Author: mike

New Grooves Gallery: “Create stood out as different to other charities”

New Grooves Gallery began life as a website set up by London-based friends Eleanor Cowell and Zoë Da Poian.

Founded during the second COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the site aimed to create a space for creativity at a time when distraction was needed by many. What followed was the formation of an artistic community who helped to support each other through lockdown using the power of creativity.

When the UK emerged from lockdown, New Grooves Gallery decided to take its online initiative into the real world, hosting a physical gallery of artworks at Blaze Image in Notting Hill, and choosing Create as the exhibition’s charity beneficiary.

ART AS AN OUTLET

Lockdowns around the globe really took their toll on us all. Many of us used art as a coping mechanism, drawing, crafting and creating our way through the intense periods of isolation. New Grooves Gallery co-founder Eleanor, who has a background in art therapy, said: “I noticed that people had started to create things and use artistic media as an outlet, where perhaps they hadn’t done before. It’s so cool that people are using art differently, as something that helps you.”

“Create really stood out to me as different to other charities because you’re really pushing art, not as a medium but as a wellbeing tool.”

Eleanor Cowell

Co-founder Zoë said: “We didn’t expect [the project] to get as much traction as it did. Some were new, professional artists that maybe practised in their own time, and others did it more for the mental health aspect.”

BUILDING A COMMUNITY

During a time where everyone felt so disconnected, the online gallery helped bring people together, creating a community through art.

Zoë said “One of the things we asked for was how creativity had helped the artists. So we got these really nice messages with people saying how they’d had a really tough time and this had been really helpful for them. It ended up being this community of support for all of us. We know most of their names now. It was just really heart-warming and the more messages we got, the nicer the whole project became.”

“We saw contributors commenting on each other’s work and connecting and following each other, so it became this whole network of support, which was really nice.”

CREATIVITY AND WELLBEING

For many, New Grooves Gallery was a place of solace and comfort in a very trying time. Both Eleanor and Zoë were inspired by their own experiences of creativity enhancing their wellbeing.

Eleanor said: “I’ve always painted and illustrated, but art is always the easiest way to articulate myself. I think it’s far easier not to put it in words, and just automatically draw something because it’s a rawer form of expression. Especially during the pandemic when it was like … what is going on? Everybody’s confused, nobody knows how to talk about it, people don’t want to talk about it because it’s taboo. So I just find it’s a good escape and I think lots of people have found that, which is really nice.”

For Zoë, art was an interest from the past that was reignited during the pandemic. “I came back [to England, from Spain] and I was suddenly like, what do I actually enjoy doing and what makes me happy? I started thinking about art and started volunteering at some galleries online. Just surrounding myself with it makes me feel inspired by other people, by everyone’s stories and by the work they produce. So the pandemic brought that back to me, it’s reignited the interest, which I forgot was there.”

When New Grooves Gallery decided to take its online gallery into a real world space, hosted at Blaze Image, it chose Create as the charity beneficiary.

Eleanor said: “Create really stood out to me as different to the other charities because you’re really pushing art, not as a medium but as a wellbeing tool. It’s not highlighting art therapy it’s just … let’s just make some art! And I thought that was really interesting.

“Some of our contributors may not continue doing the artwork afterwards, it may just have served a purpose at the time. But if they can give back to an organisation that will definitely keep doing the work because they align with the same values, then that’s perfect!”

Zoë added: “We 100% didn’t want to keep the money for ourselves, we wanted to give it to something else, to some sort of project, so when we found Create we thought, this makes sense. It aligns with our message.”

We’d like to thank Eleanor, Zoe and Blaze Image for their support of our work. The exhibition raised an amazing £170 through in-person and online donations. Visit New Grooves Gallery on Instagram.

DUCFS interview: “It was really important to support a cause we had a personal connection to”

In June 2021, the Durham University Charity Fashion Show (DUCFS) raised £55,000 to support our work through three fashion shows and a host of other activity.

Here we chat to the 2020/21 DUCFS president, Emily Kirkby (pictured left, with her vice-presidents Odi and Soo), about the challenges of organising an enormous fundraising event during a pandemic, and why they chose to support Create.

“It was a no brainer for me. I look at Create’s work and it’s incredible. It is transformative.”

Emily Kirkby, DUCFS

CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT DUCFS IS AND WHAT YOUR ROLE IS?

DUCFS is an award-winning, student-led charitable platform that aims to raise awareness around societal issues. The main way we fundraise is through a fashion show. A lot of what we do is celebrating designers and artists, while also trying to raise money for whatever topic we pick for the year. It’s a student-led organisation, so people are doing it on the side of their degrees in Durham. In normal, non-coronavirus years, we also do networking and social events.

My role this year was president. I was leading a team of 30 exec members and 42 models – but I had Odi and Soo, the vice-presidents, as well. As much as I can say I was president, we were three presidents.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE CREATE AS THE BENEFICIARY OF THE FASHION SHOW THIS YEAR?

