Maria (00:07.625)
Hello Suzanne and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast. It's great to be here with you and Jelly today. How are you doing? It's lovely to have you here, Maria. it's good. It's a rainy Friday. So yeah, lovely to be with you. It is. I think autumn has definitely started now. So, could you please tell our listeners a little bit about you and Jelly for those who, you know, don't know who you are being under a rock.

No, well, jelly has been in existence for over 30 years now. Yeah, my name's Suzanne. I was born in Redding. My family had been here for generations and I went away to art school. And when I came back, I set jelly up for six months. I haven't known when to stop it. I think that's the problem, isn't it? I was going say six months. Wow. And you're here 30 years later. Yeah. Hello.

Then that's the key to show what a success it is. So obviously you said your family been here for generations. I didn't know the generations part. know you've been here for your life. So what do you like about Reading? Well, there's a lot of cousins here and I know. think seriously what I like about Reading is it's quite adventurous and you can be experimental. It's quite close to London. So everyone thinks you should head to London to do things, but there are lots of hidden gems in Reading. So it's a bit of a treat to live here.

And it's a really good size as well. It's big enough so not everyone knows who you are, I think. Well, that's true. Yes. It's got a nice size to it, it? And I said, I've been here for 20 years since I came to university. And only recently, the last six months to a year, I started to discover everything. It's like, I call it Redding's underworld. There's so much going on that you don't know unless you're in the circles. Yeah, I think.

That's one thing I love about Redding so much is you can be experimental and try things. Cause for a little while I moved with my family to Brighton and everyone said, you'll love it there. It's full of artists and you'll find it really good for you. But actually, Redding was where my heart was. So I came back. interesting. Yeah. Cause you hear about Brighton with the reputation of being more experimental and hippie as it were. And it's beautiful there. I love Brighton, but yes, that's, yeah. So.

Maria (02:20.993)
Good that Redding's got a tick for you on that one. how does, as you said, has been going for 30 years. How does it contribute to Redding's art community? I know it's many ways. Yeah, I think it depends what age you are. depends how you feel it connects to Redding's art community. When I set it up 30 years ago, it was to show my own work alongside other artists.

And then over that time it's evolved because then I had children. So we started to work with toddlers. We work in schools. We have community outreach groups because I was really committed to community work. There's a great team here as well. So we all have different passions. And then we have a residency program and studios. So yeah, depends who's here. One of the things we say about jelly is it fits any mold. So it changes shape depending who you are.

Yes. So how has Reading changed over that time as well? Because obviously you've just said that how what Jelly does has changed over time, depending on family and that's evolved. How have you found that Reading art community's evolved? It's definitely very different. When I set Jelly up, the museum was shut. The open hand open space was a studio space where I always aspire to have a space as an artist, because I am an artist myself.

and there was nothing else really happening. Had a great music scene, but over the past 30 years, we've just seen stronger and bigger arts organizations come along, different arts groups, and we all work together. We talk, we share ideas, and we support each other. So it's great not to be alone. At the beginning, it was a bit of a solo mission, but now it's a really thriving creative community.

I suppose because you were there at the beginning then, have you helped to shape what that looks like? Well, I think that would be a, that's very flattering to say that, but I'm not sure. I think it probably gave people freedom because they probably looked at the audacity of me doing it in my early twenties and thinking, well, I'll have a go. And we've always been really open and supportive. So over the years we've had different emerging arts groups start with us.

Maria (04:38.485)
and then find their own feet because I don't think we need to reinvent the wheel, but we can share spaces and learn from each other. I think that's important. You don't actually need to, you just need someone to see someone's doing it in order to get the courage to do it yourself. So just because you were doing it, I think that would have helped other people then to think, like you said, I can do it too. So I'm sure you did have a hand in that stuff. So you're an artist yourself, what art do you do?

I studied fine art, so I describe myself as a jack of everything and master of nothing. But currently at the moment I'm making little short films, but I'm a painter really. That's my skill set, but I use any medium. But at Jelly, in the crew here, we've all got different skills. you know, from textile designer to product to theatre to photography.

It's really great to be part of a community with so many diverse skills. It does make me want to have a go at everything though. There is a lot to try. So you obviously offer a lot, as you said, to people of all skills, related generations. Could you say a bit about what you offer to people, well, the community and then also artists specifically? Cause you have quite a few things going on, haven't you? Yeah, we do a number of community workshops.

which are free generally. over the holidays, we worked with Broad Street Mail and we made friendship bracelets as part of every little thing festival. We've also been working at a food bank, which has been supported by John Lewis. So we went out to the community there and we're making badges and zines. We also run family art sessions. We call it the family art space and the teen art space. They're happening this month coming up.

And then today is the first day of a new project we have, which is a Heritage Lottery funded project. It's called All Roads. And that's working with women that arrived to Reading from overseas between 1940 and 1990. So there's quite an age range across all of our community workshops. That's amazing. And then the artists. Yes, the artists, yes. With artists, we do a lot of mentoring and developing.

