corporate stories

sound:images

Posted on 11 October
In 2010 and 2011, Create brought together disabled and non-disabled secondary schoolchildren for sound:images, a new music and visual art project inspired by The Harlequin shopping centre in Watford. Here, Alexander Nicoll, Director of Corporate Responsibility (CR) at Create’s corporate partner, Capital Shopping Centres Group PLC (CSC), talks about the company’s relationship with Create.

“As part of our CR policy, we are committed to working closely with the communities served by our businesses. CSC is currently one of only 41 UK organisations to have been awarded the Business in the Community CommunityMark and we take a thorough, ambitious and co-ordinated approach to CR.

Our CR policy is endorsed at Board level. There is a dedicated Board Committee chaired by our Chairman, including our CEO, which focuses on promoting our CR engagement. As Director of CR, I report directly to the CEO and to our Board CR Committee.

Sound images

I first encountered Create through a different facet of my life. I served as a Westminster City Councillor for 16 years, latterly serving a year as Lord Mayor. In 2009, I represented the Council at a Create event showcasing the work of young carers in north Westminster. I was very impressed and asked Create’s Executive Director, Nicky Goulder if we could meet.

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changing:spaces

Posted on 02 April
Debbie works at RBS Group and volunteered for one of Create’s flagship CR projects, changing:spaces, at Lucas Vale Primary School.

Changing spaces

changing:spaces combined participants’ creativity and imagination with the skills and energy of Create’s professional artist, writer and corporate volunteers to transform a bleak and bare four storey staircase within the school. First, the children at Lucas Vale Primary spent a week working alongside a writer and artist from Create to come up with designs for the four different levels: under the sea, a land of delights, the sky and outer space.

They envisioned disco dancing animals under the sea; dragons warming the first floor with their fiery breath; silver unicorn sunning themselves on the second floor; and, on the top floor, sparkly planets and spaceships shooting off between the stars! The corporate volunteers, together with Create’s artist, then painted the staircase using the children’s drawings and ideas.

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