One element of the work we are doing at Creative Island, is to commit to convening a series of local conversations with the cultural community of each town on the Isle of Wight.
The ambition is to speak about and listen to the particular challenges and opportunities that we all face, to explore collaborative opportunities, share information and network with others.
Below, you’ll find the summaries of our most recent sessions. Ryde Town Conversations has been established since October 2023, with others following in January and July 2024, and March and September 2025.
Summary from our latest session, Monday 15th September, 2025:
On September 15th, we explored the question “How do we strengthen our sense of belonging?” Attendees spoke about the importance of connection – whether through neighbours, organisations, daily interactions, or shared creative projects such as murals, carnivals and community gardens. The arts were highlighted as a powerful way to nurture belonging, offering people a chance to share, collaborate and feel part of something bigger.
A strong theme was the role of young people, whose sense of belonging is often fragile and shaped by small worlds, segmented communities, or lack of safe spaces. Creativity, cooking, games and shared challenges were seen as tools to help them build confidence, connection and pride of place.
Overall, the group reflected that belonging comes from shared care, mutual respect and opportunities to collaborate – from storytelling and humour to music, gardening and skill-sharing. People left grateful for Ryde’s creative community, while also recognising the need for better signposting, networking and spaces that make belonging possible for everyone.
We gathered at the brand-new Department building on March 17th 2025, hosted by the brilliant Shademakers team, and began with a tour of this exciting new cultural space. We then moved into a group discussion, wonderfully facilitated by Caroline Pakel, who helped us really listen to each other and draw out the themes, dreams, and challenges facing Ryde’s creative and cultural community. We asked our creatives “What do you love and care about in Ryde?“, “What’s next for Ryde?” and what they’d like to see more and less of. Here’s just a few of the ideas that emerged:
More: Opportunities for collaborations across different disciplines and concrete actions that move beyond discussion.
Less: The same familiar faces in every meeting – let’s make a real push to bring new and different voices into the room.
A key idea that came out of the session was to create a Ryde Community WhatsApp group. This has now been set up and if you’d like to be involved, please email Sam, our Communications Manager on sam@creativeisland.org.
Let’s keep asking: What next for Ryde? – and more importantly, let’s keep making things happen.
