Guest article: Reimagining audience travel

In May 2023, we appointed Helen McCrorie as the embedded artist for our collaborative project with Perth Theatre and Concert Hall – ‘Transforming Audience Travel Through Art’. In this guest article, Helen describes the diverse participants, the wide range of activities and skills she used to engage people with the topic and bringing the lens of her own activism to her focus for the project – buses and bus services.

Artist Helen McCrorie

As an artist and filmmaker, I regularly collaborate with community groups and work on community arts projects. The Transforming Audience Travel Through Art (TATTA) project offered the chance to reach out to communities in Perth & Kinross, where I live, using creative means to explore transport issues and sustainability. I was interested in the possibilities of an embedded artist role within Perth Theatre and Concert Hall, and in the opportunity to work with Creative Carbon Scotland, now Culture for Climate Scotland, who are at the forefront of pushing for sustainability in the arts.

Buses are a lifeline

I proposed to focus on buses as this could have the biggest impact in terms of carbon emissions for audiences, particularly with Perth being a flagship zone for the roll-out of electric buses. I live in a rural community, far from urban centres. The bus service is a lifeline for many, but it’s woefully inadequate. Regular, affordable public transport is essential for climate and social justice. I am a member of Climate Action Strathearn. We are seeking urgent momentum for sustainable transport, and I was keen to combine my art practice with activism in this project.

I’m aware of how a focus on individual behaviour and choice is often used by corporations and government to mask structural bias against sustainability and to distract from the huge changes that are needed. It’s not just a case of convincing people to use more sustainable transport; there are real barriers that need to be addressed, such as cost, infrequency or simply a lack of public transport routes. Our project explored these barriers.

Mentoring from Ellie Harrison

I asked for mentorship from artist and veteran public transport campaigner, Ellie Harrison, and was delighted that my project partners agreed. I met with Ellie online and once at her studio in Glasgow. Her support was invaluable. Ellie educated me on the history of public transport deregulation that has led to the reduced services, hiked prices and private monopolies that we see across Scotland today (except for Lothian Buses, which is still in public ownership).

Through Ellie, I learned about campaigns for re-regulation across the UK, and the recently successful ones in Liverpool and Manchester. It’s clear that there are alternatives to the current broken system. Ellie’s project Bus Regulation: The Musical, inspired me to scale up my ambitions for TATTA. It was great to discuss my ideas with Ellie and she was always encouraging.

Different perspectives

It was important for me to include audiences with different perspectives in the project.

A community choir

I was welcomed to Vocal Chord, a singing-for-wellbeing group established by Tayside Health Arts Trust (THAT), in partnership with Perth Theatre & Concert Hall. We made a display that communicated their views on the bus service. Poor access, cost and lack of services were major barriers. Karine Neill, THAT co-ordinator, explained that people gain huge wellbeing benefits from Vocal Chord and the friendships formed there. However, many members depend entirely on buses to travel to and from choir practise. An unreliable or infrequent bus service adds stress to their day and some members must leave an hour early to catch their bus home. Choir leader Debra Salem, who also runs Craigie Community Choir (more about them later), encouraged me to sing with the group. I did my best to keep up with their soulful harmonies and joined in the laughter at the funny warm-up exercises; there was so much joy in the room.

Families

During the summer I did a family workshop – Off we go! – at Perth Theatre. We asked families to arrive by public transport or by active travel, and to take note of what they saw along the way. We played travel-themed circle games with songs to tell our journey stories. Together we made a large journey artwork, in mixed media, showing the landscapes and cityscapes that they had seen, and we added colourful, sustainable vehicles.

There was no need to convince the children. Bus, train and bikes were by far their favourite ways to travel. They beat boring car journeys hands down! Parents said the workshop had made them reflect on the wider benefits of sustainable travel for families; that slower or more social forms of transport often made for a richer experience.

Climate Cafés

Perth Theatre & Concert Hall’s main target group for this project was regular attendees who drive to events, but it wasn’t clear how to engage these audience members in creative workshops on sustainable travel. We realised it could be a hard sell. Audiences come to Perth from far and wide, so I was keen to work with groups right across the local authority. I proposed to work with Climate Cafés throughout the region, as they have a deep understanding of the barriers to sustainable transport facing people in their community. Climate Café members are passionate about public transport and active travel. For this project, they were keen to get creative and come up with bold artworks and slogans to communicate positive messages about sustainability to the wider public, and to highlight the barriers to public transport in their areas.

