The Happy Kingston Project
The Happy Kingston Project is a visual storytelling experiment about how we can have more hope for the future, through centering joy in our present.
It’s about resilience, and the different ways that this can look. Recognising and celebrating the things we’re doing that make the way we live (both individually and as a community) kinder and more respectful of all life and life-giving systems, and our planet.
But instead of the word ‘resilience’, we’re using the word ‘happiness’ to help us start conversations. And through this, explore together ideas and ways of thinking about the world that can bring us more consistent joy in the present, hope for the future, and strength in the face of the Earth Crisis¹. These ideas are rooted in long-term thinking frameworks, and are about connecting more deeply to ourselves, each other, the place we live in, and time.
To explore ideas together, and to help us reflect on these rather big questions that we're asking ourselves, we've developed a series of five collage workshops which we're calling Happy Kingston Collage.
The five sessions are structured to progressively build on the previous workshop's activities, and take us on a journey of reconnecting to ourselves, others (including more-than-humans), place, and time.
We'll explore our values, how we relate to others, how we connect into our neighbourhoods and the wider borough (and how these can better support us), what we'd like to be remembered for, and our dreams and hopes for the future. Ultimately, we'll be celebrating each of our residents' voices and stories of what a happy life in Kingston looks like.
This is a three-year project made possible through funding from Kingston Council's Small Green Grant. It's run by Divya for Kingston Hive with inputs from a range of experts and community leaders at key points in the research, development and design phases.
¹Earth Crisis is a term coined by Naturalist Ginny Battson, and popularised by Bridget McKenzie, founder of Climate Musuem UK, to describe the current polycrises we find ourselves in.