take time at the end of each session to reflect on what was learnt and what townsfolk might do (or do differently) in considering their futures and that of those around them and other living things. We give a few of the many comments we received:
It’s important to use our imaginations to create the futures we want
“It just reminds us that we have to bring our creative imaginations to the future that we want. – It’s playful, it’s going to make a lot of people think, it’s going to surprise a lot of people” – Adrian
This experience made it more fun and less worrying to exploring the future
“It brings up serious issues while you are allowed to have a bit of fun with them. But also in a way allowing you to disassociate so your prime self doesn’t have to worry about them, because it’s this future self” – Mark
It’s important to respect ideas and feelings of young people in this town
“It’s great to involve younger people who don’t always get involved in these conversations because we feel a bit disenfranchised, and we feel a little bit pushed out by the older generation sometimes. In Felixstowe, it seems to be an older population…we are trying to get a place for younger people to be collectively together and work with you guys so we can make something we are ALL proud of. It’s just great to have a platform to be able to share ideas and feelings about Felixstowe and have them listened to and respected by everybody.” – Courtney
At heart, this is a live action role-play (larp) exercise giving the chance for people to leap into the future of their area, speak as different generations and work successfully on issues that concern them. By setting the action in the future, participants reflect on how some of the challenges they predict can be tackled and even solved. Themes emerge through groups of townsfolk meeting together in conversation. This experience has been developed to raise difficult issues supportively and in such a way that people feel stronger and more connected, rather than anxious or powerless. It was devised as “hyperlocal eco-social” place-making: that is to say, people living in the same neighbourhood are understood to share some social and ecological concerns related to their environment and need something around which to gather and move from individual worry to co-created action.
It is also designed to help people recognise how local systems are interdependent, relying on the plants, animals, institutions and places that make up the area, just as the major global systems, such as weather, climate and geography, work together to affect what happens. This understanding is part of supporting readiness, because changes in these relationships are part of what we are all experiencing and have to deal with.
This Coastal Town was created by Ruth Catlow and director of arts organisation Furtherfield, which has been establishing itself in Felixstowe, a town of about 24,000 people, and Ann Light, an academic at the University of Sussex wanting to learn how creative participatory and immersive practices can support people in a locality to be ready for the increasingly uncertain futures ahead. Devised in 3 stages, Ann and Ruth first invited Felixstowe residents and visitors to chat about the futures they wanted in May 2024. In July 2024 they shared what they discovered with three creative practitioners from the region: Mimi Doncaster and Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Together they created an immersive future fiction that formed the basis of This Coastal Town, a public “time-travelling” event to work on the future together. This larp was first held in Felixstowe in September 2024, then further developed with local youth empowerment consultants Courtney Hessey and Lauren Bruen, for a second Felixstowe iteration in Spring 2025. Ann and Ruth worked on a version that could travel, and events were also held in May 2025, in partnership with First Light Festival’s Battery of Ideas in Lowestoft and Hospitable Environments in Newhaven. These events have supported preparation for the creation of the playbook.
This Coastal Town is made possible by partnership with The University of Sussex, and is part of Reimagine This Coastal Town supported by Level Two Youth Projects, Hamilton MAS, and the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group and with support from Arts Council England and the Suffolk Cultural Fund and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, grant no AH/Y003330/1.
Meet at Hamilton MAS
Bent Hill Felixstowe IP11 7DG
11:30am – 12:30pm Sunday, 17 August
Book your free place here.
The Interspecies Meditation is a guided ritual designed help people develop empathy with non-human life forms through imaginative role-play and deep listening. It provides participants with a fun experience of possible new relations. Originally created as part of The Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025, a collaborative fiction project about interspecies democracy, this meditation has since traveled the world, evolving with each new place it visits.
Now arriving on the lively coast of Felixstowe, this event offers a moment of reflection, connection, and playful transformation.
Whether you’re an artist, activist, beach-walker, or just curious, this event offers a powerful, imaginative way to reconnect with your surroundings—and with the lives that share it.
Presented by Hamilton MAS, this event is part of a larger interactive exhibition, From the City to the Coast tracing Furtherfield’s journey from London’s Finsbury Park to Felixstowe’s coast—celebrating art, community, and ecological futures.
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This exhibition is part of Reimagine This Coastal Town, a Furtherfield project realised in partnership with The University of Sussex, Level Two Youth Projects, Hamilton MAS, and the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group and with support from Arts Council England and the Suffolk Cultural Fund.