What was really important for us was supporting a cause we had a personal connection to, that we could really get behind. If everyone can get behind a cause, it makes the fundraising even more worthwhile and meaningful. We’re a creative platform, and so are Create, so it’s bringing together two creative platforms from very different sectors. It was a perfect marriage.

Also, in the midst of coronavirus, charities like Create are so important. Coronavirus impacted mental health. It thwarted funding for the arts. It put a spanner in the works for all forms of communities and people whose livelihoods rely on meeting up with people outside their family circles. So I was looking for a creative charity that I could really get behind. I’ve been lucky enough to have access to the arts, and I also appreciate what the arts do for my mental health. But also, the lengths you went to, to make sure that people were helped throughout coronavirus. It was a no brainer for me. I look at Create’s work and it’s incredible what you guys do. It is transformative.

HOW DID YOU COPE WITH THE CONSTANT THREAT OF THE FASHION SHOW BEING CANCELLED BECAUSE OF THE PANDEMIC?

I don’t think I coped the whole time, there were moments of mild panic. But we are such a big team that every time I was having doubts about something, or the Government came out with new restrictions, we would get on these huge team calls, and I coped by getting other people’s words of wisdom. As a team, we kept each other going.

WAS THERE A MOMENT WHEN YOU THOUGHT: ‘THIS ISN’T GOING TO HAPPEN’?

There was one moment in the Easter holidays, quite close to the show. We had to call a team meeting and hold a vote of confidence. We had had some negative news from the university, and the show didn’t look feasible. We were going to be making negative £500 or something. But we got the team support. So at that point, we went: ‘Right, we’re going to do it.’

Even in the morning of our first show I was like: ‘It’s not going to happen. It’s not.’ But we got to the venue and everything fell into place so well, and everyone knew what they were doing. And all of us stood back after the first show and went: ‘How did we do that?’

HOW DID YOU RAISE MONEY DURING THE EVENT AND BEFOREHAND?

Fundraising this year was a little different to normal. Normally, we would rely on things like social events, club nights, networking events. But obviously, we had to be quick on our feet and get thinking. At the beginning of the year we did online talks from industry experts, and that raised a bit of money. Then during the Christmas holidays, we had our CRE8IN8-inspired fundraiser: we had various teams doing lots of funny tasks. I tried to walk a half-marathon and ‘write’ the word Create on my Strava map.

We have show sponsorship going on throughout, financial sponsors, and then we also have product sponsors: at the shows their products were on the tables, and that would be included in the ticket price. Our ticket sales have always been our main source of income. Then on the show nights, we have the raffle and the auction. You have people bidding a ridiculous amount of money for a lot of exciting prizes. Some of the raffle prizes were a year’s supply of Creme Eggs, a magnum of Prosecco, stuff like that. And then the auction prizes included four tickets to see England vs Australia at Twickenham, tickets to Henley next year, trips away to holiday homes in Devon for a week, lots of signed rugby shorts and football shirts. It was amazing.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE MONEY THAT YOU’VE RAISED AND THE IMPACT IT CAN POTENTIALLY HAVE FOR CREATE?

I’m immensely proud. In hindsight, any money we raised was going to be impressive from a fundraising-during-coronavirus standpoint. So being able to announce £55,000 was amazing. When we put it into perspective of what that money can do from Create’s standpoint, how many projects it will be able to fund, it just makes it feel even more worthwhile.

“Keeping it simple and keeping it personal makes the people who are fundraising more motivated and energised.”

Emily Kirkby, DUCFS

HOW WAS IT WORKING WITH THE CREATE TEAM?

I actually can’t put into words how grateful we’ve been for just how great the working relationship has been between us, from the word go. It’s been so great. I have raved about working with you guys, to everyone. Every time we came off a call with you, we felt even more motivated to keep going. What was really important for us was to build a really good relationship with whatever charity we chose. And that’s exactly what we’ve done.

IF YOU WERE GOING TO GIVE ONE TIP TO SOMEBODY WHO’S THINKING ABOUT RUNNING A FUNDRAISING EVENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Don’t do it during coronavirus! Keeping it simple is probably the best tip. Keeping it simple and keeping it personal makes the people who are fundraising more motivated and energised. As soon as people feel like they have ownership of what they’re doing they are more engaged with it, and they actually want to do it.

HOW ARE YOU FEELING NOW YOU LOOK BACK ON THE WHOLE YEAR?

It was my life for a year-and-a-half. It did over-consume us at points. It was this massive high, this huge thing, and what we’ve been building up for so long. And then suddenly it finished. And it’s sort of that intense high to the intense low, because you’re just like, ‘Oh, I miss it. And I want to do it all over again.’ It was an amazing experience.