It’s like a cross between an art installation and your nan’s house.
Increasing cultural and democratic participation through creativity, information and democratic deliberation #OneConversationAtATime
A shop which sells nothing and where ideas, information, conversation and creative activities are free.
And so is the tea.
#EveryonesInvited
Watch The Talking Shop trial Merthyr Tydfil video
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. Inside The Talking Shop you will find The Democracy Box Story.
We want
The Talking Shop visitors & their conversations to be influencing policy & decision making and shaping their public services all year round
Everyone to be able to participate meaningfully & have a say in the cultural & democratic life of our country all year round & not only at the ballot box every few years
Everyone to know The Democracy Box story so that everyone can understand the basics of of our UK democracy and be involved all year round.
“Every town should have a Talking Shop”– Talking Shop Visitor
Take a tour around The Talking Shop Blackwood
News
The Talking Shop We completed the 4th and final trial of The Talking Shop in Blackwood, Caerphilly County in May 2025. We now have a proof of concept and blueprint of how The Talking Shop could exist in any town. We are passionate about making the first long-term Talking Shop in Wales & we want public bodies & governments at all levels to invest in & roll out The Talking Shop, The Talking Shop on Tour and The Tiny Talking Shop 3 tier model. We believe that information, conversation & democratic deliberation, facilitated by artists & creatives inside a creative space, which provides a living room & kitchen & dining room table for everyone, can increase democratic & cultural participation & so much more.
The Talking Shop on Tour is also ready. An outdoor mobile version of The Talking Shop without walls which can arrive on a beach, a housing estate, a village green, park or public patch of grass Thanks to Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner and the Healthy Homes Alliance (Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board) for making the R&D possible and to Cardiff Capital Region for commissioning the first tour in summer 2025. The Talking Shop 2025 visited Cardiff, Porthcawl, Cwmbran, Newport, Merthyr Tydfil
The Tiny Talking Shop will take a tiny portion of the key ingredients of the model (a sofa, a lamp and a kitchen table to existing indoor public spaces and comes complete with a Talking Shop recipe book. Talking Shop hosts with flasks of tea and a creative activity can be trained and booked on an ad hoc basis to host the space and faciliate intimate conversations and signpost visitors to the nearest Talking Shop and involve people who cannot, for multiple reasons, access the fixed site.
💥 Commission us to install a Tiny Talking Shop – a micro public living room installed in your public space or institution complete with some of the key Talking Shop ingredients & a recipe book for how to use it. We can also recruit & train creatives and artists and/or members of your team to host & facilitate your very own Tiny Talking Shop. This will support our work in creating permanent Talking Shops
This is not consultation. This is creative conversations, democratic & cultural participation & democratic deliberation.
The Talking Shop 2019 Cardiff pilot report is here
The Talking Shop and The Democracy Box and all associated content is copyright Omidaze Productions/Yvonne Murphy 2020. All rights reserved.
Watch The Talking Shop Blackwood trial video by by one of The Democracy Box young co-creators
“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 and acknowledging the value that everyone brings as experts in their own lives.”– Sandy Clubb Office of the Future Generations Commission
The Talking Shop is championed by the Future Generation’s Commissioner in Wales who recently published guidance for public bodies working with cultural freelancers which includes The Talking Shop as a case study Omidaze partnered with the first Future Generation’s Commissioner to develop and trial the model which embodies all 5 ways of working.
What is The Talking Shop?
The Talking Shop is a very public living room in a disused shop, which contains The Democracy Boxand focuses on the intersection between cultural and democratic participation. We are developing the use of creative approaches to deliberative democracy and exploring how creatives and creativity can increase everyone’s participation, involvement and engagement in the democratic and cultural life of our nation and help shape all our public services.
Yvonne Murphy/Omidaze Productions Ltd have been developing the concept of The Talking Shop since 2017. A place to find out What’s On and What’s What. The Talking Shop is a public space in a town or city centre and hosted and facilitated six days a week by trained professional freelance artists and creatives and co-hosts from collaborating and partner organisations.
2022 -2025 Omidaze produced trials of The Talking Shop across Wales incorporating The Democracy Box to create a blueprint The Talking Shop and create a proof of concept to enable The Talking Shop to exist in any town.
