CREATE IS SEEKING PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS / WORKSHOP LEADERS IN THE NORTH WEST
Create is seeking freelance artists / workshop leaders to join the charity’s freelance artist pool in the North West of England.
This is a hugely exciting time to join Create as we aim to double our reach and income over the next five years, and establish a new North West hub in Manchester. To make this vision a reality, we are recruiting professional artists based in the North West (in/around Greater Manchester/ Merseyside) to run creative arts projects in the region and become part of our artist pool.
All Create artists are highly experienced professional practising artists in a range of fields (eg: visual art, photography, filmmaking, dance, drama, writing), who work on a freelance basis once they have been appointed to the charity’s pool. The recruitment process includes: application; interview; workshop observation*; references; DBS check; and a trial project.
* Part of the recruitment process, for those selected at the interview stage, is for Create to observe artists leading a workshop in a community setting. Please only apply if you know you have a workshop coming up in the near future or are able to organise one for Create to attend (in venue or via Zoom).
To apply for this role you must be based in/around Greater Manchester or Merseyside.
HOW TO APPLY
Download the application pack, which includes a full job description and person specification.
This is an open application period with no fixed deadline.
To apply, please send a completed application form using the job description and person specification as reference with a short email providing a telephone number where you can be contacted in confidence.
Completed application forms can be emailed to megan@createarts.org.uk (please type the job title in the subject field).
If you’d like to submit an artist application in a different format please contact us.
Create is committed to a policy of equal opportunities embracing diversity in all areas of activity and welcomes applications from disabled people and people of all ethnicities.
Holly Khan: From Nurturing Talent to Board of Trustees
Holly Khan is a professional musician and facilitator. In October 2021, we appointed her a Trustee of Create.
Holly balances her time between music composition and running workshops with a wide range of people, including our Create participants. She first came into contact with us through our emerging artist development programme, Nurturing Talent. We invited Holly to take part in Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership training this year, along with eight other Create colleagues.
We spoke to Holly about her journey with Create, her work with other organisations – including her own social enterprise, Heartstrings – and her passion for championing climate action.
Your journey with us began with Nurturing Talent. How do you feel about the programme now, in hindsight?
I found it incredibly useful. I already had a lot of the skills and tools, but Nurturing Talent gave me the connections and confidence to establish myself as a facilitator. Working across the year with such a vast demographic of participants, from SEND young people to older people living with dementia, really empowers you to feel like you can walk into any room and lead a workshop. After just a few months on Nurturing Talent, I started to feel confident in applying for paid positions, and I’ve never looked back. Now, 50% of my income is facilitation and 50% is composition. That really wouldn’t have been the case if I hadn’t done Nurturing Talent.
Can you tell me about the social enterprise you’ve set up?
It started years ago in my brain; it started more tangibly about a-year-and-a-half ago. I applied for/was recruited by an organisation called Year Here. You get put on the front line of social injustice, you work in different areas, you research, you prototype, and you end up making your own social enterprise. On my cohort of people there was someone who has worked as a coder for NASA, there was a financial editor. I was there as a composer and I had massive imposter syndrome.
I am still working on it, but Heartstrings is running. It’s a creatively conscious childcare service. We provide workshops for six-month-olds to six-year-olds, and we focus on music, movement and mindfulness, to develop milestones and encourage empathy. We do this by employing refugees – refugee artists and care experts – to lead these workshops. There’s a unique cultural exchange in every workshop because we share songs and stories from around the globe. It’s a subsidised model so more affluent families pay more and lower income families pay less so there’s a social economic mix of people in the room. The vision is to expand all over London and regionally as well.
“I’m very lucky to do not only what I love but multiple things I love.”
Holly Khan
How does composition fit into this mix?
I’m very lucky to do not only what I love but multiple things I love. My first love is connecting through music. That’s in composition and in facilitation. I never like music for the technical aspects. I learnt very early on, when I was about 18, that if you’re not practising for eight hours a day then you’re not going to get super far as a classical musician or a session musician, so I said: ‘That path isn’t for me.’