Maria (06:59.295)
and supporting them in their work. And they also have monthly meetings where one of them has the opportunity to do a really deep look at their current practice and get support from the other artists and feedback and things. So it's a very supportive peer to peer network. Yeah. And as we said before, that really makes a difference. So you've also said, if you've been for such a long time, what have you found has and hasn't worked for promoting yourself over

those years. I know you're very good on social media. Well, that's very kind to say Maria. At the beginning, all we had to go on were flyers. So there were photocopied flyers and posters and we've had to learn as marketing and media has changed over the years. So I think it's an ongoing process of finding our feet. Social media takes quite a lot of time.

So in the last year, we've got a new person in post that's been paid for by the Arts Council of England to support us because we really want to be making the work and engaging with the communities. We have to think of different ways of communicating. So some of the people we work with don't necessarily have access to the internet or social media. So we do it through a diverse range.

getting out there and talking to people. But yeah, social media is a big part of our portfolio of communication. interesting. So you find social media's really worked for you and how do you get out to the other ones then who don't have access to the internet? That will be us sometimes going to groups. So we build up relationships. So currently at the food bank, that would have been a poster or flyers.

then we go along, meet people who work there, then we go along and do the session. So it takes time. We build up relationships with people. that's really good. And I think it's important, like you said, to get to people on social media, but I like that you have other outlets to you because like you said, not everyone has access to social media. That does definitely make someone inclusive. Yeah. I mean, when we've been working in primary schools, we work in a lot of primary schools in Redden. I think currently we're working with 10 primary schools.

Maria (09:13.075)
And so we will go into a class, work with children of all ages, but then they get to learn about us. then when they see us at Children's Festival or Waterfest, they recognize us. They bring their families along. Then their families learn about us. So it's an ongoing process. And our space in Broad Street Mall is a huge window fronted space. We have flyers out the front and people always knocking on the door or popping in and want to...

learn more about what we do. And the community that's here is very diverse. So we feel we reach quite a rich seam of Redding's population by being here. I agree. think having the shop frontage really helps because before I even really knew about, Jelly, just I knew about you from the shop frontage. So yeah, it really makes a difference because you're walking through the mall and you see the shop frontage then it makes you curious to find out more. So yeah, I think that is.

Yeah, that's opened you up to a lot more people probably than you could have had access to before. think in the years back when there was more paper press, we heavily relied on the newspapers. There were a lot of free newspapers and that's quite sad in some ways we've had the demise of the paper press because that gave people a lot of access to information. That's true. Yes, I suppose most of them are paid for now. Yeah.

So what's worked, I know we said what has worked for you, which is great. Has there been anything on the marketing side that hasn't worked for you in the past? And with hindsight, you can say why you think it didn't work. There is a kind of section of the community that we find it quite difficult to reach. And I think it's that mid teen age group or young adults.

And maybe it's because I'm now much older. We don't know the platforms to kind of reach them on. So we're doing some work around that at the moment. interesting. How do you tackle something like that? Then you've got an age group or an audience that you want to target. How are you doing the research to find out how to connect with them? We're just actually have been doing the research over the past couple of months. And sometimes it's as simple as when we do in a community -based workshop in the

Maria (11:29.747)
say in the mall or anything, and we can identify people from that age group, we have those conversations. So it's face to face. And previously we got asked to do a workshop a couple of years ago with that age group in a certain community. And that community was also my family community that I came from as a youngster. And I knew that that community normally has to look after their younger siblings during the holidays and how difficult it is to kind of pick them out.

So what we did is we refocused that workshop. went to the funder and said, we can talk to that age group, but to get them there, we need to offer something to their younger siblings because they will be looking after them while their parents are at work. So we, you know, from personal experience as well, we can rely on that as well about how it was for us and, or, you know, for the other people at work at Jelly that bring their own experience. And that was really successful in that workshop. So we did a workshop that was,

aimed at eight years above, knowing that their older siblings would come with them too. And then we could have the conversation we needed with the older ones. So sometimes you have to think a little bit differently. Yes, I like that. I think it goes to show that you can't replace face -to -face conversations sometimes. I know they say you can go online and do research, but face -to -face conversations, I think that really gives you a lot of information. Yeah. And it's about people feeling comfortable. lots of the work we do as well. We produce leaflets, which has

which have photos of us on and a little bit about each of us that are going to be delivering that workshop. So people feel comfortable and quite often we will go to their space first and do a number of sessions there. And then we will bring them into our space or direct them to a community based workshop we're doing in another space. And we can offer them things like transport being paid for, or if you come there's tea and biscuits, know, we entice them in or.

want them to feel as comfortable as possible. Cause it's hard trying something new, not knowing the location and not knowing the people. So we try and tackle those three different things. That's really interesting. It reminds me of what Alexa from Reading said, and obviously with the fantasy trail that goes on, it's to help people go into shops, to make them familiar. So then they're willing to go in them again, because it's already broken that barrier that they have never been in a shop.

