What is Percent for Art?

Our Percent for Art Team are based in our Community Engagement Team and work across all areas of Bolton. Members of the team work with residents, community groups, partners and other community stakeholders to develop socially engaged arts projects that help to improve our communities and benefit customers.

We commission appropriate artists or arts organisations, to work with the local community, and we manage the project from start to finish. The Percent for Art service actively encourages individuals and community groups to get involved in schemes that can offer creative solutions to neighbourhood issues.

Ideas for arts projects can come from our neighbourhood teams and they will focus on specific neighbourhood priorities or be developed through conversations with community groups, partner organisations or other community stakeholders.  Sometimes local arts projects are developed through wider Greater Manchester, regional or national networks or funding.

Our service also offers advice and guidance to our partners with regard to developing arts projects involving other social housing customers across Bolton.  We have also been commissioned by partners to project manage a number of community arts and public / environmental art projects in Bolton.

Projects can be in any medium including visual arts, performance, music, crafts, digital art and film. They can take the form of arts based consultation, skills and confidence building projects, arts in health and wellbeing work, festivals and celebratory arts, as well as streetscaping and environmental arts projects designed to enhance the physical environment.

Back to the list

2011 Mr One Million

2011 Mr One Million

Mr One Million is a short film that tells the story of Danny, a young unemployed man from Breightmet.

In September 2011 we recruited film makers Paul Hine and Mark Haig and writer Louise Wallwein to develop and deliver a proposal to work with young unemployed me in the Breightmet area of Bolton. The aim of the project was to engage with the young men, increase their confidence and raise aspirations and motivation levels. 

After a challenging period of community engagement the ‘Mr One Million’ proposal was developed. A group of ten unemployed young men who were not currently engaged in positive community activity were recruited as consultants. These men were chosen because of their knowledge, understanding and experience of being 18 to 24, male, unemployed and from Breightmet.

Creative workshops led by Paul Hine developed the men’s ideas and opinions. These fed into a film script written by Louise Wallwein and the men then took part in the production of the film. Ciaran Griffiths (Mickey Maguire in ‘Shameless’) worked with the men during filming.  After filming the men worked on editing, producing music and visuals and graphics for the final cut. The film premiered at Cineworld Bolton in July 2012.

At the initial evaluation meeting in June 2012 the feedback was heartbreakingly positive. A film of this session and a documentary about the ‘making of’ Mr One Million were produced. Click here to leave our website and go to YouTube to see the Mr One Million films.

The men have continued to develop the Mr One Million group, recruiting new young men, applying for funding and promoting the work they’ve been doing. For more information about the project contact Gaynor Cox.