I try to compose for things that have a social mission. I’ve written music for plays that raise awareness about undiagnosed heart conditions (Ticker by Tom Machell is currently at the Turbine Theatre raising money for CRY charity); and I wrote a piece called Their Voices, which was part of the Global Health Film Festival in the Barbican, about children in Iceland seeing their landscapes disintegrate. It was about climate change. And this last week I composed for Amal Meets Alice, which was commissioned for The Story Museum. Amal is a refugee puppet, based on a real Syrian girl. Handspring Puppet Company – the people who made War Horse – and Good Chance – the people who made The Jungle – have created her and she’s walking through cities from Syria. She was just in Oxford, and I was composing for that performance. It was amazing. Seeing 20,000 people turn up and support this cause. Everywhere she goes is an arts festival. And then yesterday I just closed an audio installation commissioned by Let’s Do London, the GLA, Mayor of London and Battersea Arts Centre. My piece was a provocation, that more could and should be done about women’s safety in light of Sabina Nessa and Sarah Everard. That was really great to do.
How did you find the Climate Reality training, and how do you think it will affect your work?
It was very eye-opening. It was very disturbing. The most disturbing thing to me is not only that these things are happening, but they’re not being reported. Having said that though, it was very hopeful. I really enjoyed learning about the ways to be hopeful; and how hope is a practice, how you don’t have to be a scientist to be able to take steps in solving the climate crisis: you can be an artist, you can be a musician. That was really important to hear. Because you can feel helpless.
How can we make it easy for people to buy into this movement? I’m half-Guyanese and half-British, and Guyana is incredibly affected by the climate crisis. When I look at my landscape in London, when I look out of the window, nothing has changed because of the climate crisis. So it’s really hard for people to connect to the fact that human beings in other parts of the world are having their houses ripped apart by flooding or fires. Having that understanding and thinking of the world as a borderless place is something I want to take forward and use as a practice, to get people to think about where they’re from, not just where they wake up, but where their ancestors are from, where their friends and family are from.
You’re championing this issue on our Board of Trustees. How do you think Create can take this issue forward?
First and foremost, it’s really exciting. It’s very common with a board of Trustees that I’m not only the youngest, I’m also currently the only person of colour and I’m a woman. These things all intersect. So my ideas about the climate crisis, and how I want to present that, all intersect with this historically not being a place where people like me would be able to do that. I’m very pleased to be that voice.
At Create, we’ve spoken a lot about how over the next 5-10 years we’re going to reduce waste, not only practices of recycling, but how in travel and transportation, in deliveries, in materials, we can make a difference and an impact. But also what I think I’m most excited about is how we can raise awareness thematically. Create interacts with hundreds of participants. How can we use the climate crisis as a theme to inspire people to take action? The environment is something that older people, young people, anyone can relate to, so what if we use this as a theme for the workshops and use that as a trajectory of change?
How does it feel being part of the Create Board?
It sounds like such a simple thing, but actually feeling represented and being represented is so important. What I’m most proud of is that anyone coming through Nurturing Talent, or any participant, young girls who experience racism, can see that it’s possible to get into these rooms. And not only get into these rooms but have a voice and use it.
How do you feel about your journey with Create, now that you reflect on it?
I feel very lucky. There aren’t many times in a freelance, self-employed or creative person’s life where there are tangible stepping stones. A lot of the time it’s side to side, you finish a job and you’re back to square one. But with Create there has been this amazing trajectory for me where everything I’ve done has added up and has become a ladder for me to climb. That is amazing. I would never have anticipated when I started Nurturing Talent that it would open all these doors and bring me to where I am now. It is down to the organisation trusting me and believing in me, and I want this to be a lifelong relationship.
During October we worked with four schools in Manchester and Salford, bringing together disabled and non-disabled children to make music. The project, creative:connection, gave students a chance to be creative and to build connections, breaking down barriers and prejudices around disability.
The four schools – Grange School and Loreto High School in Manchester, and Chatsworth High School and New Park Academy in Salford – were paired up and created music together on the theme of “modern day superheroes”.
The project culminated in a dynamic concert at Manchester Central Library on 22 October. The performance formed part of Manchester Literature Festival and was attended by pupils from the four schools, teachers, parents and guardians, Create staff, members of the public and festival, and other special guests.
“A real bond was struck as we developed the music.”
Create musician Mike Poyser
AN AMAZING WEEK OF MUSIC MAKING
Create musician Mike Poyser, who worked on the project and hosted the final performance, said: “It was a truly amazing week of music-making. The workshops saw two schools getting used to working together to make music with me, while Matt Dunn the other facilitator worked with the other two schools.
