Addressing regional inequality is one of the fundamental missions of the AHRC Creative Communities programme. It’s fitting, then, that Rochdale – a town synonymous with the Rochdale Pioneers and the birthplace of the Co-operative Movement 180 years ago – is home to one of our signature investments.
Our Community Innovation Practitioner, Ruth Flanagan, a creative health practitioner, artist, and educator, is working in partnership with Rochdale Pioneers Museum. Her research is exploring the use of craft methods in promoting resilience, belonging and cultural engagement in diverse communities across Rochdale, which is Greater Manchester’s Town of Culture 2025. In partnership with Cartwheel Arts, Heritage Crafts UK and Greater Manchester Combined Authority, her project draws on the history and legacy of Manchester’s co-operative movement and its lessons for contemporary society.
Based at the University of Manchester and working with a diverse range of Rochdale residents, Ruth and her collaborators will co-create a new banner that explores how embedding heritage craft practices within communities can strengthen belonging and foster inclusive economics.
Skills in crafting and embroidery will be taught by experts from Heritage Crafts UK, a key partner organisation. Co-creative workshops will open new spaces for dialogue, where lived experiences of migration and local identity can be shared. Once completed, the banner will take pride of place in the Rochdale Pioneers Museum. Participants will also play a vital role in a Citizens’ Jury, alongside policymakers and local authority representatives, ensuring community voices shape future decisions.
Place-based innovation lies at the heart of this work. As part of her role, Ruth will produce a policy paper and is actively engaging with the policy infrastructure of Greater Manchester through the Creative Health Greater Manchester Place Partnership, which seeks to embed creative health sustainably and equitably across the region. This connects directly to the ecosystem of devolved government via the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
Using collaborative, co-created craft methodologies, the project asks a simple but profound question: How do we make connections with one another? Through the past and present of craft traditions, this research embodies the core aims of the Creative Communities programme to enhance belonging, support devolution and break down barriers to opportunity, leading to new place-based innovation and collaboration.
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