Creative Colleagues - December 2024

DECEMBER 2024

CREATIVE COLLEAGUES Creative Lives’ in-house magazine

HAPPY FESTIVE SEASON!

Wishing all the Creative Lives staff and board a relaxing and fun festive season.

We’ll down tools on Friday 20 December, and pick them up again on Monday 6 January. Thanks to both David and Gavin, our former and new Chairs, for approving this extended festive break to give staff a chance to unwind, and return feeling refreshed and creative for the year ahead.

We’ve replaced our usual ‘Getting to Know You’ and ‘Photo Finish’ sections with a few pages devoted to how you all like to spend Christmas - prepare to be heartwarmed!

THE QUICK CATCH-UP BRADFORD GRANTS PROVE POPULAR Jess says: “We were delighted to receive 161 applications for the Creative Lives Bradford 2025 'Do Your Thing’ micro-grants. From a broad range of applications across art forms, target groups and the whole Bradford district, we have to select 50 successful groups, which will be tough.

“An expert panel made up of Creative Lives staff and the Bradford 2025 team will meet on 7 January to select the strongest projects. The submissions were inspiring, creative and community focused, so we are sure to end up with some fantastic local groups engaging with Bradford 2025 and Creative Lives.”

CREATIVE LIVES STARTS WORK IN GLASGOW As part of our place-based work, we are partnering with Glasgow Life to map the creative opportunities in the city’s Southside Central and Canal wards.

Taking place between November 2024 and April 2025, our work will also feed into the Glasgow Cultural Strategy (2024-2030). It’s our first piece of place-based work in Scotland and we’ll be hosting two in-person events in Glasgow - the first of which is on 6 February.

PARTING THOUGHTS FROM DAVID BRYAN Over the years, it’s been a pleasure to hear David Bryan speak at our Awards ceremonies and Away Days.

So enjoy him one last time, as David reflects on his seven years with Creative Lives and his hopes for the future, in this new blog post.

ON THE HORIZON EMILY TAKES A SABBATICAL Much as we’re sad to see her go (temporarily), we’re all wishing Emily Sherwood the best of luck with her new venture. Starting on 6 January for three months, she’ll be undertaking a coding course which will prove invaluable to Creative Lives on her return.

Emily says: “I'm doing iO Academy's ‘Software Developer Essentials’ course, which is a 12-week full-time 'bootcamp' covering front and back-end web development, programming in various different languages, and best practice for working on complex collaborative projects.”

Until Emily’s return on 7 April, Kelly will be working extra hours to cover the newsletter and social media, and Gareth will be picking up some of Emily’s other work. Please remember to use the Comms Form for any requests during this time, as it really helps!

CRM ON THE WAY We have been working with Data Culture Change to develop a new CRM (Customer Relationship Management) database. We’re using CiviCRM: a free, open source program used by many other charities.

This will enable us to record all our contacts, as well as administer grants, events and newsletters more effectively. We'll be rolling this out in the New Year.

Any questions, please ask Gareth!

READ ON FOR SOME FESTIVE FUN . . .

FESTIVE FUN (AKA WHAT DO YOU DO AT CHRISTMAS?) We asked Creative Lives staff and board to share their traditions, rituals and fun Christmas habits. Here’s what they said . . .

Lindsey Jackson: “I have a collection of Christmas/winter books that I re-read in December :-) I need to start adding some new ones in! And for the last three years, we have ‘made’ a Christmas tree from branches foraged on our walks (pictured). This is the most creative thing I do all year!”

Jemma Neville: “The ritual of a Christmas morning walk was always a part of my childhood. Positioned somewhere inbetween stockings and breakfast, it became more pedantary than present but now I am the wholesome parent striding out toward the beach with a whining entourage. However, when it comes to food, we're not very traditional. Four generations of vegetarians, I commend the humble spout for its underrated versatility! We add ours to a Christmas eve curry, soaking up rich cinnamon and clove flavours.”

Alana McPake: “I love watching older Hollywood films and taking in the amazing dancing and, of course, the costumes. Grace Kelly’s bridal outfit at the end of High Society is a personal favourite.”