“As the week went on, the music organically materialised using sound samples of poetry and their own voices alongside the children becoming more and more comfortable in each other’s company. A real bond was struck as we developed the music.
“The performance day is a complex beast trying to bring all four schools together for the first time and rehearsing all the music one last time before the show. The children really got stuck in and concentrated really hard to ensure the show went well. And it really did go well!! Forty-five minutes of brand new music was performed and lots of fun was had by all!”
MEET LIAM
Liam (13), a student from Chatsworth High School, took part in the project. We spoke to him on the day before the final performance. “I’m really proud to be part of this project,” he said. “The song we’ve created is absolutely phenomenal to be honest. It feels like we’ve created The Beatles or something.
“I haven’t had the joy of making music since I was five or six years old. Ever since the pandemic I’ve been wanting to meet new people but I’ve not had the chance because we had to stay inside, which was probably the worst thing ever.
“It’s nerve-wracking [working with the New Park students] to say the least. I get stage fright and I also get an awkwardness when I meet new people, so getting to meet an entire new school … ! I feel a lot calmer now, I’m just nervous about the performance tomorrow. I’m going to need to conquer my fear, which is going to be really hard.
“Just driving to Manchester is going to be frightening. I might end up crying afterwards [with relief]. My dad would be proud if he was still alive.”
creative:connection Manchester was funded by The Ashley Family Foundation, The Michael Tippett Musical Foundation and The Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust. In-kind support was provided by Manchester Central Library and Manchester Literature Festival.
creative:voices is Create’s multi-artform programme that enables adult carers to take a creative break from their caring responsibilities, build trusting relationships with their peers and develop communication skills, new interests and confidence.
During October 2021, we worked with 11 adult carers from Harrow aged 26-60 for eight weeks of music workshops with our professional musician Fernando Machado.
Aarchna told us about her experiences:
“I care for my daughter who has had mental health issues and I also care for my elderly mum. My role is very busy. If you are in a full-time job, in normal circumstances you do 9-5 and then you’re finished. But as a carer, it’s a full-time job. They’re calling in the middle of the night, there’s always something that’s not right so you’re a fixer basically. You just have to keep on fixing, fixing, fixing all the issues they have. So it’s a very difficult role, but it is for life, and you’ve just got to take each day as it comes.
“I enjoyed the group work, I enjoyed writing the lyrics and everything together. Working with a group of carers, we created something really nicely co-ordinated. I never knew I would love musical instruments because some of the instruments I’ve never even seen! So now I’m actually looking at anything in my kitchen that can make some sort of rhythm or noise.
Listen to the participants perform their music
“I’VE DECIDED TO TAKE UP GUITAR LESSONS”
“I was so impressed with the way Fernando introduced us to all the different instruments – the guitar particularly – that I went out the next day, saw a guitar at a charity shop and I just couldn’t stop looking at it. So in the end I bought it and I’ve not stopped using it! I don’t even know any notes of music but just having the guitar on my lap and listening to the sound, even if it’s not tuned, it’s just so relaxing and I have now decided that I will take up some lessons.
“THESE PROJECTS TAKE AWAY THE ISOLATION”
“Projects like this really help carers because we come away from the caring world to something different and it’s very special because our world is in a bubble. It’s 24/7 and you’re so sucked into it that you forget your own self. These projects give you an opportunity to see what you’re capable of, doesn’t matter what age. It gives you happiness. It’s meeting other people and you don’t feel so isolated. So I think projects like this are really helpful. It really just takes away the isolation because you’re struggling on your own. People say they’ll help or they understand, but really, they don’t know what you’re going through in your day-to-day routine. So our world is different.
“As carers we always look after everybody else and you never ever think about yourself. So to create something for yourself with alike people, it just made me think that there’s something inside you, there is a talent. I think Create works for the words it says, it created something in us. It gave us an opportunity to create something which we never knew we had.”
creative:voices Harrow was supported by Arts Council England, awarding funding from The National Lottery.
creative:voices is Create’s project giving adult carers the opportunity to explore their creativity in high-quality creative arts workshops. In October 2021, members of Carers Leeds took part in collage workshops with our professional artist Renata Minoldo. We spoke to Alexandra about her experience on the project.