The main aim of The Talking Shop is to tackle our democratic deficit and increase cultural and democratic participation both at and beyond the ballot box. However Omidaze began to realise in 2019 that the benefits and impact of The Talking Shop model far outreach these main aims.
The Talking Shop trials have evidenced the power of the model to also help us confront and tackle some of society’s most pressing issues including polarisation, isolation and loneliness; mental and physical health, well-being, inter-generational connection, anti-social behaviour, crime, employability, skills development, community cohesion, and urban regeneration. The model has also been independently evaluated to support access to creative infrastructure, networks and systems which in turn supports access to innovation, entrepreneurship and economic possibilities.
The model has been trialled and tested in multiple locations across Wales and has recorded over 17,000 visits and 100% positive feedback. Visitors express a joy at finding The Talking Shop and a desperate need for it. The Talking Shop does not replace or compete with any existing services or provision. Rather it maps and provides a gateway, a signpost and a route to all pre-existing cultural and democratic activity within a 25 mile radius which is underpinned by democratic education, information, conversation and democratic deliberation through creativity.
“Every town should have a Talking Shop.” -Talking Shop visitors
Watch The Talking Shop Cardiff & Newport trials video
Inside The Talking Shop
Everyone is welcome. There is no need to book. Just pop in and stay for as long as you like. Free WiFi. Free tea. Free information and conversation. You can join in a conversation or programmed activity or work, study, read, draw, think, meet people or just find a quiet place to just ‘be’.
On The Talking Shop walls are big open questions which are used to centre and focus conversations between complete strangers who enter and meet over a cuppa.
Everyone contributes to and helps curate the shop. The Talking Shop aims to address the current democratic deficit by raising democratic participation (including but not limited to registering to vote) through conversation, information and creative approaches to democratic deliberation.
The Talking Shop’s creative approaches to deliberative democracy have included bunting making, collaging (individual and collective), stone painting, poetry, journaling, origami, knitting, crocheting, music, podcasting, creative writing, paper lantern making, graffiti, Christmas crafts, clay modelling, pompom making, illustration, zine making, dance and spoken word.
Everything inside The Talking Shop is being carefully designed and created in response to years of research and thousands of visitors and their feedback.
The Talking Shop has a zero or minimal carbon footprint. All furniture and shop dressing is begged, borrowed, gifted and recycled.
The Talking Shops trials
Cardiff 36-38 Castle Arcade April – July 2022
Newport Unit 9 Friars Walk Newport April 2022
Merthyr Tydfil October 2022 – February 2023
Blackwood March 2024 – June 2025
Visitors range from 6 months to 96 years old and include all socio/economic demographics with a high percentage of young people aged 16-30 and visitors represent the full range of democratically engaged from self-declared non-engagement to highly engaged citizens. Omidaze’s work to date has successfully evidenced that a majority of Welsh citizens do not currently understand how our democracy works and fits together and need a shared baseline of information before they can engage in meaningful democratic deliberation. The Talking Shop and The Democracy Box combined address this identified need.
Watch Newport Youth Council Members video of The Talking Shop Newport trial
“What is this place?”
It’s a place to find out what’s on, to share stuff you know that’s happening with others & also find out about the basics of our democracy & how it actually works & fits together so perhaps we can all begin to understand it & write the next chapter together.
It’s a place where you can meet others, not be alone, or find a space to call your own.
It’s a space where you don’t need money to enter or be & someone will make you a free cup of tea.
It’s a space where you can just hang out, work, sit, think, dream, read, get connected, be welcomed, informed, inspired, signposted and heard.
It’s a space for the young, the old & everyone in between. It’s a shop which sells nothing because ideas, conversation and information are free.
An open and safe space for the public and creatives to be informed citizens and collide, converse, connect, collude and create.
The Talking Shop is a physical ‘what’s on’ and ‘what’s what?’ cultural and democratic hub which everyone helps curate. It is a public space which explores the intersection between cultural and democratic participation and creative approaches to democratic deliberation.
A space with information, creation and conversation at its core.