Sunita Pandya: “As my husband is Slovakian we celebrate Christmas Eve, starting with cabbage soup, then fish with potato salad, then cream cakes. Slovak traditions include putting potatoes under the table asking for a good harvest next year, and an uncut loaf of bread on the table, and setting one more place at the dinner table where no one ‘sits’, as that is where our loved ones who are no longer with us sit.”

Emily Sherwood: “In recent years, our festive traditions have centred around three films: Let It Snow (2019), to be watched any time in December; The Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve; and Austin Powers in Goldmember on Christmas Day. I can't explain the last one. It's not Christmas without them.”

Grace Stubbings: “At this time of year, I really appreciate the dark evenings and long nights. It's a great opportunity to go inward. I love having a hot bath with essential oils and Epsom salts, followed by yoga.”

FESTIVE FUN

Robin Simpson: “For me the festive season properly starts with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra's annual Christmas Cracker concert. Over recent years our Sunday afternoon familyfriendly concert of Christmas tunes and film music has become increasingly silly. What started as a few members of the orchestra wearing Santa hats and reindeer antlers has evolved into a fullblown fancy dress competition. The horn section, in particular, likes to steal the show with matching costumes relating to one of the pieces we are playing.”

Sophie Fraser: “The most sacred tradition in our house is the Christmas Eve prep. The kids in their jammies put out a whisky and shortbread for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, and then poke their wee heads out of the door to see if there's any sign of a sleigh. They always spot something and race top speed upstairs and launch into bed. I am now Santa and there's still a part of me that believes it with them!”

Phoenix Archer: "I love any chance to get out and about in the snow and feel the chilly air this time of the year. I like attending holiday events such as office and charity parties. It's great doing seasonal arts and crafts and singing winter songs. I do charity work in my local area, make ecofriendly holiday decorations, pray, sing and make delicious winter dishes to share with others."

Lewis Hou: “Growing up as a first-generation immigrant, we got to invent our own traditions as my parents didn’t know otherwise. So as a kid, I told them that Christmas is like New Years Eve — we would work in the chippy until 10pm, have supper with a ‘bells’ countdown until midnight, and then open presents and get to stay up really late. This remains our tradition even today (though maybe less keen to stay up as late these days!).

Kelly Donaldson: “As a child, we all used to line up in the hallway, arms on each other’s shoulders to form a train, then dance into the living room singing ‘Jingle Bells’. Being banned from that room (and the presents therein) until after breakfast was torture, but I duly instigated it with my own children! These days our rituals also involve trying to guess the punchlines from cracker jokes and watching something Wallace & Gromit-related.”

FESTIVE FUN

Jill Miller: “Christmas for our family is an obsession with the ‘Christmas Comp’, which is now in its 12th year. Over 20 of the family follow a brief set by the winner of the previous year. From Christmas pants (pictured!) to recycled reindeers from sustainable wreaths, to your favourite movie-inspired Christmas decorations. We are already into this year's making and nobody worries about gifts.”

Gareth Coles: “A Christmas ritual that has developed in my household is a discussion on when Christmas starts. I'm happy to wait until 20-something December before I turn my attention to all things merry. But my wife and son leap into the Christmas spirit on 1 December as they decorate the house and open their advent calendars: chocolate for my son, whereas my wife favours the old fashioned advent calendars you can only find these days in dusty old post offices.”

Jess Plant: ‘I love dusting off the Christmas decorations and remembering where each one came from. My grandma's plain glass decorations (which she took such pride in), a carved wooden decoration from a Christmas market in Berlin, and an extremely heavy clay decoration covered in glitter made by my children at nursery school, which nearly pulls down the entire tree!

But what I love most of all is Christmas dinner: everyone cooking together and remembering years gone by. I have loved watching my nephews grow older, and now at 16 and 18 taking real pride in their contributions to the dinner table, attempting elaborate recipes at the most inconvenient moment! I also love all the special things that come out: gravy boats, serving bowls, special spoons and carving knives and the delight from having not thrown them away, despite how much space they take up and how impractical it can feel for 364 days of the year! I have a bad reputation for always eating the last roast potato, but this tradition of being predictably outrageous now seems to please everyone (‘Go on then, just one more'). Merry Christmas one and all :-)”