🔗Learn more about the exhibition
Contact info@furtherfield.org
Image: The Interspecies Meditation, film still from the Interspecies Festival of Finsbury Park 2023, by Tracy Kiryango
Hamilton MAS, Bent Hill, Felixstowe, IP11 7DG
OPENING PARTY: Friday 1 August, 6–8pm
Join us for a warm and welcoming celebration at Hamilton MAS with refreshments, conversations, and a chance to get hands-on with ideas for the town’s future.
EXHIBITION OPEN DAILY: 2–17 August, 11am–4pm and by appointment
EVENTS
This summer, Furtherfield invites Felixstowe communities, supporters, and friends, old and new, to From the City to the Coast, a playful and interactive exhibition that celebrates a new chapter for this radical arts group.
After nearly 30 years in Haringey, North London, Furtherfield, an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, has relocated to Felixstowe. Now rooted in Felixstowe, Furtherfield is working with community partners and people across the town to co-create adventurous, imaginative responses to the environmental and social challenges of our time.
From the City to the Coast tells the story of that move, and of a growing network of local people – young adults, artists, and community partners – coming together to Reimagine This Coastal Town. The exhibition showcases visionary work from this process, including:
The Interspecies Festival, Part of The Treaty of Finsbury Park by Furtherfield (2020-25)
AFTER 30 YEARS IN LONDON FURTHERFIELD IS STARTING A NEW CHAPTER IN FELIXSTOWE
This exhibition marks the start of the next phase of the project: an 18 month-long creative programme culminating in a Live Action Role Play (LARP) where art, community, and ecology meet. This will take place in September 2026, co-designed with young adults and regional artists.
LARPing is a powerful form of immersive storytelling where participants play characters and explore shared alternate realities through play. It’s a proven way to gain insights into the more-than-human world, to test ideas, and spark new ways of thinking, feeling and relating to each other – especially in times of uncertainty.
It’s up to us to imagine, together, the possible futures of the places we love.
Everyone is welcome. Come and get involved.
Contact info@furtherfield.org
MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT
Funded by Arts Council England, the Suffolk Culture Fund, and Sussex University, and developed in collaboration with The University of Sussex, Level Two Youth Projects, Hamilton MAS, and the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group and local communities, Reimagine This Coastal Town explores how places like Felixstowe can creatively respond to environmental change, while building inclusive spaces for connection, care, and imagination.
Furtherfield is the UK’s longest-running centre for art and technology. For over 25 years, through nearly 70 exhibitions, and over 125 national/international partnerships, we have developed alternative systems of co-creation and co-organisation across digital and physical networks.
We envision a world where diverse communities act together creatively to imagine and build more equitable and resilient alternatives together.
Imagining the possible futures of the places we care about is the first step to forging the futures we want. In 2024, following extensive research, dialogue, and collaboration with local and regional communities, Furtherfield relocated from London’s Finsbury Park to Felixstowe, East Suffolk. As an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, Furtherfield is expanding its mission to organise for place-based community-led imagination, inclusivity, and equity in art and technology, advocating for their use in shaping positive eco-social change.
We are therefore looking to recruit advisory board members who share our vision, with one or more of the following areas of expertise:
We are keen to hear from anyone who feels they can offer these skills and/or can open up valuable connections to community groups, partners and cultural networks. At Furtherfield we want our board to reflect both existing and new communities in the Felixstowe Peninsula. We especially welcome individuals aged 18-30, those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and those with Black, Asian, or Global Ethnic Majority heritage. Your voice can help shape the cultural and social landscape here.
For details about the role and application process download Advisory Board Recruitment Pack | Large Text Version.
Application deadline: Open
Prospective applicants are welcome to contact the Artistic Director for an informal conversation. Please make contact first by email to Ale, the Administrator, to arrange a telephone call – info@furtherfield.org
Working with local and international partners we are creating a vibrant hub for eco-social cultural engagement in Felixstowe.
Through creative labs, youth co-production, exhibitions, and networking events, and building empathy through Live Action Role-Play (LARP), we inspire collective environmental and social transformation—helping communities imagine and forge the futures they want.
This Coastal Town Reimagined – 200 Years of Change. Watch a video on our arts-research work exploring community hopes for Felixstowe and the region.
