Creative Colleagues - September 2024

SEPTEMBER 2024

CREATIVE COLLEAGUES Creative Lives’ in-house magazine

EVERYDAY CREATIVITY CONFERENCE & CREATIVE LIVES AWARDS 2024

We’re looking forward to the annual highlight of the Creative Lives calendar: the Creative Lives Awards ceremony, which takes place from 5pm to 9.30pm on Thursday 26 September at Cecil Sharp House, in Camden, London.

We’re delighted to be partnering with the Everyday Creativity Conference, from 9.30am to 4.30pm on the same day, featuring exciting discussions and high-profile keynote speakers exploring everyday creativity theory and practice.

THE QUICK CATCH-UP GRANTS IN READING & HARTLEPOOL We currently have two grants programmes open: Know Your Neighbourhood Grants in Hartlepool (4 x £5,000).

A second round of funding for creative activities and partnerships in Reading (from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, in conjunction with Reading Borough Council).

WELCOME BACK RACHEL NEW! A big hello and welcome back to Rachel New! Rachel will be working with the Place team to deliver work in Cannock Chase in the Midlands.

NEW REPORTS FROM OUR PHD RESEARCHERS We’ll soon be publishing two new reports from Luke Whittle (University of Dundee) and Annamae Burrows (Glasgow Caledonian University), who both joined Creative Lives for PhD Internships, and who will be speaking at the Everyday Creativity Conference.

Both reports explore how local grassroots community creative groups and arts-based charities support and address the needs of disabled people and individuals with mental health difficulties.

Luke and Annamae will also be sharing their findings at a special Creative Network at 10am on Wednesday 2 October.

ON THE HORIZON ALL-STAFF MEETINGS We will be convening monthly all-staff meetings, so that we can get together as an organisation a little more regularly. The first meeting will be online at 10am on Tuesday 17 September 2024.

And remember that we’re meeting in person for our annual Staff and Board Away Day in Bradford on 21-22 November 2024.

UPCOMING EVENTS Creative Network: BIPOC Community-Led Creatives Support Group - 20 September at 6pm Supporting Creative Grassroots Groups in Dundee 1 October at 10.30am Creative Network: Engaging Communities - 3 October at 12pm Creative Network: Crafts - 15 October at 7pm

CRM FOR CREATIVE LIVES We have been working with Data Culture Change to develop a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) database. We are 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.

NEW STAFF MEMBER & TREASURER Ofure Obomighie will be taking over from Chris David as the Creative Lives Treasurer at the September Board meeting.

Sophie Fraser will be starting as our new Place Co-ordinator, supporting the delivery of our place-based development programme across the UK.

GETTING TO KNOW...

PHOENIX ARCHER

Scotland Community Engagement Officer What’s your first memory of being creative?

When I was around 5/6, I started to translate poems and songs from my favourite singers and poets into different languages.

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

I would really like to be a very good landscape painter.

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

A river walk by myself but a hill climb with a partner.

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

Whitney Houston, Annie Lennox, Michael Jackson, George Michael and myself (because I want to sing with them all, ha ha).

What inanimate object in your home most sums you up?

A glass bottle of water: complex as the techniques used to make glass; see through-ness of the glass, where I am a reflection of the world around me; water, where I am healthy and powerful.

What’s your favourite quality in a person?

I really value loyalty. You can be tactfully honest to someone and still be loyal to the bond that you both share.

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

Normally cake but recently I have been getting into posh biscuits. I blame the changing weather.

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

An artwork at nighttime with the full moon shining through a forest, where you can see different animals such as a fox, owl and hare.

Which country have you never visited but would love to?

Ethiopia! The birthplace of coffee, home of tasty omnivore food, a place of rich and complex history and it has some of the oldest pyramids in the world.

Tell us one thing your colleagues would be surprised to learn about you I can do a handful of difficult ballet moves. I did them as a party trick when I was young and I'm still flexible enough to do them now I'm older.

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

A nibling’s first munro Marked with games, lit by fires Sunsets reveal Blairgowrie Camping in a place always tires (in all the best ways) Lewis Hou, Creative Lives Board