A space in which to articulate, champion and strengthen the role of the creativity and democracy in society and empower through a sharing of information and knowledge. A place which encourages and facilitates public engagement with creativity, arts and culture and democratic participation. The average footfall in the trials was over 300 people a week.
The Talking Shop™ is a public space in which to articulate, champion and strengthen the role of culture and democracy in society and empower and inform people and thereby increase participation through a sharing of information and knowledge.
We invite all artists & creatives and the public to use the space to work, to think, to talk, to find stuff out, to share, to be. To collide, converse, connect, collude & create. Together.
Watch the Cares Family video of The Talking Shop Cardiff trial
“None of us are as smart as all of us” Japanese proverb
The Talking Shop model has been evidenced to:-
Be a data gathering learning machine for the whole community which provides a permanent pipeline of community voice and lived experience though conversation not consultation.
Support and positively impact prevention, community well-being, resilience and participation
Support all of Marmot principles and in particular principles 5-8
Support the Social Services Well-being Act’s key aims of co-operation, partnerships and integration
Be a creative and unique third space
Increase democratic and cultural knowledge and participation
Increase voter registration and voter turn out
Support mental health and well-being
Support physical health and the health prevention agenda
Tackle isolation and loneliness
Tackle polarisation and build cohesive communities
Lower crime and anti-social behaviour rates
Provide volunteering, networking and skills opportunities
Increase employability
Help signpost to all services including employment opportunities
Improve social and economic activity
Increase tourism
Address inequality
Help build supportive and supported communities
Support the reimagining of the High Street and urban regeneration
Provide opportunities for Intergenerational connection
Improve confidence, self-esteem and raise expectations
Support rehabilitation
To be a powerful tool in mitigating fake news and misinformation and tackling polarisation
Provide key data for unbiased feedback and an evidence pie, giving equal weighting to lived experience, professional experience and community voice
Share the power by inviting people to be part of an ongoing conversation rather than consultation
Facilitate curiosity, inquiry and exploration underpinned by democratic education and fact checked information
Contribute to the social prescribing landscape with signposting to services and democratic and cultural events, groups, organisations and opportunities
Join the dots and facilitate widespread collaboration and partnership working under one roof by providing a neutral non-partisan public facing physical creative space which is open to everyone and is facilitated 6 days a week
Engage young people and people of all ages involving people from all demographics
Support people in crisis to access services
Increasing footfall to the area and economic prosperity
Promote the Welsh Language
Raise Environmental Consciousness
How is The Talking Shop Funded?
A multiple stakeholder model
The Democracy Box report strongly recommends that “The Talking Shop model (including The Talking Shop on Tour) 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 to make The Talking Shop a sustainable and long-term initiative. Rather, multiple stakeholders – cross departments of local authorities, devolved government and UK government together with all public bodies including the police and health boards together with cultural organisations and additional partners and collaborators – need to come together and repurpose percentages of existing budgets strands for public consultation, involvement, engagement and participation, outreach, marketing, policymaking and service design in a more joined up, creative and effective manner in line with the Well-being of Future Generations Act seven goals and five ways of working.and thereby maximize reach and impact and enable the public to be involved in and help shape decisons, systems, policies and services through their lived experiences
“I feel like I’ve just come home” – Talking Shop Visitor
The Talking Shop Proposed Partner and Collaborator structure
Level 1 – Collaborating organisations contributing in-kind time (co-hosting), skills (programming) and resources (from pens and paper to creative materials etc). Mutually beneficial association and increased engagement levels, sharing of skills, knowledge and resources etc.
Level 2 – Collaborating organisations plus contributing time as above plus small amounts of financial investment ranging from £500 to £5,000. Benefits as above plus access to data and/or studio space for a limited period.
Level 3 – Core partners (public bodies and local authorities, devolved government and UK government) the main investors and jointly responsible for the shop with all of the above benefits plus ongoing unlimited access to all data, space, public involvement and engagement and outreach work. Budget contribution will be scaled according to the partners budget. A MOA will outline how all core partners can come together with a shared purpose under the auspices of a co-written and mutually agreed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). The proposed MOA can include the inclusion of additional future partners as the work develops.