Maria (13:53.235)
So yeah, I really liked that idea of going to them in their space first before inviting them to yours because that's where they're familiar with. I love that idea. So what challenges and opportunities do you see for the arts and writing sector? It sounds like it's been doing very well over the past few years. Any thoughts on that? Well, I think all of us face challenges because it's really hard to find a space to work in. And Jelly has always been in what

called Meanwhile Spaces. So we've never had a permanent home. We are reliant on having a space on an unsecured tenancy, at low cost to us, it's the only way we can manage it. But it does mean that we don't have long -term possibilities to stay there. And that's true for all of our fellow arts organizations, pretty much. So that is a challenge about how far you can program ahead.

Funding is a big issue as well for all the organizations. We started as a completely voluntary organization. So for the first seven years, nobody got paid a penny. And now we generate money project by project. So we will do work on a project and people get paid for the work they deliver in contact. But outside of that, we will do voluntary hours to keep this alive as well.

And in terms of other organizations, it's pretty much the same. So it's great. We have a network where we all meet together and we can discuss these things and plan ahead. Yeah. That's great. think it, a lot of groups, think in Reading rely on volunteers to keep the go, which is great. It shows the commitment of the Reading community. But like said, it does make it harder because then if it's run on volunteers, there's only so far you can go to increase access because there are no funds for.

the marketing or for anyone to do it full time, it's just a few hours on the side here and there. So yeah, that's a really good one to highlight. So thank you for that. How do you envisage Jelly's role changing the next few years then? Do you have any ideas or big plans for Jelly or where's it going? Well, yeah, so going back to that last question, actually, this is really relevant. So we were awarded National Portfolio Organization by Arts Council England. And as part of that application,

Maria (16:14.749)
Some people who apply for that normally use that money to deliver projects, but we identified that we needed the stability of some staff or team members. So we actually have a general manager, but she's much more than a general manager. Like the lifesaver who works three days a week. We have someone who works social media and someone who's a fundraiser for us. So it gives those three core roles will actually give us stability beyond the three years of funding.

So we strategically thought about what we needed to help us over this next step. So yeah, I mean, the positive looks pretty good, I think. It's given us the opportunity to then the rest of us do the work that we're really passionate about. And then we've got the backbone in place to for a bit of a more secure future. I think that makes a difference. Like you said, I like the way you thought strategically about those roles because funding comes and funding goes. And if you put it into something like,

Facebook ads or something which is so ephemeral is going to come and go and then you're not going to get anything. So the fact that you've invested in the long term exactly in people that can set you up for the future. think that's a nice tip for other organizations maybe who are voluntary and looking for funding. And I think as well funding does come and go.

You know, so we didn't want to be super reliant on it. We know that we can apply for it again at the end of this period, but it's highly competitive. We may not get it. So we didn't want to put ourselves in a position where the funding was covering core costs because at end of the three years, the core costs, may not be funded. Whereas the way we've done it by investing in people means we can fundraise, increase our audience work. Hopefully.

develop some different income streams and think much more strategically so we could survive without the funding, hopefully. I think that's the aim, isn't it? And I think you've put yourself in a very good position to do that, which is great. Is there anything that we've not mentioned so far that you think is good to highlight with either the work you do or message to send out?

Maria (18:26.279)
Lately we've been doing quite a few audits on the, I mean, it's been great to have this funding because it meant we could step back a little bit and look at the bigger picture and growing the team, hearing different voices come in as well has been really great for us. We try and have a really, I can't think of the word how you describe it, but an organization where all ideas are welcome and we can listen to people's ideas. So.

I lost the The sentence though, I was going to say. How can any message you want to leave for people or anything that we've not mentioned so far that you think is important? I know what the message is here actually. It's just talk to other people. I think this is my thread that I was going down. Just communicate and ask. Reading is a very open town and that people are willing to share and support.

and encourage ideas and also, yeah, don't feel like you have to reinvent the wheel. There are people there that will help and support. So, yeah, we always go out and ask people for help and we love it when people ask us for help too. I think that's a lovely message to leave everyone with. And just to point out as well that behind us, don't know we can actually see, but there are the bowls for pride because you've got...

What is it going on at the moment? You've got a competition or something to do with Pride? Yes, so Pride of Reading happens every single year and there's a lovely award ceremony where people are recognizing Reading for their contributions to the town. So people were invited to decorate vases to celebrate Pride using this year's theme of celebrations. It was looking at the Holly Festival using those colours. So yeah, it's been a delight to see all the different artworks come in.

That's wonderful. Thank you so much for your time, Suzanne. It's been really wonderful to talk to you. And yeah, very good luck. I'm sure Jenny's going to be here for many, many, years to come. Thank you, Maria.