What is it?
The Ideas Bank is a collaboration between Jonathan Eldridge and Louise Rennie. Our aim is to translate ideas into action by offering people practical advice, connections and opportunities. Think of a Citizens Advice Bureau for creative, community-focused ideas.
We want to support ideas that will help communities to thrive. Maybe you’ve got an idea for a campaign or a research project, a creative workshop or business. If you’ve any ideas in your head you want to test out, we can help you.
We bring together experience in theatrical entertainment, audience engagement, place-based research, campaigning and writing.
A brief explainer
The Ideas Bank is not a new concept, and has been trialled in various ways by companies, community organisations, and global networks. It has been used to stimulate and encourage innovative ideas that can offer solutions to problems, improve the performance and communication of an organisation, or generate new ways of thinking about a particular issue.
Our version
We want people to be able to share their ideas in a relaxed and fun setting. That’s why we’re running The Ideas Bank in a game format, taking participants through several stages – think of a board game – and breaking down the process so people can see where they’re going and imagine what they need to do to get there.
We’re currently collating a set of organisations and individuals in Bath who would be willing to support ideas that come out of the day.
Are you based in Bath? Do you work for an organisation and want to support community-focused projects? If so, get in touch with us to see how we can work together. We’re especially keen to hear from organisations working closely with the community in and around Twerton.
The research angle
Another of our aims is to connect community members with researchers at Bath Spa to work on projects together. We’re working closely with the university research team to identify ways to connect people up. Are you a researcher at Bath Spa wanting to working closely with the local community? Please email Ideasbank22@gmail.com.
For more information on Bath Spa’s Knowledge Exchange Dialogues programme, please click here.
Backstory
Most ideas hit a few obstacles along the way, and whenever you’re doing something new you’re bound to feel like you’re failing. We originally prototyped The Ideas Bank at the EMERGE Showcase week in 2021. We were experimenting and learning, but with other commitments we didn’t have the time or resources to carry things on.
Now, with funding from Bath Spa through the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) Impact Accelerator Accounts we are running it again at Creative Twerton on February 25th. If you are interested in attending please come along. Need more info before getting involved? Email Ideasbank22@gmail.com.
We held an R&D event to test the ideas we’d developed on the 27th of January at The Studio, Palace Yard Mews. This was a great opportunity for us and displayed the importance giving people the time and space to share their ideas in an accessible format.