“I’ve been caring for about six years now. My father has a lung condition, which is terminal. A couple of other family members who are closer to home have had illnesses that have left them feeling very anxious and struggling with their mental health most days. With my father it’s a degenerative disease so we know the stages it will go through, but the mental health side is much more unpredictable and therefore more difficult from a carer’s perspective.
“I didn’t really appreciate how many different technical forms of collage there are. It’s not just cutting a sheet out of a piece of paper. You can look at it from more of a surrealist perspective or an impressionist perspective. Or you could go out and collect materials from your garden and use leaves and flowers and bits of twigs and come up with more of a botanical piece of work. It’s really expanded my horizons.
A collage made by one of the participants from Carers Leeds
“I’ve enjoyed mixing with the group and people of all different ages, viewpoints and backgrounds and it’s obviously influenced the pieces of work that we’ve done. But we’ve also formed mini friendships. We’ve all been supportive of each other and if one of us has said ‘I don’t think this piece of work is very good’ somebody else has always chipped in and said ‘well actually I see it like this’ and ‘I really like this aspect’ and it’s given you confidence that it doesn’t really matter whether you think it’s good or not, it’s just doing it and enjoying it. I feel quite happy and surprised at myself because I was quite proud of some of artwork.
RECONNECTING WITH YOURSELF
“Having the chance to be creative helps you use your brain in a different way. We spend a lot of time doing things that we have to do and you can get very stressed if that’s your whole life. Creativity just gives you that mindfulness space, that time to recharge your batteries, or to have a go at something you didn’t think you could do and get that sense of achievement from doing it. So I think it’s really important to do something like this.
“It also gives you a bit of a chance to be you, because a lot of the time carers lose a big part of their identity when they become the person who is looking after someone else. They sacrifice a lot of their own life, their own wishes and ambitions and things they’d like to be doing with their time because they have these other responsibilities. So this gives a little bit of that back. You can do something for you. You can do it on your own terms. You can just be you, you’re not having to be the carer, you’re being yourself, which is nice because you sometimes lose your identity a bit when you’re supporting someone else.”
creative:voices Leeds was supported by Arts Council England, awarding funding from The National Lottery.
Photography By Age UK members goes on tour in Havering
Photographs taken by members of Age UK Redbridge, Barking & Havering during a Create project are being shown in a touring exhibition at three Havering venues between now and the end of the year.
The exhibition is on display at MyPlace community centre in Harold Hill, Havering (to 20 November), and then moves on to Mercury Mall in Romford (22-30 November) before culminating at Fry’s Gallery in Hornchurch’s Fairkytes Arts Centre (2-9 December). The exhibition has been funded by Havering Council, and is free to visit.
One of the participants working with Create photographer Alejandra at Langtons House
The photographs were taken during our art:links project in September and October 2021. Members of Age UK visited the beautiful grounds at Langtons House in Hornchurch with our professional photographer Alejandra Carles-Tolra and Nurturing Talent artist Ashley Gill. They were encouraged to take pictures that celebrated “reconnection”, both with each other after the lockdown, and with nature.
MEET DIANA
The project participants are all members of Age UK’s Di’s Diamonds group. Diana talked to us about her experiences:
“From the first few minutes of a very warm and friendly welcome, Alejandra encouraged us to explore our inner creativity to produce imaginative, eye-catching and colourful work. Not for us the technicalities of ISO and white balance, but the freedom of roaming round the beautiful gardens and greenhouse thinking outside the box and using all sorts of natural items such as rain-dropped leaves to tubes of paper, prisms and natural framing to create wonderful abstract photographs.
“Using these objects and other exercises we learnt physically about zoom control, how to add light to our subjects using mirrors and light box diffusers, and how to create shadows. We were lucky to have lovely sunny days but even when we had heavy rain we managed to capture great shots in between downpours. We had immense fun and each Tuesday I was so happy in the anticipation of joining the group, ecstatic during the class doing what I love doing best, and so feeling pleased with what I had achieved I went home smiling and blissfully content.
“Thank you to Alejandra for being such a kind, encouraging and enthusiastic [facilitator], and the Create team. They too were so helpful aiding us and giving us so much praise for our work, which in turn gave us all a great feeling of accomplishment and self-worth. I’m sure I speak for others by saying how much we appreciate everyone’s efforts in keeping us happy and calm during an otherwise terrible time.”
