Designing Dialogue (S.H.E.D) Community Interest Company

The company's principal activities are the provision of a flexible structure designed to engage, inspire & cultivate ideas & dialogue. S.H.E.D (the Social Higher Education Depot) is a flatpack, pop up and mobile arts venue & public space, designed for the facilitation of conversation. It has been designed for the shedding of preconceptions of people and place. This humble ‘garden shed’ can be transformed into a variety of bespoke environments, from a soup kitchen and library, to a performance space, a visual arts gallery or for private hire events. It currently has over 20 rubric configurations to instigate bespoke co-creative environments with others in order to deliver strategically designed activities. The opportunities for its configuration are endless and project partners are consistently adding new designs to the drawing board. S.H.E.D is also a vehicle for discovery and development. It has been designed in line with cultural and socio-civic research, its flexibility enables it to deliver strategically designed activities, while also providing an accessible and inclusive space that supports the needs and priorities of communities. At the heart of the project is the desire to create positive civic impact, working towards greater social mobility by providing opportunities to access inspirational and educational content outside of formal organisational structures.