The Desire Paths Plymouth

Artists and performers drew a new, hopeful map of Plymouth and invited the public to rename its streets.

A chalk map of Plymouth was drawn on Piazza floor of the city centre and the public were asked to name the city's streets after a hope or dream they have for the future.

The event, called The Desire Paths, was held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (1 July until 3 July) by artistic collective Third Angel. It has been brought to the city by Plymouth Culture in collaboration with Plymouth City Council, funded through the Heritage Active Zone Cultural programme HAZ.

As part of the event, creatives gathered stories of the city from the public for the story-swapping, map-making visual performance.

Ahead of the event, Hannah Harris, CEO of Plymouth Culture, said: “We’re delighted to bring Third Angel to Plymouth for Desire Paths - their work in other cities has led to thought-provoking discussion about hopes for the future, with maps made on the street that are profound, political or simply playful.

The performers from the Third Angel team worked with the public to gather stories and ideas for street names alongside local ‘guest’ creatives:

• Callum Stewart, a Plymouth-based actor who has worked on a variety of city projects including The Hatchling in 2021.
• Bee Jarvis, a writer, musician and artist based in Plymouth. She has recently worked with The Box, Down Stage Write and Theatre Royal in a multitude of different projects from illustration to scriptwriting. 

Watch our video of an inspiring weekend where people in Plymouth were asked to help rename the streets of this giant chalk map in the city centre. We had profound, political and playful responses!