See some of their images below.
art:links Havering was funded by the Masonic Charitable Foundation, The Mercers’ Company and W G Edwards Charitable Foundation.
In recognition of The Climate Reality Project’s Let’s Get Real campaign on 29 October, our Founding Chief Executive, Nicky Goulder reflects on Create’s commitments, becoming a Climate Reality Leader herself and the power of the creative arts to change hearts and minds.
Last Sunday, I completed 10 challenging and inspiring days of virtual training – run by Al Gore’s The Climate Reality Project – to become a Climate Reality Leader. I was joined on this venture by three members of our Senior Leadership Team and five of our professional artists, including Trustee Holly Khan.
OUR GREEN COMMITMENT
As a charity, we have been committed to our environmental responsibility since I started Create in 2003, both in our operational practices and our project delivery. We strove to be paper-free from the start. And when we moved from my dining room table to our first official office in 2004, there was no centralised recycling so I used to walk to work each week with my giant suitcase so I could wheel all our office recyling to the bins near my home! Thankfully, a lot has changed since then and we can now pop down to the recycling bins nearby.
“Attending the Climate Reality Training felt like an incredible opportunity and an important next step.”
Nicky goulder
As early as 2006, we ran a project called earth:works at Grange Primary School in the London Borough of Southwark. Linked to the school’s recycling theme, the project encouraged 6 and 7-year-old children to think about recycling, litter and the local area. Working with our professional artist, they created utopian and dystopian 3D maps using biodegradable and non-biodegradable reclaimed materials. The impact of such projects was highlighted to me when one of the children reflected: “I have learnt to recycle and keep the world clean and healthy.”
These images are from our earth:works project:
We have run numerous environmental projects since, including changing:minds in the London Borough of Harrow; creative:connection in Cumbria and inspired:arts in Brighton. We formalised our environmental commitments into an Environmental Policy in 2019 and now have a Green Committee and Green Action Plan with measurable targets that underpin the way we work.
With the climate crisis arguably the most significant global challenge over the next decade and beyond, we want to find new ways of promoting environmental responsibility and to continue to take an innovative approach to leading change. We will provide further training for our people, including our professional artists. And we have already secured funding to develop and deliver two new flagship programmes – environment:matters and environment:tales – which we will be launching in 2022 to raise awareness and upskill our participants.
THE TEAM’S REFLECTIONS
So attending the Climate Reality Training felt like an incredible opportunity and an important next step. The training was hard-hitting, shocking, empowering and hopeful. I learnt so much that I am still processing, and will be working with our team to embed all we can into Create’s thinking and activity going forward. Here are the reflections of others on our Create team who attended with me:
Chloe Cooper, visual artist
What is the main thing you’ve learnt from the Climate Reality training course? We must be solution oriented. Art has an important role to play in reshaping the narrative around climate and connecting with young people.
How do you think you’ll incorporate it into your work for Create? By using examples of young people using creativity to fight for change to inspire us to create artworks that communicate a strong message.
Wendy Dempsey, Director of Finance and Operations
What is the main thing you’ve learnt from the Climate Reality training course? I have learnt the reality of the impact of climate change and how seriously and disproportionately it is affecting the most vulnerable communities around the world. I have also learnt that we must prioritise amplifying the voices of indigenous communities to find solutions.
How do you think you’ll incorporate it into your work for Create? It has helped to strengthen my mindset to consider sustainability in everything we do, in decisions about procurement, banking, operations & facilities.
Mike Haydock, Director of Communications
What is the main thing you’ve learnt from the Climate Reality training course? It has improved my understanding not only of the problems but also the promise of the solutions – from the rapidly falling cost of renewable energy, to scientific advances such as green steel and green hydrogen, to rethinking the way we shape our economy.
How do you think you’ll incorporate it into your work for Create? I’m really excited about the projects we’re already running about environmental issues, and the ones being planned for 2022. I’ll be amplifying these through our communications as much as possible, to show the value the arts can have in tackling the climate crisis.
Holly Khan, Trustee, composer/facilitator
What is the main thing you’ve learnt from the Climate Reality training course? My biggest take away from the training is that the world’s most pressing issues sit at an intersection with one another. The global pandemic, the refugee crisis and racial inequality all link to climate change. If we combat the climate reality we will also be aiding these social injustices.
