What does it mean to be local? New research explores what it means to belong in Jersey
Image by Dana Olărescu
ArtHouse Jersey is inviting Islanders to join two free events exploring home, belonging, participation, and the many different ways people contribute to life in Jersey. Taking place at the Salvation Army Community Café on Saturday 26 September and the Old Magistrate’s Court at St Helier Town Hall on Monday 28 September, the events will share new research asking a deceptively simple question: What does it mean to be local?
The independent research, undertaken by researcher Dr Mariana Pinto Leitão Pereira as part of ArtHouse Jersey’s long-term socially engaged project Abundant Futures led by artist Dana Olărescu, draws on conversations with 25 people with different relationships to Jersey.
People born in Jersey, long-term residents, and more recent arrivals to the Island were invited to talk about their experiences of home, belonging, work, community, knowledge, contribution, and the Island’s future.
Rather than seeking to represent every experience of living in Jersey, the research brings together 25 individual perspectives to explore some of the different ways people experience home, belonging, and participation. Together, they offer a rich collection of perspectives on what it means to feel part of a place. What emerges is that there is no single answer to what it means to be local.
The research explores the ways people build a connection to Jersey over time, the experiences and knowledge they carry with them, and the conditions that can make it easier - or more challenging - to participate in Island life.
It asks us to think about questions such as:
What makes somewhere feel like home?
When do we feel that we belong?
Whose knowledge and experiences are valued?
What makes it possible for people to take part in community life?
What does it mean to contribute to the future of Jersey?
Rather than offering a single definition of what it means to be local, the research opens up a conversation about the many different ways people belong to Jersey, and whose stories become part of the story of the Island.
Come and hear the research
Image by Dana Olărescu
ArtHouse Jersey will share the research through two free events, offering different opportunities to encounter the work.
Saturday 26 September from 2-4pm
Gathering at Salvation Army Community Café
An informal public gathering open to everyone. Come and hear about the research, discover some of the stories and experiences gathered through the project, and share your own thoughts and experiences of what it means to feel at home and belong in Jersey.
Book your free place via Eventbrite at this link.
Monday 28 September from 1.15–2pm
Presentation & Conversation in the Old Magistrate's Court at St Helier Town Hall
This event brings together people working across policy, culture, community, and other areas of Island life to hear the research and consider the questions it raises in relation to their own work, communities, and the wider conversations taking place across the Island.
Book your free place via Eventbrite at this link.
From artistic enquiry to research
The research grew from Abundant Futures, a long-term project commissioned by ArtHouse Jersey and led by socially engaged artist Dana Olărescu
Since 2023, the project has brought artists, researchers, local organisations and people from across Jersey together through workshops, gatherings, cooking, performance, sound, walks and other creative activities. Through these encounters, Abundant Futures has explored questions around migration, food, climate, land, knowledge and belonging.
The research is another step in this longer enquiry: listening to people's experiences and asking what they can tell us about life in Jersey. The full report will be available alongside a newly published booklet, making the research accessible to a wider audience. The full report offers an opportunity to explore the methodology, participant perspectives and wider context in greater depth.
Producer for ArtHouse Jersey, Robyn Cabaret, said, “This research gives us an opportunity to pause and listen to the many different ways people experience life in Jersey. For ArtHouse Jersey, the exciting part is not simply sharing the findings, but bringing people together around them - creating space to listen to experiences that might be different to our own, to find connections, and to ask better questions about the kind of Island we are creating together. We don’t have all the answers, and the research doesn’t offer a single definition. It instead opens up a conversation, and we hope you will be part of it.”
Come and hear the research. Bring your own experience. And join the conversation about what it means to be local.
