Our Latest Community Project: Take A Seat!
No really, please take a seat!
We’d love to tell you all about our involvement with Leeds Civic Trust’s fantastic community initiative…
“The Old Fire Station were thrilled to work with local design group Buttercrumble to design and create the decoration for Leeds Civic Trust’s Take a Seat! project. Buttercrumble understood the brief and their suggested designs clearly showed the messages we were trying to convey on the bench. They worked on the decoration of the bench and the finished design in situ in the building engaging with the community, adding an extra dimension to the project. We loved working with Buttercrumble and hope to be able to work on other projects in the future.”
Take A Seat! has brought colourful benches across the city to celebrate local communities and how they rallied together during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a commemorative project for the people of Leeds, and we knew we wanted to be a part of that!
Buttercrumble partnered with The Old Fire Station in Gipton (which is a speedy five minute drive from our HQ). We were welcomed with open arms by the community centre to design and paint their new bench. There wasn’t a day that we left without a smile on our faces!
We always value collaboration, and we loved being able to chat with people and show our designs as we painted the bench. It was exciting to have such a creative talking point with passers-by. Especially after having worked remotely for most of the year, we as a team loved the opportunity for social interaction.
Our bench encourages people to “Get Together”, as we wanted to remind the community of all the things we can do to enjoy each other's company. See if you can spot the little icons which represent different social activities! To learn more about the process, view this Behind the Scenes blog post!
For Buttercrumble, the project was a huge success. Not only did we celebrate how Gipton’s wonderful community came together to support one another through COVID 19, but we have also finished the project feeling like we have become a part of the community ourselves.
Plus, on a more personal note, the project began during my first week at Buttercrumble, and what a way to start! Hearing “Grab your paint brush, we’re off to paint a bench” on my first day told me I was in exactly the right place.
By: Matilda Richardson-Brown
(Buttercrumble’s Community Happiness Manager)