How do you think you’ll incorporate it into your work for Create? I was incredibly inspired by Red Constantino: “This is a future we can win. But only if we’re bold. Only if we’re creative. … We need the power of music.” There is power in art and how we tell and frame stories for audiences to experience. As a composer and facilitator I am inspired to think about how the climate reality can be used thematically and practically in my work!
Amy Leung, visual artist
What is the main thing you’ve learnt from the Climate Reality training course? The Climate Reality training enabled me really to understand the science behind climate change, how systems of injustice are interlinked and the many ways in which diverse groups – communities, corporations, countries, individuals – can act.
How do you think you’ll incorporate it into your work for Create? I’ll incorporate some key points into my own workshops and while the hard-hitting facts are important to include, equally as valuable is emphasising elements of hope and creativity as essential for change.
Mike Poyser, musician
What is the main thing you’ve learnt from the Climate Reality training course? The Climate Reality training was a really fascinating series of presentations and discussions, that I took a lot away from. Learning about the urgency and severity of the problems facing the whole globe was really important for me. And discovering ideas for how we can all help in this fight was great and made me feel much less helpless.
How do you think you’ll incorporate it into your work for Create? I want to make workshops for young people that highlight the size of the problem but also gives participants ideas to inspire them to be active and passionate.
Aside from Al Gore’s inspirational presentations and some impressive programmes being run by dedicated, passionate young people around the world, like Holly, it was Red Constantino (Executive Director, Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities) who motivated me most with his words during the final session:
“This is a future we can win. But only if we’re bold. Only if we’re creative. … We need the power of music. The power of literature. Humanities combined with science. A global rebellion of poetry in order to sway the minds and hearts of those who have been tasked to make decisions. … Hope is a practice. You wake up daily and practise hope. And you do it again and again and again.”
The issues are so huge and the problems so overwhelming that it can seem incredibly daunting to know what I, as an individual running a small charity, can do. But using the power of the creative arts is what Create does best and I’m excited to see how our participants and our artists will work with us to use their power to help us win this future.
art:links is Create’s national creative arts programme connecting and upskilling vulnerable older people. During September and October 2021, members of Age UK Islington took part in music workshops with our professional musicians Holly Khan and Kate Smith. We spoke to Leah about her experience on the project.
“I’ve enjoyed singing, I’ve enjoyed the writing exercises, I’ve enjoyed seeing our work come together in songs.”
Leah
“I’ve been going through a really difficult time. I’ve just moved house and I’m a family carer, so I have some of that responsibility. My life is really quite lonely. It’s been really good to get out and meet people again. Where I was living before, I couldn’t get Zoom and I often couldn’t get phone calls. It makes you feel really isolated. So it’s been lovely to come back out and do something.
“As a group, we created a poem, which we then scored. We created the poem as part of a free-writing exercise: we went into the park, collected natural objects, wrote about them, and then used that as a basis for the song. It was absolutely brilliant, I was so proud when I saw it last week. I’ve also created some stories, and I started to create a poem as well.
Click play to hear the first poem set to music, created by the participants
“IT WAS LIKE MISSING A LIMB”
“I’ve enjoyed singing, I’ve enjoyed the writing exercises, I’ve enjoyed seeing our work come together in songs. And it’s made me realise how much I missed the musicianship I’ve been part of before, which I haven’t done for a while.
“I’ve learnt that, with music, you don’t lose it. I think that’s been really important. I’m 56 and the last time I did something particularly musical I was in my late 20s, maybe early 30s, when I was in a community choir. And then I just got busy with work because I was travelling, and I had to drop it. And that was it.
“It was like missing a limb, but I didn’t actually understand that until I came back and started doing something again. I’m not letting it go again. I will have to find ways, but music is going to be a part of my life in an active way, not just listening to the radio or going to concerts, I actually want to be involved in making music.
Click to hear the second poem
“Holly and Kate were so well tuned as to how to get the best out of people. I’ve loved having them as leaders. I think they’re really good, I’ve learnt some new skills. It has been a lovely experience.
“Although I write and I think of myself as a writer, I didn’t understand that I see the world through stories. I hadn’t realised that it’s almost a building block of how I see the world. I now understand that I’m a writer because it’s a function of vision. People who paint see images, and I see stories and I always have, and I hadn’t actually connected that that’s the way things are. But I do now, so I’ve been much, much happier.