I worked with five Climate Cafés: Crieff, Aberfeldy, Blairgowrie, Pitlochry and Kinross. Each session began with an illustrated talk to introduce the project, inviting group discussion on the issues. We then did creative activities:

• In Crieff we made a colourful ‘barriers to buses’ wall, with solutions suggested on the other side. We also made giant ‘dream bus tickets’, with company name, tagline and cost. These made serious points, but with humour: ‘The Joined-Up Bus Company – offers family tickets & connects to all routes and trains’ and ‘The Magic Bus – free sustainable transport to the theatre, bonus magic show!’
• Aberfeldy suffers from a lack of public transport overall and no direct buses to Perth, making journey times very long. We discussed campaigns for better transport links for the area as well as carshare schemes and/or community minibuses. We recorded discussions with a creative mind map.
• In Blairgowrie we made a lifesize ‘bus passenger portrait’, using a projector and drawing around our silhouettes. This group wanted to point out the high cost of bus travel in Perth & Kinross, which is a huge barrier to those without free bus passes.
• In Pitlochry, with their rail link, we discussed the prohibitive cost of train travel and the lack of fast buses to Perth and made campaign posters by collaging recycled posters from Perth Concert Hall. The group had ideas for a community ‘culture bus’ that might run to Perth for events and concerts. I took this idea back to the project partners, who have started to investigate the viability of a scheme.
• At Kinross Climate Café, we also spoke about possibilities for a theatre bus and of a possible collaboration with Glenfarg Community Transport. Glenfarg representatives, who have been vastly improving local transport links and are passionate about a better bus service for communities and sustainability, contributed to the workshop and voiced their support. We designed textile pieces, and I was invited back to a second workshop with the group.

Inspired by the workshops with the Climate Cafés, I was keen to make an artwork calling for better buses and celebrating the ‘community’ in buses. Of course, when people use the bus service, it’s not only good for the environment but it supports all those within our communities who don’t have other options, including young people, elderly, people with disabilities and people with lower incomes. Surely, we didn’t emerge from our lockdown bubbles just to go straight back into our car bubbles?

Flashmob film

I pitched a flashmob idea to Debra Salem and Craigie Community Choir. I wanted to film the choir singing on a local bus in Perth; they’re an adventurous bunch and they were keen. I went along to their joyful sessions, and we discussed which songs might work. The choir practised the songs while seated in a bus formation.

There were lots of details to work out –

• How would passengers react?
• Could we manage the filming?
• Where would everyone sit?
• Would we get thrown off the bus?

We needed Stagecoach’s permission because I’d be filming in a private space. Thankfully, they were glad to agree because of Perth Theatre and Concert Hall’s involvement in the project. They possibly expected some publicity, although probably not the kind our project is highlighting – the failings of the local bus service.

On flashmob day, there was much excitement and hilarity among the choir. Artist Jen Martin came to help me with filming; we had worked out where each camera and mic would be and how we’d brace ourselves during the bumpy ride. Luckily the bus drivers were very welcoming, as is usually the case, and no one got thrown off. They enjoyed the music, ‘especially Feelin’ Groovy!’. The choir sung their hearts out and Debra’s lovely arrangements of popular songs got lots of smiles from other passengers, some of whom took videos. At the bus stop in Perth, we had two guys dancing to our music and one young man, who was our biggest fan, ‘conducting’ us. He said that he hoped he would dream about the choir that night. In the edit, I tried to emphasise the closeness of dreams and the everyday, and the warmth of this shared experience on a bus.

Plotting journeys and chatting

Back at Perth Concert Hall, we had an exhibition of workshop outcomes and an interactive display to engage audiences at the sell-out ‘Lucy Worsley: Agatha Christie’ event. The audience could plot their journeys on a giant map of Perth & Kinross, using different colours for modes of transport. People left post-it comments on what would encourage or allow them to travel more sustainably to events. We had lots of interest, with engagement from over 200 people. Climate scientist and activist Jen Newall helped, and we had interesting chats with audience members.