Level of Investment for core partners
The financial model would be one of agreed contributions, for an initial first year, made by all core partners depending on their financial ability and budget lines which can be repurposed including for consultation, participation, involvement, communication, marketing, policy etc and/or Shared Prosperity (SPF)/Pride of Place funding in the case of the local authority.
The vision is that core partners come to the table using cross departmental investment from multiple departments who would repurpose a percentage of existing budget strands for consultation, engagement, involvement, comms, marketing etc. This is a very diferent way of working. All departments would then benefit from the data generated by The Talking Shop conversations and by being involved in those conversations thereby involving the public in strategic decision making, policy making and service design in all areas from regeneration, employment and skills, housing, education etc, as well as culture and democracy, all in line with the WBFG Act (Wales).
“I think of the shop as a place if you want a chat and love talking about history and is a good option of a place to go” – Talking Shop visitor recently released from prison
The main cost of The Talking Shop is the shop unit plus the freelance hosts.
The 2019 pilot was made possible by National Theatre Wales under Artistic Director Kully Thiarai. Sometimes just one person believeing in and supporting an idea can make everything possible.
The Talking Shop trials 2022-25were made possible with multiple funding strands and collaborations and partnerships.Omidaze was part of the first Cares Family Multiplier Programme funded by UnLtd and were awarded a small grant towards reopening & developing The Talking Shop in 2022. This covered one month of the Cardiff Shop. A Local Government Elections Division Third Sector Grant awarded to the Riverfront supported one month of the Cardiff Talking Shop and the one month Newport trial Talking Shop. Omidaze went into partnership with the Future Generations Commissioner in November 2021 and developed The Democracy Box™ and The Talking Shop™ through this partnership and their investment in Omidaze supported the third month of the Talking Shop™ in Cardiff . The Wales Millennium Centre funded the Merthyr Tydfil shop from a project they were partnering on with Creu Cyffro. Omidaze was funded by the Electoral Commission for 6 months (October 2023-March 2024) which enabled us to finish developing and begin working out how to upscale all three Democracy Box prototypes and write the Democracy Box report. The Blackwood trial has been made possible through SPF funding from the Arts Development Team at Caerphilly County Borough Council and additional financial support from WISERD, Fusion, Open University and Welsh Government Climate Change Transition Consultation Funding and in-kind support from multiple organisations including Welsh Centre for International Affairs, the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner, Wales Millennium Centre and Menter Iaith Caerfilli
List of The Democracy Box and The Talking Shop Partners, Collaborators and Funders
Partners and 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 (via a Welsh Government Local Elections Grant)
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, Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, Dr Matthew Wall, Associate Professor, Politics, Philosophy and International Relations, 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, Professor Laura McAllister, Professor of Public Policy and the Governance of Wales at the Wales Governance Centre, The Riverfront Arts Centre, Seren Publishing, Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel, Swansea MAD, The Abbey Theatre, Dublin, The Politics Project, The Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament Engagement Team, University of South Wales, Urdd, Wales Millennium Centre, WISERD, Welsh Centre for International Affairs, Youth Cymru.
For further information or if you would like to support this work and/or be a collaborator/co-host please email Yvonne Murphy aka Omidaze (OhMyDays!)Productions omidaze@outlook.com
The Talking Shop™ and The Democracy Box™ and all associated content is copyright Omidaze Productions/Yvonne Murphy 2020
“Evocative and inspiring to a level I could not imagine.” Talking Shop pilot visitor 2019
How it all began
Yvonne Murphy was directing and producing Romeo and Juliet – Omidaze’s final part of the Shakespeare Trilogy in 2017 (co-productions with the Wales Millennium Centre) when the idea of The Talking Shop began to take shape. The concept came from her time as UK strategic lead to the UK wide cultural movement What Next? and her desire to include the public in that conversation and her growing understanding that she was not in the minority as someone who had not fully understood our UK democracy in her twenties, thirties and even her forties.
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 and which as well explaining the play and iambic pentameter explained how our UK democracy works and fits together.
The workshop was a success and educators and adults who heard about it said that they needed it too. A public R&D was the next step.