“Yesterday I went and got all my writing practice books because I will be starting again, and one day of the weekend is going to be for my writing. I’ve got a series of books that I’ve been working on, and I’m on the third one and I haven’t done any work on it in about eight months. I’m ready. One day a week is enough even if it’s just a few hours, to get back into the routine. I’m looking forward to that.”
Get creative with our new social media art challenge, WeCreate
On 1 November 2021 we’re launching an exciting new project on our social media channels, called WeCreate, and we want YOU to get involved.
Four Create VIPs have set an inspiring artistic challenge of their choice for you to complete. The first video will drop on our social media channels at 3pm on Monday 1 November. Keep an eye out to discover what their challenge is. We’ll then release a new video every fortnight during November and December.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO
All you need to do is watch the video, create your artwork in response, and share what you’ve created on social media – tagging us @createcharity and using the hashtag #WeCreate.
Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2020 winner Christabel Blackburn (visit Christabel’s site)
Create Senior Project Manager Kristian
You can use any artform you like in response to the challenge – it could be a dance routine, a knitting pattern, a poem, a painting … we want you to get creative!
DON’T FORGET THE HASHTAG
Everything posted on social media that tags @createcharity and uses the hashtag #WeCreate will be reshared by us on our channels. We’ll also be setting up a dedicated webpage and gallery.
Please make sure you’re following us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and keep your eyes peeled for our first post on 1 November, featuring Isy Suttie! We can’t wait to see what you come up with.
creative:voices is Create’s multi-artform programme that enables adult carers to take a creative break from their caring responsibilities, build trusting relationships with their peers and develop communication skills, new interests and confidence.
During September and October 2021, thanks to our partnership with First Sentier Investors, we brought together 16 carers from Edinburgh and Glasgow for six weeks of online photography workshops with our professional photographer Alicia Clarke.
Lachlan (not his real name) told us about his experiences.
The participants took part in online photography workshops
“I care for my wife. We’ve been married for 44 years. About seven or eight years ago, completely out of the blue, we thought she’d had a nervous breakdown. It ended up with her being in the Royal Edinburgh Hospital on several occasions, the first time for 10 weeks. It turned out she had developed bipolar disorder.
“I worry about my wife’s condition, she’ll be on medication for the rest of her life. The medication has changed her character a bit. We’re very scared of reducing it even slightly because she may become ill again, and we’re trying to avoid her ending up in hospital. So that poses challenges. It’s not easy but I’ve learnt to live with it. Care for Carers have been very supportive.
“I’ve always found it difficult to talk to people. I’m a bit of an introvert. This project with Create totally put me at ease. I found it very easy to talk to the other people. I just loved every minute of it. Each week I’d be apprehensive, and then within five minutes I forgot about any inhibitions and just sat down and enjoyed myself.
One of Lachlan’s photographs
“I found the photography very challenging and very interesting. I love street photography, landscape photography, that kind of thing. When it came to still-life portraiture it really tested me because half the time I couldn’t think of anything to do. But when I saw other people’s ideas they were very clever, it gave me ideas and I just thoroughly enjoyed it.
FINDING FRIENDSHIP
“The project has taught me to challenge myself and try things that I’m not comfortable with. When Alicia told us what she wanted us to do, I was frightened actually! It took me completely outside my comfort zone. When I came up with an idea, even if I didn’t think my own stuff was very good, the end product pleased me. It really was quite exciting, especially for someone my age.
“Part of this project, too, was speaking to the ladies from Glasgow and Edinburgh, and it was lovely meeting them. They were really lovely people. On one of the projects we were supposed to do, I was so busy talking to one of the women in my group that we completely forgot what the project was! For that short time I felt we became friends, which was lovely. We’ve all got similar problems, caring for people, etc, and for that short while we either discussed some of our problems or it took our minds off it completely and relaxed us.
“Alicia is a very, very fine photographer. I think it sets a very high standard for the project when you’ve got somebody as good as that. She put you at your ease and she was interested in our thoughts, and if she couldn’t answer your questions she would go away and find out. She took a real interest in the people.
“With the project and the tasks Alicia gave us, it now focuses me on different ideas: I will now go to the Botanics at some point and try to do some flower photography; or do things in the house that I wouldn’t normally do. It has opened up new ideas for me.”
As part of the project, the participants restaged famous works of art
