The Butterfly Effect

A big challenge in any major infrastructure redevelopment for a city is ensuring that the communities that are most affected AND most likely to benefit from transformation understand - in equal measure - the nature of change they are about to undergo. More often than not, this transformation process can either ignore the voice of the community – or play out token gestures as a sop to those most affected. This is despite clear research and evidence that shows regeneration is most successful where all parties and stakeholders work together to understand and deliver a shared vision for the future. 

This point is not wasted on energy giants SSE who have a clear social, economic and environmental purpose to their mission. They were able to demonstrate their commitment to these values as part of their bid to be a green energy supplier to Sunderland – a northern city undergoing the kind of phenomenal redevelopment and change that hasn’t been seen for over a century. The Heat Network Project is an ambitious and innovative programme to extract heat from the disused former Wearside Colliery – a century-and-half-year-old coal mine which in 2023 celebrated the 30th anniversary of its closure. The site has since been regenerated and honoured by being the home of the Stadium of Light and Sunderland AFC – a cultural icon itself in the city. The Heat Network Project is the next generation of energy extraction designed to help Sunderland City Council meet their Zero Carbon targets for their businesses and residents. A powerful message lies in the idea that disused mines can still breathe valuable life and heat into the city long after they have become defunct, providing an emotive story for the city.

SSE approached Art of Protest to leverage the Future Walls programme in the city to engage schools and colleges across the city to learn about the potential of this groundbreaking project. At the heart of the effort by SSE was the need to highlight the future skills and job opportunities industries such as green energy can bring to redefine the future for the next generation of the city’s citizens.

In response to this aim, Art of Protest created The Butterfly Effect -  a creative learning workshop programme promoting and engaging young people to envision their future and their place in it. Young people were exposed to the medium of street art to create a collective visual montage of their hopes and aspirations. Backed up by surveys, the programme was able to establish that young people were very motivated to be part of a future where green energy and creative skills were front and centre of their career destinies. This work has been translated by Art of Protest into a major Public Art installation that would grace the site of the Heat Extraction facilities at the site of the former mine. Should their bid be successful, SSE has committed to supporting the funding and development of this Public Arts project and ensuring that young people of Sunderland continue to have a voice and a presence connected to their future.