At LeftCoast, the question is simple but powerful: what would change if art became foundational to how people live in and shape their town? Since 2013, the Blackpool-based arts organisation has worked alongside residents to challenge assumptions about what people “from a town like Blackpool” should expect or deserve. Through co-creation and long-term collaboration, LeftCoast uses creativity to celebrate local knowledge, amplify lived experience and reframe how communities see themselves and their surroundings. Led by Artistic Director Laura Jamieson, LeftCoast’s work is rooted in a belief that art can influence not only culture, but wellbeing, confidence and civic identity. Its vision is to co-create artworks and projects that elevate local voices, encourage exploration and play, and make a tangible difference both personally and collectively. Its mission is clear: to be socially engaged, socially useful and artistically ambitious.
As one of 31 Creative People and Places programmes funded by Arts Council England, LeftCoast has built a reputation for deeply embedded, neighbourhood-based work. It is steered by partners including Blackpool Coastal Housing, Blackpool Council, local cultural organisations, participant volunteers and grassroots groups. Alongside national and international artists, the organisation collaborates with local creatives whose insight and experience are intrinsic to the communities involved.
Over time, LeftCoast’s programme has evolved. Its current phase, From Left to Rights, marks a shift from a strictly place-based approach to a rights-based artistic framework. The programme asks a bold question: how would Blackpool change if every resident had the right to grow, the right to wonder and wander, the right to beauty, and the right to space? These four creative rights form the backbone of the organisation’s work. The Right to Grow explores food, land, ritual and shared knowledge. The Right to Wonder and Wander encourages curiosity, imagination and exploration. The Right to Beauty challenges deficit narratives and insists that aesthetic value and pride belong everywhere. The Right to Space focuses on access to shared environments and the ability to shape them. Together, these principles position art as a practical tool for connection, agency and civic imagination in a town facing sustained social, economic and environmental pressures.
The programme is built on long-term relationships and responsive practice. Teams go into neighbourhoods, speak directly with residents and allow activity to emerge from conversation and collaboration. Everyday experiences, material knowledge, storytelling and myth-making are central. Rather than focusing on what Blackpool lacks, LeftCoast emphasises abundance – understood not as accumulation, but as care, sharing, creativity and appreciation of what already exists. Projects have ranged from allotment performances such as Nathan Parker’s The Land Beneath Our Feet, which later travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to hands-on community workshops, street-based interventions and collaborative public artworks. Images from past projects capture sunlit gatherings, improvised stages, flower-crown-making sessions and young participants proudly sharing space and creativity.
Looking ahead, LeftCoast intends to deepen its work at the intersection of art, social justice, health and wellbeing, and skills development. It is committed to contributing creatively to Blackpool’s climate action ambitions and to exploring new art forms and technologies yet to emerge. In April 2022, the organisation became a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England, strengthening its core funding alongside support from the National Lottery Community Fund and local partners.
Through curiosity, collaboration and care, LeftCoast continues to ask what becomes possible when communities are supported to flourish, explore and shape their own environments. In doing so, it is helping to redefine how Blackpool sees itself – not through limitation, but through rights, imagination and collective creativity.
