The Bootle Festival of Ideas, backed by Sefton Council, gave residents a chance to develop ideas and win a share of a starter-grant.
Over the course of six events, 161 people attended the Bootle Festival of Ideas. 74 of them online and 87 in-person. Through the festival 98 ideas were submitted on how to build Bootle back better. From this, eight promising ideas, that will have a local impact, have emerged and are set to receive a starter-grant to get things going.
The eight ideas are: Adventure Boxes, Meda Brewing, Mosaic Motivation, Made In Bootle, Bee’s Bench, Bootle Zine Library, A helping Hand, and A Carnival Community.
Each finalist was announced at the online Celebration Event, having been supported by mentors to produce a poster which gives an elevator pitch of what the idea is, and what else they might need to make it happen.
Now each idea will receive a portion of the starter-grant pot, as well as on-going support from Make CIC, Kindred and Sefton Council to develop their ideas further and bring them into reality.
Bernadette Colligan, who idea Bee’s Bench is receiving a starter-grant, said:
“The festival gave us space to discuss ideas, collaborate and network with one another and imagine how our ideas could make a difference in Bootle. It showed the importance of having community at the heart of every idea and I am so excited to chat to everyone about making Bootle a more accessible and age friendly place through my bench project”
Lucille Swith, had the idea to start Bootle Zine Library, said:
“In the current climate where artists and creators are already struggling and with constant cuts to public arts programmes, I wasn’t too optimistic about setting up a project as ambitious as a library. Libraries are one of the few public spaces left that are free to access and are not centred around alcohol. They are used as resources by everybody, so starting this project will hopefully emphasise the importance of keeping libraries within the public realm, whilst making way for smaller publishers and creatives to have their work seen.”
