The Nice Twice in Bloom exhibition was held at a shop unit in a Princes Quay shopping centre in the centre of Hull. It was for four days showcasing the work from creative workshops attended by over 200 people with learning disabilities. The exhibition was curated by community members with lived experience of a disability. We ran 11 community planning meetings where the group agreed on the theme, the artwork, the name and design.

This exhibition was an interactive garden of sensory discovery with artwork designed to be touched, smelt and heard. The artwork was consciously designed from recycled materials and borrowed equipment, showing the true importance of communities coming together to make things happen. By integrating scent, sound, and play, the exhibition invited you to experience the world through a different lens. There was artwork using projections, scent, touch, sound and visual art which invited you to draw and contribute to.

The concept was that the garden “grew”, leaves were added to the trees and artwork was added across the four days it was open. This was to symbolise that communities grow and the more community engagement, the more the artwork grew and evolved. It was wonderful to see how it looked on the opening day compared to how it looked on the last day.

The exhibition space was accessible; we displayed artwork at different levels so wheelchairs users were able to see artwork at face height. We also ensured the exhibition covered all senses, smell, touch, sight and sound.

There was music in a sensory room playing alongside projections on the walls and grass on the floor. The music was written by Tuesday Tea Club, lyrics were written by Lawrence Kirby and Ashley Nobel. Both wrote about Hull, what it means to them and shared their experience of living in Hull through spoken word. Tuesday Tea Club is an inclusive Hull band using improvisation to create music. They improvised over the top of the spoken word and this was recorded and produced by local community musician and Nice Twice Manager Emily Clixby.

The exhibition saw 157 visitors, each visitor interacted with the exhibition in different ways, from spending time in the sensory room watching the projections and listening to music to taking part in workshops or making art to add to the exhibition.

Throughout the four day exhibition, we collected a further 218 assets. The term assets is taken from the term (asset based community development, ABCD), they are strengths, skills and resources existing within the local community, they can by physical spaces or individuals as well as emotional. We gathered these assets by asking three main questions throughout the exhibition:

· what do you like about Hull?

· Where do you go in Hull?

· What makes you feel included?

These answers were recorded, written and drawn within the artwork, some answers included:

“How friendly everyone is”, “the friendly community”, “hull people have always made me feel included. Once you’re here you have friends for life”; these show that community members feel that an important part of Hull’s community are the people and how friendly they are.

There was also a lot of responses about food, highlighting the importance of food and how Hull has it’s own food identity which brings the community together. Food which were featured included, “Pattie and chips”, “fish and chips” “chip spice”.

Alongside positive assets and experiences, we wanted to acknowledge any negative experiences people may have had. Local artist Alastair Smith curated a bin where audiences could write times they were discriminated against and literally throw it in the bin. This piece was really important part of the exhibition to allow community members to acknowledge negative experiences but also have the opportunity to “throw them away” and hopefully it was a cathartic experience for people. We are gathering these answers and hoping to respond to them in some way.