The Talking Shop
It's like a cross between an art installation and your nan's house.
A very public living room in a disused shop
A shop which sells nothing and where ideas, information, conversation and creative activities are free. And so is the tea.
The Talking Shop is a public space in a town or city centre, hosted and facilitated six days a week by trained professional freelance artists and creatives and co-hosts from collaborating and partner organisations.
Increasing cultural and democratic participation through creativity, information and democratic deliberation. It focuses on the intersection between cultural and democratic participation and creative approaches to democratic deliberation.
The Talking Shop trial: Merthyr Tydfil
Every town should have a Talking Shop.
- Talking Shop Visitor
We want everyone to have a say
The Talking Shop mission is to increase cultural and democratic participation and allow everyone to understand, engage with and participate in the cultural and democratic life of our country.
Influence policy
Talking Shop visitors & their conversations to be influencing policy & decision making and shaping public services all year round.
Meaningful participation
Everyone to be able to participate meaningfully & have a say in the cultural & democratic life of our country, not only at the ballot box every few years.
Understand democracy
Everyone to know The Democracy Box story so they can understand the basics of our UK democracy and be involved all year round.
Take a tour around The Talking Shop Blackwood
Involvement done as it should be: meeting people where they are, chatting over a cup of tea, focussing on what is important to them, valuing everyone equally.
- Sandy Clubb, Office of the Future Generations Commission
Everyone is welcome. No need to book.
Free WiFi. Free tea. Free information and conversation. You can join in or just find a quiet place to be.
Trained hosts begin open conversations around democratic and cultural engagement. On the walls are big open questions which are used to centre and focus conversations between complete strangers who enter and meet over a cuppa.
Creative approaches have included bunting making, collaging, stone painting, poetry, journaling, origami, knitting, crocheting, music, podcasting, zine making, dance and spoken word.
The Talking Shop has a zero or minimal carbon footprint. All furniture and shop dressing is begged, borrowed, gifted and recycled.
The Talking Shop Trials 2022–2025
The Talking Shop model has been trialled and tested in multiple locations across Wales, completing a 4th and final trial in Blackwood, Caerphilly in May 2025, creating a proof of concept and blueprint for any town.
| Location | Venue | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Cardiff | 36–38 Castle Arcade | April – July 2022 |
| Newport | Unit 9 Friars Walk | April 2022 |
| Merthyr Tydfil | Town centre | October 2022 – February 2023 |
| Blackwood | Town centre | March 2024 – June 2025 |
Visitors range from 6 months to 96 years old and include all socio-economic demographics. A high percentage of young people aged 16–30 visit alongside citizens across the full range of democratic engagement.
A Three-Tier Model
Public bodies & governments at all levels need to invest in & roll out the full three-tier Talking Shop model, evidenced to facilitate year-round conversations that influence and shape policy based on lived experience.
The Talking Shop
A fixed-site public living room in a disused shop: the full model, open and facilitated six days a week.
The Talking Shop on Tour
An outdoor mobile version without walls which can arrive on a beach, a housing estate, a village green or public patch of grass. First pilot tour in summer 2025 commissioned by Cardiff Capital Region visiting Cardiff, Porthcawl, Cwmbran, Newport and Merthyr Tydfil.
The Tiny Talking Shop
A micro version (a sofa, a lamp and a kitchen table) taken to existing indoor public spaces, complete with a Talking Shop recipe book. Hosts can be trained and booked on an ad hoc basis.
Commission us to install a Tiny Talking Shop in your public space or institution. Get in touch.
Inside The Talking Shop
The Talking Shop model has been evidenced to:
None of us are as smart as all of us.
- Japanese proverb
The Talking Shop Cardiff & Newport trials
A unique convergence of three hubs
Cultural Information Centre
Find out what's on in theatres, galleries, exhibitions, concerts and workshops. A physical 'What's On' space which everyone helps create and curate. A place to find out about creative learning and participation projects.
Democracy Information Centre
A place to understand our democratic structures, without political bias or party affiliation. Find out who your elected representatives are, how to register to vote, and how to get your voice heard all year round, not just at the ballot box.
Creative Centre
For artists, creatives and the public to get together, share ideas, collaborate and try new things. Free weekly creative activities hosted and facilitated by us and our partners. To think. To work. To talk. To create, together.
Newport Youth Council members on the Newport trial
I feel like I've just come home.
- Talking Shop Visitor
How is The Talking Shop Funded?
A multiple stakeholder model
The Democracy Box report strongly recommends that “The Talking Shop model should be funded and delivered in each location by multiple local and national stakeholders whose remits include democratic and/or cultural engagement, participation, consultation, opportunities and services.”
Omidaze passionately believes that multiple organisations must come together to invest in the model and that new money is not needed. Rather, multiple stakeholders need to come together and repurpose percentages of existing budget strands, in line with the Well-being of Future Generations Act seven goals and five ways of working.
| Level | Who | Contribution & benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Collaborating organisations | Contributing in-kind time (co-hosting), skills (programming) and resources. Mutually beneficial association and increased engagement levels. |
| Level 2 | Collaborating organisations plus | Contributing time as above plus small amounts of financial investment (£500–£5,000). Benefits as above plus access to data and/or studio space. |
| Level 3 | Core partners (public bodies, local authorities, devolved & UK government) | The main investors, jointly responsible for the shop. Ongoing unlimited access to all data, public involvement and engagement work. Budget contributions scaled according to the partner's budget. |
I think of the shop as a place if you want a chat and love talking about history. It's a good option of a place to go.
