Making Conversation is a short radio series that invites 20 people local to Suffolk and Norfolk from across the political spectrum to have open and constructive conversations while participating in a creative activity.

Produced by Creative Lives in partnership with BBC Radio Norfolk and BBC Radio Suffolk, Making Conversation aims is to highlight the community building impact creativity can have in an increasingly polarised landscape. 

The Call-Out

Invitations were sent to our connected community groups including the existing ‘New Beginnings’ network that was built from our previous project. Participants filled in a questionnaire and then paired up with a person whose answers included some differences. It’s worth noting the interest is in differences in experience rather than inflamed opinions.

The Workshops

The recorded workshops took place at local community centres so that participants feel welcome. A variety of art materials were provided along with some examples and tasks to generate a diverse mixed-media exhibition. They were asked to create artworks as a response to the theme of their discussion in order to generate relevant conversation.

The Radio Output

5 episodes, 20 minutes running time. Each episode will contain two different discussions that come under the same theme. The themed episodes will include: Home, Family, Love, Transformation, Body. The first two episodes was launched on air on Tuesday 20 September evening, during Jon Wright's show on BBC Radio Norfolk & BBC Radio Suffolk.

Listen to the recording via BBC Sounds [1h42m into the show]

The Exhibition

The 20 artworks will be displayed at a local venue(s) along with accompanying audio that will be played through headphones.