Photos: RSA Southampton July event

Last week In Common editor Sally Churchward, alongside Port Welcome Ambassador Yana Shkuropat, were keynote speakers at the latest Royal Society of Arts Southampton event, exploring The Southampton Narrative and Civic Pride.

The event, held at Mettricks Guildhall on Thursday, July 18th, was attended by RSA fellows and more, and was hosted by Stephen Manion and Gemma Pratt from the RSA.

Topics discussed included: how can we embrace a shared, positive narrative for Southampton? And how can we communicate and amplify this narrative to foster a sense of pride in our city and its people?

Yana shared her experiences of recently moving to Southampton, falling in love with it and sharing that love with visitors to the city, via her voluntary role, greeting cruise passengers as they disembark in Southampton. Her passion for the city led into a lively discussion of reasons to be proud of Southampton.

Sally shared how she loves exploring all the wonderful stories the city has to offer, providing a platform to help people who are often underrepresented be heard, creating a space for new and experienced photographers and writers and helping promote community spirit, alongside the amazing team of volunteers here at In Common. This was followed by a discussion around how to better let people know about the organisations, groups, events and independent businesses here in the city.

The RSA was founded 260 years ago. It has over 30,000 ‘fellows’ who share a passion for building a more resilient, regenerative future. Their focus areas are varied, but often involve bringing together diverse stakeholders to address specific challenges and influence policy. Recent high-profile interventions have included ‘The Future Of Work’ and more recently the ‘UK Urban Futures Commission’ which considered the central role of cities in building a sustainable future.

Following this session, the RSA will be authoring a point of view regarding the City’s narrative that will be shared with RSA Fellows, friends and local civic and community partners.