‘H2O: How 2 Open waterways – Who are the Water Turners?
 ‘H2O’ is an arts-led, community facilitation project designed to help provide access to the UK’s more than 2000 miles of waterways available for public use.
 The H2O project was conceived to share and inspire people who do not currently have access to the waterways. We want to build imaginative bridges that will lead them to the water’s edge to the point where they feel able and entitled to dip their toes in the waterways.
 Have you ever asked yourself who has access to the waterways? Many assume that the waters are for the wealthy in pursuit of expensive water sports, or for those whose trade depends on water, the fisheries, ferry routes or ocean liners. That is not entirely true. This project is an attempt to demystify such perceptions. We aim to invite those who are particularly disadvantaged when it comes to accessing the waterways, to build a relationship and develop an understanding of how the waterways can become part of their lives, regardless of their current situation.
 Since the early 60s at least, there have been considerable national efforts to clean up our canals and rivers, to encourage public use and go ‘messing about on the river’ as the well-known Josh MacRae songs goes. While there have been significant improvements, all of which encourage access and usage, from our experience of paddling many miles of the waterways in the UK, we notice how little they are used and how underpopulated many waterways are. Miles and miles can be paddled without meeting any fellow travellers either on/in/or beside the water. Canals in urban centres, especially in cities like London and Manchester, have seen a surge in regeneration projects, not unlike the widespread urban regeneration programmes that docklands have experienced since the noughties. The regeneration of canals has often privileged a certain kind of professional with means to afford canal views, but this offers a particular way of life for a very small percentage of the population. Living on longboats has been seen as an alternative, and often, the only affordable option for living arrangements in expensive urban centres. But like most urban regeneration projects, there is a real threat of the perils of gentrification and how commodifying a canal way of life is edging ever nearer. Having said that, the thousands of miles of canal, rivers and not to mention the coastlines, offers an invitation to all to bring the transformative power of interaction with water into our everyday lives.
 This project is brought to you by two paddling enthusiasts that have worked in a number of community settings and have seen first-hand how people always-already have a relationship with the waterways, even if that has never materialised in using the waterways directly. Therefore, this project is about (re)introducing people to the rich and varied network of waterscapes that can be an explicit part of our everyday lives. Whether our relationship to water is primary or secondary, we can’t escape the reoccurrence of water as a theme or metaphor in all art forms. Artists have responded, captured, questioned, repositioned, and explored our relationship and understandings of water for centuries. This H2O is about reconnecting people with the power of water for wellbeing and artistic inspiration.
 This project starts by getting people who, for the most part, don’t have an immediate relationship, or access with the waterways, to consider how they feel about the waterways and what potential there is to develop this relationship further in the future. For many, the inability to interact directly with the waterways may be due to a number of reasons, this may include living restrictions such as incarceration, immobility, people living with dementia, or sick children. The H2O project aims to work with these groups of people and explore the therapeutic power of the waterways to aid their wellbeing.
 As part of our preparation and generation of workshop material for delivering the H2O project, we have been very lucky to work with some great people. At TATE Liverpool, Alison Jones needs particular recognition for her continued support for our projects. We built a canoe, engaging in the ancient craft of canoe building under the generous guidance of John Clohesy at birchcanoes.com. We had members of Amathus Dragon Boating Club based in Liverpool give their blood, sweat and tears (of laughter ) into the canoe building – with thanks to Amy Courtenay, Oliver Cristian, Anne Darvill and Callum McShane. A special thank you to our talented undergraduate students from Liverpool Hope University Krushnaa Chousalkar and Sean Fullwood for their talents in documenting the project.
 The UK Government’s website Boats and Waterways (https://www.gov.uk/browse/environment-countryside/boats-waterways) and The Canal and River Trust (https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/) offer a host of information about use and access, inviting everybody to get active and involved in the great network of waterways that surround and crisscross the island nations of the UK.
 John Ruskin said of JMW Turner’s relentless desire to capture the essence of water in his extensive portfolio of water themed paintings, as futile and like ‘trying to paint a soul’. As modern living places particular challenges on our everyday lives, we would like to think of H2O as an attempt to get people thinking about the waterways as a place where you can paint your soul, at least you can give it a go and see what happens!