With a rich history of co-creation and open tools, Furtherfield continues to foster peer-to-peer artistic collaboration. Our legacy programme ensures access to our archives, publications, and debates, preserving 30 years of pioneering work for artists, researchers, and future generations.
For 30 years, Furtherfield has pioneered the critical imagination of art, technology, and networked cultures. In this time dominant global actors have created and imposed systems that support contemporary life for some at the same time as poisoning our planetary-wide environment and societies at an escalating rate. There is an urgent need to adopt the principles of less, again and differently, in a fair and equitable way. Seeking to cause less harm. Acting again on the knowledge that has been available (if ignored or downplayed) for decades. Acting differently in response to emerging knowledge, ways of knowing, being and feeling. Understanding our work in this way, how it exists within a living system, is one way of accepting how we are all material beings situated within vast chains of consequence, enmeshed within larger ones. This requires a different standard of responsibilities, a way to be responsive and accountable in a changing world working to address the uneven impacts on people, creatures, and places that may be geographically remote from us, but which nevertheless bear the cost of our actions.
In 2025 we shift the main focus of our work from our long-standing gallery in Finsbury Park, North London to a mid-sized town on Suffolk’s East coast. With a population of 24,000, Felixstowe town is our new home, where we will join existing communities, cultural partners, ecosystems, and species. This transition is a modal shift for the organisation and means we are doing things differently. In Felixstowe, we begin a new journey of becoming an embedded and community-needs-led art organisation focused on art, technology, and eco-social change. Eco-social change is systemic transformation, integrating social justice and ecology— to create fairer, more resilient futures for all.
With this move we commit to being in relation to communities, contexts, and biodiverse regions that are entirely new to us. In creating this policy we hope not only to “move to” but to “move with” our new location, developing different relationships with ourselves, each other, and the land, at the same time composting and letting go of existing practices and connections that harm. This environmental action plan therefore refers to listening, learning, flexibility, agility, stamina, synchronisation, and interpersonal mobility that will be required.
Our first environment action is to sign up to Culture Declares Emergency. Our second has been to develop an environmental policy for the next three years. Our third will be to make two climate pledges by the end of year one.
“We declare that the Earth’s life-supporting systems are in collapse, threatening biodiversity and human societies everywhere.
Alive to the beauty of our planet, we unite to challenge the dominant global power structures that fail to protect us as they disregard scientific consensus, silence marginalised voices and perpetuate ecocide.
As Declarers, we take action to harness the power of arts and culture to express heartfelt truths and address deep-rooted injustices, to care for and create adaptive, resilient and joyful communities, and to influence the urgent and necessary transformation of harmful global systems.”
On creating this policy, we :
In this new phase, we are committed to
In September 2024, people of all ages—residents, workers, visitors, holidaymakers, and passionate fans of Felixstowe in East Suffolk—came together to time-travel into the future of this coastal town with their friends and neighbours.
This small-scale event to explore community needs and aspirations was a key step in shaping Furtherfield’s future in the town, as we plan our relocation from London to Felistowe. Film-maker Hydar Dwatchi created a film about the event.
It’s important to use our imaginations to create the futures we want
“It just reminds us that we have to bring our creative imaginations to the future that we want. – It’s playful, it’s going to make a lot of people think, it’s going to surprise a lot of people” – Adrian
This experience made it more fun and less worrying to exploring the future
“It brings up serious issues while you are allowed to have a bit of fun with them. But also in a way allowing you to disassociate so your prime self doesn’t have to worry about them, because it’s this future self” – Mark
It’s important to respect ideas and feelings of young people in this town
“It’s great to involve younger people who don’t always get involved in these conversations because we feel a bit disenfranchised, and we feel a little bit pushed out by the older generation sometimes. In Felixstowe, it seems to be an older population…we are trying to get a place for younger people to be collectively together and work with you guys so we can make something we are ALL proud of. It’s just great to have a platform to be able to share ideas and feelings about Felixstowe and have them listened to and respected by everybody.” – Courtney
🚢The port was founded in 1875. Looking back 150 years, we can see the changes it made in this town.
During this event we asked ourselves how, in 50 years, we will we look back on this time with all the changes we know are coming, including new developments and shifts in climate?
🌞Felixstowe is a place that radiates healthful living and wellbeing. The land and sea support livelihoods, leisure and blooming biodiversity. The port, the largest in England, provides crucial national infrastructure and contributes to a healthy local economy. In the summer holidaymakers flock here.
