Creative Colleagues - October 2024

OCTOBER 2024

CREATIVE COLLEAGUES Creative Lives’ in-house magazine

CREATIVE LIVES AWARDS 2024

On Thursday 26 September, we were delighted to announce the winners of this year’s Creative Lives Awards.

Representatives from the winning groups attended a ceremony at Cecil Sharp House in London, hosted by award-winning writer and broadcaster Nick Ahad. A big thank you to all staff and board who helped make this inspirational event happen. The feedback has been incredible!

You can read all about the winners here.

THE QUICK CATCH-UP EVERYDAY CREATIVITY CONFERENCE On the same day as the Awards ceremony, we partnered with the Everyday Creativity Research Network at the University of Brighton to host the Everyday Creativity Conference.

This sold-out event brought together academics, artists, policymakers and funders to discuss everyday creativity.

NEW DATA EXPLORER Launched in September 2024, the new Culture and Place Data Explorer is an interactive mapping tool created by Five10Twelve for Arts Council England. It enables users to build a profile of the cultural and creative infrastructure in a specific area.

Creative Lives worked with developers to test the Data Explorer, which includes data on local creative groups taken from our own Creativity Map.

PLACE-BASED EVENTS On 1 October, Phoenix led an event in Dundee. She said: "The Scotland team co-hosted an event supporting creative groups in Dundee with the V&A Dundee. Various creative group representatives attended and they enjoyed the design exercises, blue sky thinking and networking possibilities at the event. Attendees were fans of the venue, food and co-hosts."

On 2 October, Donna and Aoife hosted a creative fair and outside broadcast from Whitley Wood Community Centre (pictured). You can listen to the BBC Radio Berkshire broadcast here.

And talking of Aoife, this is her last week working for Creative Lives. Jess said: “I want to say a huge thank you to Aoife for all her professionalism, creative energy, and commitment to the work in Reading.

Best of luck on your new adventure and please keep in touch.”

Goodbye and good luck, Aoife!

ON THE HORIZON ALL-STAFF MEETINGS The next all-staff meeting will be online at 11.30am on Monday 14 October 2024.

And remember that we’re meeting in person for our annual Staff and Board Away Day in Bradford on 21-22 November 2024, so please start making your travel arrangements.

UPCOMING EVENTS Doing What Matters Most - A consultation event about the Northern Ireland Executive’s Programme for Government.

Wednesday 9 October from 7-8pm.

Creative Network: Crafts - Exploring the role of craft in men’s wellbeing and community. Tuesday 15 October from 7-8pm.

Creative Learning: Barriers to Banking - A discussion about how we might address the banking challenges faced by local creative groups, with guest speaker Sachi Caldera from CAF Bank. Wednesday 23 October from 7-8pm.

Know Your Neighbourhood Autumn Conference - A hybrid one-day conference to share learning and reflections from Strand 1 of the Know Your Neighbourhood project, hosted by Libraries Connected, Association of Independent Museums, and Creative Lives. Tuesday 5 November from 10am - 4pm.

NEW ROLE ADVERTISED Creative Lives is advertising for a new Grants Programme Co-ordinator, to co-ordinate the Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) programme across England, providing centralised administrative support to the organisation and the grant recipients.

For more information, please see the Work with us section of our website.

GETTING TO KNOW...

SOPHIE FRASER, PLACE COORDINATOR What’s your first memory of being creative?

We had a dressing up box at home. The most fabulous collection of random bits, including my faves, the full length satin gloves, a veil and a bright pink knitted hat. I wore it all layered up like ET when he pretends to be human.

If you could click your fingers and be proficient at any art/craft form, what would it be?

I’d love to be brilliant at painting portraits.

Which do you prefer: river walk, beachside stroll or hill climb?

I’ll pick a loch walk because they’re the best for swimming.

You’re planning a day of live music and can book any 5 artists (living or dead) – who’s on the bill?

Joni Mitchell, Frightened Rabbit, Sylvan Esso, Khruangbin, Mastersystem.

What inanimate object in your home most sums you up?

My wardrobe.

What’s your favourite quality in a person?

Gentleness.

Which do you prefer – chocolate bar, slice of cake or biscuit?

Chocolate bar - Cadbury’s with jelly beans and popping candy.

If you could choose any work of art to hang in your home, what would it be?

Any Yinka Ilori furniture.

Which country have you never visited but would love to?

Japan Tell us one thing your colleagues would be surprised to learn about you I’m in a melodic death metal band.

PHOTO FINISH Each month, we ask a colleague to capture an aspect of their life, at home, or out and about.

“Having taken partial retirement earlier this year, I’ve been helping to fill my time with some new interests - including learning to play bridge and to speak Italian (not at the same time!).” Mark Rhys Jones, Board member