Do you want to engage meaningfully with your local community? Help people reconnect with each other, build confidence to act and make positive change where they live?
Based on the Guild’s Ruskin in Sheffield programme of events and activities that took place in Sheffield in from 2014 to 2019, this book will equip you with insights and tools to embark on your own process, anywhere, of building community around things that matter. Written by Ruth Nutter, producer of the entire Ruskin in Sheffield programme, the book shares a wealth of knowledge based on the learning and experience that came from creating a six year programme that reached more than 25,000 people.
If you’re an arts or heritage practitioner, community development worker or activist, this book offers inspiration and guidance on how to connect communities with their own creativity, their local environment and nature, their local heritage and future - and each other.
The book costs £8.00 from the online bookshop on this website; order it here.
To read the short Impact Summary, based on a rigorous independent evaluation of the Ruskin in Sheffield programme, click here.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:
“This book is nothing short of inspirational. John Ruskin wanted to do something remarkable for Sheffield, and the work described here is remarkable too: and steeped in his values. This wonderfully engaging range of activities energised curiosity, life and joy among communities across Sheffield, and provide a model for all people, everywhere. To coin the most common response from participants: this is just lovely!” - Fiona Reynolds, former Director General of the National Trust and author of The Fight for Beauty
“This is a wonderful record of an inspired and inspiring project. But it is above all a generous and practical how-to guide, in the spirit of John Ruskin. Anyone with the seed of an idea for change should use this book to help bring that idea to life in their own community.” - Andrew Hill, author of Ruskinland: How John Ruskin Shapes Our World and Financial Times columnist
“Paradise is Here is the story of restoration our world needs: extending our imagination, collective courage and knowledge we’re part of a larger whole… Hold its generous practice of building communities around things that matter tight.” - Lucy Neal, author of Playing for Time: Making Arts as if the World Mattered
RUTH NUTTER
Ruth Nutter was producer of the Ruskin in Sheffield programme initiated by the Guild of St George from 2014 to 2019. She is now a freelance Creative Producer for the Guild. Ruth developed her socially engaged practice as a Creative Associate of Encounters, co-designing the transformation of empty shops as community engagement hubs, and running creative nature engagement workshops outdoors. Her early career in theatre marketing and producing nurtured a clear understanding of the galvanising role of the arts in people’s lives. Her work is underpinned by a long-term commitment to social and environmental justice and sustainability. In 2001, with Josette Bushell-Mingo OBE, she co-founded Push, an award-winning company dedicated to promoting the work of black British artists and discussion about race in the arts at mainstream venues in London. She is a contributing author of Playing for Time: Making Art as if the World Mattered by Lucy Neal. She has been a recipient of an Arts Council England bursary and a NESTA Fellowship award.