The comment that came up time and again was about people wanting to use their free bus pass for nights out, but either the service wasn’t available, or it finished too early to get home again. It was extremely rare that we encountered anyone who said they weren’t interested in travelling more sustainably. This was heartening.

The culminating public event

The public phase of the project culminated in Ticket to Ride, a sustainable-travel-themed event in the Perth Concert Hall foyer in November 2023. My film of the choir flashmob, What Carries Us, screened as a large projection, and we put up an exhibition of the creative outcomes from all the workshops.

At Kinross Climate Café, I had met members of the Kinross Kacophony Orchestra, so I invited them to play at our event. Conductor, Dougie Flowers, led them in Duke Ellington and other big-band classics, seated in a bus formation. Pitlochry Festival Theatre kindly lent us some real bus seats and Perth Theatre’s costume department lent public transport costumes, which some players donned. The solo flautist looked especially smart in her vintage British Rail jacket. I wore an old clippie uniform, complete with cap, which made me wonder if they used hairpins to keep them from falling off; they sure make you stand up straight. In partnership with Perth & Kinross Council, we invited the Travelling Gallery (a bus!), with their exhibition themed on care, to the plaza outside the concert hall for the day. It was great for visitors to be able to hop on board a real bus and see some contemporary art.

Lewis Coenen-Rowe from Creative Carbon Scotland chaired a panel discussion with our invited guests:

• Perth & Kinross Council Transport Officer, Margaret Roy
• Drew Smart from Glenfarg Community Transport
• Ellie Harrison, my mentor on the project

The discussion was very lively and emotional at times, as local people described the effects of recent public transport cuts to their communities. There was a lot of praise for Glenfarg, as a role model for community transport schemes, and there was also much discussion about re-regulating buses in Perthshire in the wake of successful campaigns across the UK. The whole event was well attended, and we got great feedback.

Staff, decision makers and further action

I was invited to present the film and our project findings at Perth Theatre and Concert Hall’s all-staff day. Following this, 36 staff took part in a voluntary sustainable-transport-to-work week. The staff documented their sustainable journeys, and/or barriers to travelling more sustainably, and shared their findings to inform future organisational planning.

We held an invitation event for local transport decision makers and project partners, where I presented creative outcomes of the project and Lewis presented project findings and statistics. This event seemed to make a strong impression on local councillors and members of our Regional Transport Partnership: Tactran. It raised questions about urgent changes that could be considered like future re-regulation of the buses and/or more funding for community transport initiatives.

I am delighted that Perth Theatre and Concert Hall and Culture for Climate Scotland are acting on some of the ideas from our creative workshops. They are now working with Pitlochry, Blairgowrie and Kinross Climate Cafés to pilot a ‘Culture Bus’ community minibus scheme to transport audiences from outlying communities to the theatre and concert hall. They are also exploring how to issue sustainable transport suggestions with ticket bookings in future. I hope both schemes are a great success.

My film, made in collaboration with Craigie Choir: What Carries Us, screened at Perth Film Society on 8 March 2024. The same week, Stagecoach announced shocking bus cuts that will devastate the community of Carse of Gowrie and Errol. We need an end to private bus companies, holding councils to ransom by hiking prices and cutting services. We need fair fares and reliable services. We need public regulation of the buses in Tayside, following the examples of Manchester, Liverpool and, as recently announced, Strathclyde. As we know well in Scotland, business people made fortunes from the privatisation of the buses and our public transport is in a poor state today in most of the country. It’s time to turn the tide. Buses are a vital a public service – for communities and for climate. #BetterBuses. For our future.

Transforming Audience Travel Through Art was funded by Smarter Choices, Smarter Places, which is Paths for All’s programme to increase active and sustainable travel throughout Scotland. The programme is grant-funded by Transport Scotland.

Paths for All is a charity and is the champion of everyday walking in Scotland. Paths for All’s vision is for a happier, healthier Scotland where physical activity improves quality of life and wellbeing for all.

This project was run as part of our culture/SHIFT programme, which promotes how the arts and culture can transform society in response to climate change.