John Scanlan is a writer and researcher who has been working in West Cumbria for the last four years with In Certain Places, a curatorial partnership in the University of Central Lancashire. His research seeks to understand the unique place characteristics of West Cumbria and develop an ‘image’ of place that might stand up against the overpowering image of Cumbria as the Lake District that exists in the public imagination. As an image of place ‘the Lake District’, of course, has global reach and brings economic benefits to the region, but it has also a barrier to tourism and economic development in West Cumbria. His research, writings and practical interventions aim to change perceptions of West Cumbria by developing an image of a place that is geographically, temporally and existentially on the edge of things.
Further information:
@johnscanlan8171
westwards.org
incertainplaces.org
WORK
John’s involvement in Unpublished Tour has several elements to it. In the first place, the programme of events that have been developed by Irene Rogan will form part of the focus of new research and writing on the places around the Duddon Estuary. Secondly, and more specifically, the programme has provided the opportunity to look at arts and cultural policy and practice in the region and to accompany several of the artists involved in the programme as they developed their works. This fieldwork will form the basis of future academic publications.
John has also helped to promote the project as part of his role with UCLan’s In Certain Places in line with his broader efforts to foster partnership working that can develop the cultural ecology of the region. He was commissioned by Irene Rogan to create the Unpublished Tour website, which functions both as an archival document of the programme itself and as a means of shedding more light on on the artistic and cultural life of the the places it is concerned with.
With Irene Rogan, he also co-produced the Unpublished Tour launch event, which took place on November 27th at Millom Palladium, Cumbria, and has additionally designed project materials, including David Cooper’s zine, The Duddon Estuary: The Myriad Lines of its Relations, which was produced to coincide with the November 27th launch event.