🌬️But things are always changing here and in the wider world. In May, Furtherfield invited local residents to chat about the futures we want. In July, we shared what we discovered with three creative practitioners from the region: Mimi Doncaster and Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Together we created an immersive future fiction that formed the basis of a public event to work on the future together!
⏰We created a timeline of Felixstowe since the port was founded in 1875 and added events of historic or personal significance.
✨Then we chose our time-travelling characters. Starting as a young person, or an elder we decided what our character cares about?
We travelled all the way to 2075, the year the Multispecies Port of Felixstowe opens.
This event was co-devised by Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield), Mimi Doncaster, Ann Light (University of Sussex), Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Thanks to Hamilton MAS for hosting the co-creation workshop and to Cuppa for hosting the community conversation that inspired and informed our work. Thanks to Courtney Hessey for guidance on youth empowerment
In an 18 month project Reimagine This Coastal Town in Felixstowe over Summer 2025 and 2026 we are going to host a programme of events, workshops, and an exhibition, culminating in an eco-social Live Action Role Play (LARP), co-produced by 18+ young adults and eight creative practitioners from the region.
A proven way of generating visionary new worlds, we aim to inspire community-led environmental and social transformation in Felixstowe, enabling residents to collectively reimagine its future in the context of eco-social change, with a particular focus on youth empowerment and reaching marginalised communities in the town.
This project will be realised in partnership with The University of Sussex, Level Two Youth Projects, Hamilton MAS, and the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group and with support from Arts Council England and the Suffolk Cultural Fund.
Welcome to This Coastal Town Reimagined: 200 Years Of Change!
For adults of all ages. If you are a resident, worker, regular visitor, or if you just love Felixstowe, this is for you! Join us for a fun morning or afternoon with your friends and neighbours, time-travelling into the future of this coastal town.
FREE – but booking is essential as places are limited
A chance to explore 200 years of change in Felixstowe!
🚢The port was founded in 1875. Looking back 150 years, we can see the changes it made in this town. In 50 years, how will we look back on this time with all the changes we know are coming, including new developments and shifts in climate?
🌞Felixstowe is a place that radiates healthful living and wellbeing. The land and sea support livelihoods, leisure and blooming biodiversity. The port, the largest in England, provides crucial national infrastructure and contributes to a healthy local economy. In the summer holidaymakers flock here.
🌬️But things are always changing here and in the wider world. In May, we invited local residents to chat about the futures we want. In July, we shared what we discovered with three creative practitioners from the region: Mimi Doncaster and Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Together we created an immersive future fiction. That is the basis of the event we are inviting you to here. Come and work on the future together! ⏳
⏰We start with a timeline of Felixstowe since the port was founded in 1875 and an invitation to add events of historic or personal significance.
Then we choose our time-travelling characters. Will you start as a young person, or an elder? What does your character care about? ✨
We will travel all the way to 2075, the year the Multispecies Port of Felixstowe opens.
This event is hosted by The Alex Brasserie, with views of the sea and a cafe bar where you can buy any refreshments around the event. Please tell us about any access needs you may have.
Participants need no prior knowledge or experience to join this event. However, if you are unsure about sustainable futures and are someone who likes to come prepared, we think these links offer a good starting point: What is climate change? A really simple guide, from the BBC, and Sustainable Development Goals from the UN.
Ruth Catlow is co-founder and director of Furtherfield and an artist and organiser interested in how different creative processes can unleash community imaginations to open up new more mutualistic futures in places.
Prof Ann Light is a researcher studying to what extent people can be transformed by encounters with the arts.
Please note that the event is being included in a research project on the effect of immersive experiences. A researcher will be there to observe the event. Although the researcher will not be observing individuals, there is an opportunity on the day for you to decide if you wish to be part of the research or not. If you would like to know more about the research project before the event, please email Professor Ann Light at the University of Sussex (ann.light@sussex.ac.uk) and she will send you an information sheet.
This event has been co-devised by Ruth Catlow, Mimi Doncaster, Ann Light, Frazer Merrick, and Kirsty Tallent. Thanks to Hamilton MAS for hosting the co-creation workshop and to Cuppa for hosting the community conversation that inspired and informed our work.
🙋Please contact Ruth by email ruth.catlow@furtherfield.org if you have any questions, or come early to talk to us.
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