KCOM seeks to connect communities with new Absolutely Cultured event

KCOM has joined forces with Absolutely Cultured to get people from across Hull talking this weekend.

Louise Babych of KCOM with Katie Atkins of Absolutely Cultured

The phone and broadband provider and the Hull-based cultural organisation will deploy three of the city’s iconic cream phone boxes to different parts of the city on Saturday (17 July), as part of the city-wide Creative Hull project, in a bid to get people from different communities talking.

The event, called Chatty Phoneboxes, will see the classic K6-style phone kiosks positioned at Peel Street Park, The Shires area of Gipsyville and Princes Quay Shopping Centre in Hull city centre. They will be manned by Absolutely Cultured volunteers who will encourage locals to take part in video calls with people from the other areas.

Katie Atkins, of Absolutely Cultured, said it was great to be able to unleash major live cultural public events once again after a year of pandemic restrictions.

“This is the first event we’ve been able to do in more than a year and I’m really excited to be able to  get back out there again. We’re taking culture out of the usual places and bringing it right to people’s doorsteps.

“The more people know about each other the more likely they are to share time with each other and that’s what this project is all about – connecting people. That’s why KCOM’s famous phone boxes are a perfect symbol to make that happen. This is about connecting people from different areas and communities who may not otherwise communicate – or even meet each other.

“After the last year people are more comfortable using things like Zoom calls and Facetime and we’ll be using that technology to enable people to talk to each other, face to face. Our blue coated volunteers will be on hand throughout the day to talk about the project and help people with the technology.”

Chatty Phoneboxes will be part of the larger, weekend-long series of events taking place in Peel Street Park, off Hull’s Spring Bank, and also in The Shires Area of Gipsyville.

Peel Street Park will host the Park Life exhibition by local photographer Sergej Komkov, whose talents were recently used to decorate one of KCOM’s street cabinets in Goddard Avenue, while Gipsyville will host a “soundscape” of anecdotes recorded by local residents called Stories From The Shires.

The aim, says Katie, is for local people to come, have a sit, a chat and a cake with their neighbours while listening to the stories and meeting new people.

Dale Raneberg, KCOM chief executive officer, said: “We’re delighted to be joining forces with Absolutely Cultured for this event which is all about connecting people. KCOM is always keen to keep people connected and especially through creative projects like this that engage our region and its communities.”

For more details about the Chatty Phoneboxes event visit the Absolutely Cultured website.