What is a Squilometre?​

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Placing a square grid down to mindfully know a defined area, is a technique borrowed from archaeological survey.  The archaeologist will place a metre square down and choose that area to draw, photograph and survey.  A Squilometre does that on a larger scale (a square kilometre) - and helps provide positive links between the people of that place.



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• A Squilometre allows a community to nominate any street or feature in their place for a creative project.  Everyone then gets a chance to vote for the nominations.  The topic with the most votes is the one that moves forward next.  At the moment we're finding we can run around one or two a year but if you'd like to move your nomination forward more quickly, why not drive it yourself!   We can provide resources and support to show you how.

 

• A Squilometre operates in Gift.  No charge should be made to view its events, exhibitions or performance.  Instead people should be asked to make a Gift donation that will Pay it Forward so that the next project can happen.  In that way, people can see and trust that their Gift goes around and around inside their very own Squilometre bringing neighbours together and people out of their homes to share and celebrate all the things that make their place special.  This is how community bonds are strengthened, creating positive social change.​

 

• A Squilometre is a way for artists of all kinds to embrace the communities they live in and care about and for a community to recognise the creativity in its midst, bringing art and beauty back into everyday life.   That way there's no project end.   Working in symbiotic harmony this way, there's no reason why creative activity can't become a permanent feature of life in that community.   

                                                                            

• A Squilometre allows the people in that place to commission their own creative activity.  To be fully involved in it and to make the decisions about how it should be.   Anything goes, from decorative planting, to henna workshops, from star-gazing with poetry to street dance.  They do this in "Pods" of activity - anyone with a love for a topic can form a "Pod" or steering group.    Together they find a new voice.

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We started this adventure within one  Squilometre in Heavitree, Exeter here in the SW of England.  There's an incredibly rich landscape and cultural history here in Heavitree making it a great starting place for such a project but the technique works in any landscape, any landscape at all.

The technique is COMPLETELY TRANSFERABLE and a detailed handbook on how to run your own is available via Creative Commons licence!!  Just contact us to find out more.