- Talking Shop visitor recently released from prison
More films
The Talking Shop Blackwood, by a young co-creator
The Cares Family video: Cardiff trial
Democracy Box young co-creators Blackwood
How it all began
Yvonne Murphy was directing and producing Romeo and Juliet, Omidaze’s final part of the Shakespeare Trilogy in 2017, when the idea of The Talking Shop began to take shape. The concept came from her time as UK strategic lead to the cultural movement What Next? and her desire to include the public in that conversation.
Yvonne became fascinated by the intersection between cultural and democratic information, conversation and participation. This led her to create an interactive workshop for schools which accompanied Romeo and Juliet, explaining both the play and how our UK democracy works and fits together.
The workshop was a success. Educators and adults who heard about it said that they needed it too. A public R&D was the next step.
She knew she needed to stop doing the talking and listen. Really listen. And perhaps have some difficult conversations. What she didn’t know was that The Talking Shop itself would become Omidaze’s next and biggest production to date, although one of the earliest visitors made her start to understand that:
This is theatre that you are doing right here. This conversation now is theatre in its purest form.
- Talking Shop visitor
The Talking Shop pilot took place between March 25 and April 20, 2019 in 33 High Street Arcade Cardiff: an Omidaze Productions R&D project made possible through the support of National Theatre Wales under Artistic Director Kully Thiarai, with additional support from Catherine Paskell & Dirty Protest, Creative Cardiff, Senedd Cymru and a team of volunteers.
The pilot was designed by Yvonne Murphy along with 2nd year USW Design Students Bethan Thomas & Ashley Phillips with illustrations by Cardiff Met CSAD students and was further curated during the month it was open by over 550 visitors from all over the world. Everyone had free tea courtesy of Cardiff City Council.
Evocative and inspiring to a level I could not imagine.
- Talking Shop pilot visitor 2019
Writers in residence & rehearsed readings
Tracy Harris, Kyle Lima & Dick Johns were The Talking Shop pilot writers in residence (2019) and received dramaturgical support from Omidaze and partners National Theatre Wales and Catherine Paskell at Dirty Protest.
A sample of their work was presented as Public Rehearsed Readings in June 2019 funded by NTW. Kyle Lima went on to receive a seed commission from NTW. Both his and Dick Johns’ full-length plays were given public rehearsed readings directed by Yvonne Murphy inside The Talking Shop Merthyr Tydfil in January 2023, funded by Wales Millennium Centre.
Just wanted to say how important I think your work is. The key one for me is the social side: finding people through networking, as well as simply finding people to talk to. There's such a feeling of importance to this whole project.
- Lucy, Talking Shop visitor & Rehearsed Readings audience member
Media Coverage
- BBC Radio Wales: The Idea Debate Live
- ITV Wales: Merthyr Talking Shop 2022
- BBC: The Democracy Box & Blaenau Gwent Year 11s 2022
- Nation Cymru: Merthyr Talking Shop, January 2022
- Welsh Agenda: The Talking Shop, January 2023
- IWA: The Talking Shop & The Democracy Box, November 2022
- IWA: Clwstwr research & The Democracy Box, December 2020
- IWA: Talking Shop & Constitution Commission Launch, December 2022
Partners, Collaborators & Funders
Partners & Funders
- Caerphilly County Borough Council
- Clwstwr
- Future Generations Commissioner for Wales
- National Theatre Wales
- The Cares Family
- The Electoral Commission
- The Riverfront Theatre & Arts Centre, Newport
- Wales Millennium Centre and Creu Cyffro
- Youth Cymru
Collaborators
- Anthem
- Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council
- Caerphilly Council
- Cardiff Council
- Clwstwr
- Conwy Council
- Creative Cardiff
- Cwm Taf Public Services Board
- Cwm Taf Morgannwg Regional Partnership Board
- Dr Anwen Elias, Reader in Politics, Aberystwyth University
- Dr Matthew Wall, Associate Professor, Swansea University
- The Electoral Commission
- Electoral Reform Society Cymru
- Edinburgh University
- Fusion
- Head4Arts
- Hub Cymru Africa
- Future Generations Commissioner in Wales
- I Have a Voice
- Institute for Welsh Affairs
- Lana St Leger, Cardiff Met University
- Llais
- LSE
- Media Cymru
- Menter Laith Caerffili
- Menter Iaith/Theatr Soar, Merthyr Tydfil
- Merthyr Tydfil Central Library
- Merthyr Tydfil Council
- National Library of Wales Archive
- National Theatre of Wales
- Neighbourhood Democracy Movement
- Newport Council
- Newport Rising
- The Open University
- Operasonic
- Oxford University
- The Politics Project
- Prof. Laura McAllister, Wales Governance Centre
- The Riverfront Arts Centre
- Seren Publishing
- Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel
- Swansea MAD
- The Abbey Theatre, Dublin
- The Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament Engagement Team
- University of South Wales
- Urdd
- Wales Millennium Centre
- WISERD
- Welsh Centre for International Affairs
- Youth Cymru
Interested in The Talking Shop?
For further information, to support this work or to become a collaborator, co-host or partner, get in touch with Yvonne Murphy at Omidaze.
Get in touchThe Talking Shop™ and The Democracy Box™ and all associated content is copyright Omidaze Productions / Yvonne Murphy 2020. All rights reserved.