A CREATIVE collaboration is seeking to attract £750,000 of funding for a three-year, arts-based project designed to bring the Haverfordwest community together to inspire and shape the future of the town.

“Confluence” – re-imagining Haverfordwest – comprises Planed, spacetocreate, iDeA Architects, Pembrokeshire County Council and Transition Haverfordwest, and has already attracting stage 1 funding of £17,000 from the Arts Council of Wales.

Guy Norman is one of the directors of spacetocreate community arts, which is based at The Hive Community Centre.

“We set up about seven years ago, really trying to respond to the lack of opportunities for people to get involved in the Visual arts in Haverfordwest and Pembrokeshire,” he said. “We ended up with lots of projects all over the county, but nothing in Haverfordwest. So we decided to try and really focus on Haverfordwest, and get something off the ground.”

A project entitled “Takingpartwest” - which has its own blog – was created, with the aim of involving different groups from the locality and supporting them to make visual art.

“We put on about 20 different projects, it was really successful, and we had lots of positive feedback,” said Guy. “We got great support from the Riverside Shopping Centre, Pembrokeshire County Council, the Farmer’s Market and local schools.

“The ground work was done to make things ready for something else, and then the “Ideas, People and Place scheme” popped in to our in-box. It’s about regeneration, using the arts and engaging people in the arts. It’s about raising people’s expectations about what a place, or town, could be like.”

Confluence came about as a response to the scheme, and was one of only 12 organisations across Wales to get Stage 1 funding.

“That money is for a programme of research, involving local people, feeding in to the development of a three-year project in Haverfordwest, using the arts in the context of urban regeneration,” Guy explained. “We have workshops, talks and walks planned in order to garner local opinion on possible futures for Haverfordwest. Our focal point for this project is the river and the immediate area surrounding it.”

Confluence is currently developing a bid for £450,000 of Arts Council of Wales funding. The group hopes to match part of that money through the next round of funding from the EU, bringing the total amount sought to £750,000.

“If we are successful, we hope that by the end of the three years people’s perceptions of Haverfordwest will have begun to shift. Maybe there won’t be more shops, but there may be other things going on in available spaces. Times have changed – we need to start re-imagining what a county town is for. We want to create reasons for people to come here.”

Confluence’s next events will take place in unit 18 of the Riverside Market in the run up to and during Half term starting with “High Days and Holidays” – this Friday (May 23). Drop in between 1.30pm and 5pm and help create a pop-up riverside museum to explore the river’s commercial heyday. On Saturday, there’s a “Skater’s Sketch Up” drop in exhibition and workshop from 10am to 5pm and on the afternoons of Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 there will be Hands On workshops for children and families. For more information and details about times and venues visit www.confluencewest.org.uk or call Becky at Planed on 01834 862104.