Yvonne knew that she wanted to focus on democratic and cultural engagement and participation and wanted to research two things -her next production(s) and the concept of The Talking Shop itself.
To do both these things she knew she had to seek out voices that are currently under-represented in our theatres, our live performances and our audiences. She wanted to listen carefully to what excites, angers, engages and inspires people in Wales and Britain today. She wanted to hear people’s views and thoughts on politics, culture and society. She knew she needed to not be behind closed doors to develop the next Omidaze production. 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 when they said
“This is theatre that you are doing right here, this conversation now is theatre in it’s purest form”
The Talking Shop pilot took place between March 25 and April 20 2019 in 33 High Street Arcade Cardiff and was 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 & our team of volunteers including Lewis Gwyther, Jennifer Lunn, Ella Maxwell, Shane Nickels, Clare Issac and George Soave. Playwrights in residence were Kyle Lima, Tracy Harris and Dick Johns.
The Talking Shop pilot was designed by Yvonne Murphy along with 2nd year USW Design Students Bethan Thomas & Ashley Phillips with illustrations by 2nd year Cardiff Met CSAD students Maria Elorza Saralegui & Vicky Yang and was further curated during the month it was open by over 550 visitors including creatives and artists or all disciplines and members of the public from all over the world. Everyone had free tea courtesy of Cardiff City Council.
“Love this space. Very Welcoming and Open” Talking Shop Pilot Visitor 2019
A Cultural Information Centre
In The Talking Shop™ you can find out things. What is on in theatres and performance spaces in your town or city. What shows are on in galleries, what exhibitions were happening, concerts and workshops. You can find out about creative learning and participation projects and how to book an artist to deliver work in your school or business. It was a physical listings hub. A place to drop in and find stuff out. To add to. To be part of. It was a physical ‘What’s On’ Space which everyone helps create and curate.
A Democracy Information Centre
The Talking Shop™ is a place to find out about and understand our democratic structures and systems. It had no political bias or party affiliation. Our democratic systems are explained. The difference, for example, between local elections and general elections. You can pick up The Democracy Box Story of our UK Democracy bilingual booklet or read the story on the walls or watch Democracy Box content on the screens or via QR codes. You can read posters and leaflets with information from the Welsh Parliament, UK parliament and your local councilor. You can find out who your elected representatives are, when they hold surgeries and how to contact them and who is responsible for what. You can find out how to start a petition, how to give evidence to or contact a committee and be informed about who holds the power, who represents you and how to get your voice heard all year round and not just at the ballot box. Access, Engagement and Social Justice were and are key.
A Creative Centre
The Talking Shop™ is for artists, creatives and the public to get together, share ideas, collaborate. It is a new way of working. We invite people to just pop in and sit on the sofa. Have a cup of tea and be inspired, challenged, informed. Work. Listen. Network. Research. Artists and creatives and members of the public are invited to use the space, to just drop in and meet each other and try and test out new ideas. Or old ones because sometimes they’re the best. To share information, ask questions, discuss. Questions are all around the shop and the public are invited to discuss a new question each day, to step inside. To think about this. Together. We also programme free weekly creative activities hosted and facilitated by us and our partners and collaborators
The Talking Shop writers in residence & rehearsed readings 2019 & 2023
Tracy Harris, Kyle Lima & Dick Johns were The Talking Shop pilot writers in residence and received dramaturgical support from Omidaze and our partners National Theatre Wales and Catherine Paskell at Dirty Protest.
A sample of their work which came from The Talking Shop was presented as Public Rehearsed Readings in June 2019 funded by NTW. Kyle Lima went on to receive a seed commission from National Theatre Wales to write the first full draft of his play. Both this and Dick Johns’ full length play 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 send you a message after Thursday’s Talking Shop event, to say how important I think your work is. I know the Talking Shop has all sorts of amazing benefits but the key on for me is the social side of things – not only finding people through networking which allows us to take steps toward leading the life we want, as well as helping others do the same – but also just simply finding people to talk to… There’s such a feeling of importance to this whole project. I hope something can come out of it.”
Lucy – Talking Shop Visitor and Rehearsed Readings Audience Member
Please click on the links below for info on our four productions to date:
