The Sheffield Pioneers - showcase booklet

THE

SHEFFIELD PIONEERS

Showcase

2021

A journey of creative discovery

“Welcome to the Showcase of the Sheffield Pioneers 2021…we hope you enjoy it!”

The Sheffield Pioneers

rs o, 10 strange onth 6 months ag started a 6-m e’ m o ‘h ld e effi h who call S agreed ploration and journey of ex ter… a group char

weekend in May …on a kick-off lots of play, 2021, involving tting to coaching and ge r. ch know ea othe

Buddying up, fortnightly meetups and Power Up days were a regular pattern that has shaped our collective Learning Marathon.

From magic, to play, to exploring the steel history of our city that is ‘Sheffield’, we have shared many stories and adventures…

This booklet explores our individual stories alongside our collective reflections and journeys together.

With love, Cathy, Charlie, Christina, Emma, Lora, Mandy, Sarah, Sharna, Stella and Wayne.

Learning Marathon

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Wayne Hoyle How can I use my recent life experiences and knowledge of western esotericism to help care professionals who may be at risk of ‘burn-out’?

Mandy Holden How might I enable communities to take over and reimagine unloved spaces?

Sharna Lal Emma Paragreen How can my artistic practice progress and be used meaningfully to create further active participation of others?

Charlie Hammond How can I become a rad(ical) artist?

How can I facilitate creative events for a diverse range of people, with the main focus being fun in a post-Covid Sheffield?

Sarah Givans How can colour help someone’s well-being?

Christina Vaughan Cathy Spiers How might I explore, identify and nurture steps needed to become an active socially engaged arts practitioner?

In moving back to Sheffield, how can I use my experience away to make a positive contribution to diversity in the city and play an integral part in life here?

Lora Krasteva How best to bring all my freelance activity under a holistic, value driven and sustainable brand?

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Stella McKenna Who do I choose to be (as the world burns)? 🔥

Learning Marathon

May-November 2021

Wayne The question I came in with: How can I use my recent life experiences and knowledge of western esotericism to help people who are ‘people care’ professionals, who may be at risk of ‘burn-out’?

I have worked with children and families, especially those at risk of entering the criminal justice system, for the past 23 years.

During this time, I have taken great pride in making many people’s feet itch, as a result of my extensive and enthusiastic forays into acting, writing and DJing.

My initial learning question originated from a series of life-changing events.

From a very young age, I have been a vociferous reader and, during my teens, this gravitated towards seeking out all manner of esoteric or mystical texts.

Before I discovered the wonders of repetitive beats, a largely goth-centric university existence in the mid-90s, culminated with a dissertation focused on the 20th century’s most notable and notorious magician’s literary output.

“A fundamental lesson I have learned is the importance of the quality of attention we pay to each other.”

Marriage(s) and day jobs then took centre stage, thus largely curtailing my voyage into the art of darkness; although I always maintained an unhealthy, and indiscriminate, creative output.

Following a very timely encounter with a loose collective of visionaries and inspirational fools in 2019, a significant spark was well and truly re-ignited.

Hoyle

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The question I leave with: My learning question evolved into: how can an ‘Arts Lab’ become a fantastically diabolic vehicle to assist absolutely anybody in the city, regardless of their background utilising its tenets of ‘Art, Humour and Magic’ in an authentic, inclusive and all-encompassing manner?

As my health, career and personal life simultaneously nose-dived, I immersed myself in this new and intriguing network to understand how magical thinking could be a thing of actual, tangible practice, not just theory. Beginning to understand, and apply, concepts that I had, in all honesty, struggled to perceive in my younger years played a pivotal part in my road to recovery.

I had grandly assumed that I might be able to use this learning to help professionals, especially those working in ‘people care’, to perhaps deal with ‘burnout’. This naïve notion formed the basis of my journey with the Sheffield Pioneers.

Prior to the start of the course, from March 23 2020, I had helped to establish a voluntary organisation called ‘Sheffield Arts Lab’, with a few of the aforementioned others. Our regular, virtual happenings as well as those related to the eclectic community around ‘Airy Fairy’, the sublime and otherworldly emporium on London “An ethos of mutual Road, provided me with a renewed positive challenge and support along with a genuine desire to perspective. understand one another’s journeys have been the key underpinning elements of this pioneering class of ’21.“

Contact...

wmhoyle@hotmail.com Email @wayne_hoyle Twitter 07904443677 Mobile

Emma The question I came in with: How can my artistic practice progress and be used meaningfully to create further active participation of others?

Prior to joining the Sheffield Pioneers I felt a need for a new challenge, the opportunity to flourish and grow, a space to surround myself with different voices, learn and absorb from new people and what more could one wish for from my fellow Sheffield Pioneers.

The learning journey pushed me out of my comfort zone, communicating using different platforms in a covid world. My artistic practice @artbythegate grew and I pushed boundaries trialing new techniques, sharing my outputs via instagram in the 30 day art challenge. I joined an art class and signed up to workshops to learn new skills and devised ways to show my work and take it to the community and place I call home.

I’m an ever-enthusiastic, curious, cheerful curator, passionate and knowledgeable about the past. I love using this knowledge to create magical moments of creativity and connection with others. Being part of a group is important to me and I thrive on encouraging others to learn and participate.

Paragreen

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The question I leave with: I'd always preferred to being a 'do-er' and remain quiet in the background, the group have brought out my inner confidence to share what I'm passionate about and I can't describe the feeling you get when you are selected to show your work in a gallery, see your name in print and you can say I painted or produced that!

“I feel the Sheffield Pioneers has provided a place to shine and grow in confidence!”

How can I develop my artistic practice, share, engage and encourage others to participate?

And the thank you received from the public when a member of the community has enjoyed an activity you have created.

Two highlights from the last six months have been the opportunity to take my fellow Pioneers on a metal walking tour of Sheffield city centre, connecting them with the city they live in.

Looking up, down and around, from the Cutting Edge to the Women of Steel.

“This has been wonderful Experience, an opportunity to share art with the community.”

Finally the Sheffield Wheat Experiment, my fellow Pioneers have heard so much about it, but having grown the heritage wheat, cut it, processed it, ground it and baked over a twelve month period, I felt I should draw it and shared it with the community of 200 growers.

Contact... emgreen1@hotmail.com Email @emmaparagreen Instagram @artbythegate Instagram 07810 296941 Mobile

Charlie The question I came in with: How can I become a rad(ical) artist?

I am a clown and street performer, who is new(ish) to Sheffield. I enjoy creating and being a part of work that seeks to connect with people and invites participation, as well as having a soft-spot for silliness, play, bright costumes, and a cheeky smile!

My Learning Marathon began by thinking and researching what it means to be an artist and why it’s worth doing. I really needed to sort out my thoughts and feelings about art. I have spent a lot of time trying to make a living from being a performer and leaving a lot of other things neglected. This time has allowed me to work out how I can have a better impact with my time, how I can build a community for myself and how I can live a fulfilling life.

I was invited to an amazing residency programme; gathering circus, street, and other artists together. This became a platform to test out new ideas about my creative practice, and I was able to offer my skills as a facilitator and director to work with circus artists to help them shape their work, which was a new step for me.

“About halfway through I hit a real lull in the process, as my life became quite busy. I felt I wasn’t giving The Sheffield Pioneers enough attention, and was pushed to use what I was already doing elsewhere to test the ideas I had.”

Hammond

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The question I leave with: Out of this came the reignition for my desire to work with circus artists and the circus community. This led to an interesting conflict in the midst of an upheaval of my personal life:

What can I build in Sheffield?

“Do I stay in Sheffield, a city I don’t have many connections in, or move to Bristol, a city full of circus artists closer to my parental home?”

It is a question I posed to the Pioneers, and have continued to ask myself and others...

I can see how there is the possibility of a re-emergence of a circus and cabaret scene in Sheffield, intertwined with social activism, and can see how my life could flourish here.

“So far, I’ve been very lucky to meet some fantastic people in Sheffield, and to sense that there is an influx of people and energy to the city”

But it is very important to me to keep posing this question, and to ask of the place you live in: “What keeps me here? What do I want from this place?

Is it possible to create the things that aren’t here, and is there the will and people to make that happen?”

Contact...

charliemhammond@gmail.com Email www.charlie-hammond.com Website 07740873034 Mobile

Cathy The question I came in with:

Having lived in Bradford for over 30 years, I came to Sheffield because of my husband’s new job. This was an ideal How might I explore, opportunity to break with my past; identify and nurture steps having worked mainly in care settings, needed to become an sometimes exploring my creativity active socially engaged vicariously through the creative arts with arts practitioner? those I supported.

“My journey in Sheffield began, searching and going round in circles. I attended many workshops, seminars, conferences and symposiums, in an attempt to connect and find what I was looking for”

I was considering doing an MA in Socially Engaged Arts, but didn’t feel quite ready for it, I wanted to ‘do’. A quote that I saw on a billboard in the centre of Sheffield kept haunting me...

“Develop creative practice, MAKE change happen”

Spiers

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The question I leave with: Who would like to be involved in seeding a puppet festival and what are the next steps?

When ‘The Sheffield Pioneers’ came along I knew it was right for me; I would be held accountable, be supported to explore and challenge my ‘imposter syndrome’. It was a fantastic experience to buddy-up. I was able to rediscover bits of me through sharing and through talking; I realised that there was a cyclic pattern.

“Themes of what was important to me through the years came back to me and this engendered a sense of excitement”

In my delving, I found a seminal quote from Paul Klee from my art college days, that made even more sense to me now; I felt that I could ‘own’ the identity of an artist/creative practitioner.

I had asked many questions from other practitioners in the gatherings that I attended and the feeling I got was that I would have to ‘carve out my own niche’.

It came to me all of a sudden:Sheffield’s own puppet festival, and it has to be truly

inclusive.

“I danced with Amal and gave her a balloon of hopes & dreams”

Contact...

Pho to

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07779833439 Mobile @CathyUnbound Twitter cathyannsemail@googlemail.com Email

Image by

The question I came in with:

David To vey

Lora

My name is Lora and I am a theatre maker, cultural producer and activist. I am 1/3 of Global Voices Theatre, How to bring all the a female & non-binary, immigrant led theatre company, producing things I do under international theatre by historically marginalised creatives in the UK. one cohesive I have a freelance practice as theatre director and project instigator and work part-time as Executive Producer at Arts & Homelessness International, umbrella? advocating for a place for creativity in homelessness provision around the world.

My Learning Question evolved and morphed throughout my time with The Sheffield Pioneers.

I started my journey coming at it almost “business like”; imagining that I will be working on my brand and my website, my business plan and social media strategy to “attract new clients” who will be buying into Lora Krasteva as an individual and a company of sorts.

“What happened to me in the past 6 months was much more profound (and interesting) than that.”

Right at the start of my journey with The Sheffield Pioneers, I had a horrific flare up caused by Topical Steroid Withdrawal (TSW) due to years of attempting to control eczema by using strong steroid creams. I was literally disfigured, in pain and very, very uncomfortable in my own skin.

I cancelled engagements and all the projects I was working on and went on sick leave at work.

The only external commitment I couldn’t bring myself to pull away from was The Sheffield Pioneers. Something inside me was tugging towards them and the Enrol methodology.

Krasteva

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The question I leave with: How to work less and create more?

“The Learning Question quickly revealed itself to be less about ’all the things’ I do but more about ‘why’ I do them”

As I was existing at super reduced capacity at that point, fighting sleepless nights and very poor mental health, I had only so much energy. I took my time. For the first time in years, I was forced to stop.

“All the support and advice pointed out the same thing; breathe, relax and support your body to find the space and time to health itself”

“I left my old skin behind (literally) and I am learning to live in this new skin now. The skin of someone who has the courage to try things out, to create and share with others.

Someone who is less afraid to take the spotlight, whose mission is to reveal the things that aren’t obvious or that are hidden. An artist, a coach, an alchymist...

I can’t wait for you to meet her”

This space, despite the horrendous cycles of TSW, unlocked so much for me. I had never taken time to look inwards, to listen to my gut, to question what life I wanted to live, really.

With the gentle support of the Pioneers, I started reading, thinking, meditating, researching. I listened to podcasts, practiced magic, found my Ikigai. I discovered hypnotherapy, I learned about the brain and how it can change not only our physiology but the world around us. I re-discovered coaching and my old interest in NLP. I worked on my values. I did collages… and I threw paint around!

Contact...

lora@lorakrasteva.com Email @lorakrasteva Twitter @lorakrasteva Instagram www.lorakrasteva.com Website Check out also www.globlavoicestheatre.com Website

Mandy The question I came in with: How might I enable communities to take over and reimagine unloved spaces?

Learning Journey

I’m a trail runner, happy camper, someday gardener, Architect, bread maker, collaborator, steward, Pioneer. I’m looking for a world where our interactions with our spaces (homes, workplaces, cities, landscapes) nourish our sense of belonging and community. I believe we should all have the power to shape our environment.

By the gate, Mary Poppins sits. Her paper mache head has exploded a bit, but it adds to the charm. A group mill around, doodling bottomless handbags and stringing them up as bunting across the yard. ‘THIS DOOR IS ALWAYS OPEN’ reads the sign. You step inside to a gentle hubbub of activity. The mid-morning sunlight falls on a ceiling height mural of a girl. She is adorned with layers of paint of every colour. It looks like she has been building up coats for years.

‘How do you feel today?’ asks the mural. ‘Paint me your colour.’

You sit for a while. The sofas are well-worn, but snug; enveloping. A bookshelf is groaning with books. Someone round here is a reader. You wonder if they could point you in the direction of a good read. You catch a glimpse of a group snipping and binding together old crinkly plastics and shimmering fabrics. Is that a crocodile? ‘There’s a puppet festival on the way’ pipes up a voice from behind you, following your gaze.

You help paint some furniture for the new cafe. A leftover pot of dusky green paint. The conversation drifts to what it is to be 25. What it is to be 54. We drink tea together. In the courtyard, a group huddle around the fire. Learning old magic. Symbols and flames. Beyond them, a girl has her hands in the soil; planting wheat seeds, perhaps. We cook together. We eat together. As you step out into the street, a performer is conducting an elaborate game of Grandmother’s Footsteps. ‘Un, deux, trois, Soleil’ shouts a girl in a blue sundress and floppy hat. That’s how it was played where she grew up. We dance together.

We breathe together. We listen actively. We are listened to.

Holden

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The question I leave with:

How can I spend my life connected to others, outdoor in nature and nurturing crumbly old buildings?

This is the place we made for ourselves in the city this year.

Can we make more room for this? Can we make it in unloved, difficult or outmoded spaces; the spaces that root us to our past and pave the way for a less carbon-intensive future?

And, moreover, is there a career for me in making this happen? I learnt that what is needed more than anything is de facto OWNERSHIP over space, so groups can invest and evolve securely. Patient lenders, support with funding bids, sustainable business plans and building management; in short, support negotiating an opaque and often befuddling system.

The growth of development models like Community Land Trusts and enabler hubs is a step in the right direction. We are lucky to have so many local organisations taking it upon themselves to create amazing spaces to gather in the city.

Out of a professional question on enabling the development of community-led spaces, I have found a yearning to... inhabit them myself.

“To take a step away from my computer screen and find a community to be part of.

To spend more time in the world we have made as The Sheffield Pioneers”.

Contact...

mandyholden92@gmail.com Email @vacantspaceshef Twitter @thevacantspacecollective Instagram 0744 354 9937 Mobile

Sharna The question I came in with:

In normal circumstances I am a creative, curious, thrill seeking and hunting down the next adventure.

How can I facilitate In a post-covid world I have found myself hungry to creative events for re-engage with all the above, now with a renewed sense a diverse range of people of community and cooperation. From making music to with the main focus being fun, making fun, I am excited to see how the Learning in a post-covid Sheffield?

Marathon can help me achieve my goals.

Suffice it to say my Learning Marathon did not go as planned.

Looking back at my original Learning Question now, I view who I was back then as someone naive to a future that would put me through the wringer. But I’m still standing! And gratefully.

“I really learned something” Going into 2021 my mental health wasn’t great. But whose was?!

I was determined to start partaking in all the things we’d missed, hence my original Learning Question. I was craving to provide a safe space for marginalised communities to come and be together. To unite, party and heal. I wanted my reach to be tangible - which is why I chose to join The Sheffield Pioneers. I liked the idea of something being peer-led, cohesive, and palpable to Sheffield. But what happened in the past 6 months took me deeper inside myself than I wished to go. But are we ever ready for something profoundly difficult, that ultimately is probably good for us? Nah!

April/May highlighted for me the luck surrounding where one is born. My mum’s family live in India and Covid was ravaging the country. I anxiously expected phone calls with bad news. Mercifully, they never came. The toll of death anxiety weighed heavily on me though. In June, just as things were opening up again, I broke my ankle. Really badly. I was told I’d need emergency surgery, with the haunting words,

“You won’t be able to walk more than a mile till October”.

Lal

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The

Life question Contact... doesn’t work I leave with: Insta @shlal out the way we Twitter @lalshlal thought it would. How can we all remain connected to our fellow humans throughout the journey?

Email sharnalal@gmail.com It’s currently November and one metal plate, 4 pins, and many physio sessions later, I still can’t walk around the block on a bad day! But I’ve learned so much about the barriers physical disabilities bring. An insight I wouldn’t have unless I’d struggled myself. I counted myself lucky because my ailment is temporary.

Despite the difficulty of early summer, I put paid to my big plans and kept up with Sheffield Pioneers work. It felt important to have a creative outlet and community of understanding peers. Unable to walk, I was heavily reliant on my support network. Swallowing my pride I asked for help constantly to stay fed, watered and clean. I was wheeled to the pub, park and Peaks.

“It got me thinking - How would an isolated person without this network cope?”

It brought me to tears. I knew I needed to feed this into my learning question. It began evolving into ‘How do we all look after each other?’ We were still learning from Covid but life throws this question up anyway.

Unable to work I was left with little to do. I was being sucked into a vortex of loneliness with no sense of purpose. I’d started with such high hopes! I felt useless.

Sadly, in September, a beloved uncle passed away from covid. A cousin got severely ill (and thankfully recovered). Life was an emotional rollercoaster! I didn't feel useless though. I rallied round with my family and was just there.

I’ve wondered if I’d be able to pluck myself from the exhaustion of sadness and showcase anything at all. But I have learned the most important thing.

We cannot live without people. I have learned that I will show up and be there for them, with my vulnerability and faults, and I will continue to do so,honouring those who no longer can. Eventually - the rest will inevitably slot into place.

Life carries on. But we will always need each other. We just need to show up.

“Colour is a power which directly influences the soul” Wassily Kandinsky, Artist

The question I came in with: How can colour help someone’s wellbeing?

nal our J r ty ou Col Activi eed –

Sarah

The Sheffield Pioneers Marathon in 3 words Enlightening, Sharing, Challenging.

Looking back at the beginning of this journey, it took me a lot of encouragement to apply in April; after having conversations with Stella and my family.

ln ns wil d pe ) I am a You er an if able creative Pap ured – s lo (co Step day individual, y r aw Eve or dr or born and bred e r t in Sheffield wri colou olour the e of c ling. via Lincoln, Newcastle, e had are fe e at ay s Nottingham and London. b u n fd o y is ca e o es.

Having studied Interior Design i Th fic t m t tim n i and Cultural Event Management, ere pec a s t diff “Thus a I have a passion for culture, arts, or my Pioneers wellbeing, community, charity-work journey began and education. with an emphasis at the start I have now returned to my northern on the use of colour and homeland, where I am currently working in mental health” the School of Education, The University of Sheffield.

Givans

“Perhaps it is that colour will save the world” Jo Volley, Artist

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The question I leave with: The Explore Phase

Buddy 1 Lora May – July Personal colour emotion journal

Power Up 1

July Established early years as my research area

The Develop Phase

Buddy 1 Lora and Buddy 2 Cathy July – September 7-day colour emotion Instagram challenge Listened to the online New Designers Talks

Power Up 2

September Pitched three ideas and asked for feedback

Can the use of colour have an emotional impact on the development of children and babies?

I’m looking for...

Potential collaborators who are interested in the creative exploration of colour.

People within the early years’ community (e.g. teachers, art facilitators), to explore the creative use of colour in workshops, in workshop materials and in worksheets.

Contact...

@SGivans Twitter sgivans@hotmail.co.uk Email sarah-g-25784633 LinkedIn @sarah_colour_pioneers Instagram

My Group Meet-up September Facilitated colour workshops Explored ideas for early years’ workshops

The Showcase Phase

Buddy 2 Cathy September – November Create Sheffield online festival Workshop-shadowing with Sheffield Museums STEM volunteering with {Maker} Futures The Sheffield Pioneers in 3 words - Supportive, Reflective, Friends.

Buddy meet-up

Rainbow imageConnections made

Christina The question I came in with: In moving back to Sheffield, how can I use my experience away to make a positive contribution to diversity in the city and play an integral part in life here?

I am an international entrepreneur and Tribal woman who loves family, community and photography - a good citizen who wants to make a positive contribution to the world. In my career, I have launched 6 different businesses all in the visual communications industry and I am driven by optimism. I am a do-er and a catalyst for change who leads from the heart.

“The Learning Marathon has helped opened my eyes to the amazing kaleidoscope that makes up Sheffield and to help me find my voice, vision and mission to develop the concept of a truly diverse and inclusive photo agency.”

My Learning Question started around how I could use my three decades of professional entrepreneurial experience in the visual communications industry to bring positive change and impact to Sheffield but has evolved to questions around how we best celebrate diversity in visual media – diversity of age, gender, sex, class, colour.

Environment is very important to me and so a search began to find a base where I could bring people together and I could launch a photo library that focuses on inclusive imagery both in front of the camera and behind the lens. I launched Cultura Creative to be an authentic voice of diverse creators and to encourage photographers from all backgrounds to create imagery to reflect the world they know and understand.

Vaughan

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The question I leave with: Having made so many amazing contacts over the past 6 months, I am now determined to amplify the voice of Sheffield Creatives. The question I leave with is how do I now ensure that I build on this positive momentum and make a commitment to grow, evolve, create employment and work to ensure that Sheffield’s light shines across the globe?

I found a wonderful space that I am developing as a photo studio where we can shoot as well as it being a creative space to bring people together for workshops, masterclasses and learnings. It is a heritage building that was originally a cutlery making factory and is a nod to the steel that is in all the bones of Sheffield people and makes us the great city we are.

Since the Learning Marathon began, I have used Sheffield as a base to recruit more than 50 new photographers and videographers, undertake more than 25 shoots here, hire over 60 different models and start to roll out a new generation photo library that will have both creative and societal impact on my home town.

Contact...

@imagegirl Twitter www.culturacreative.com Website Christina.Vaughan@culturacreative.com Email @culturacreative Instagram

Stella The question I came in with: I am a daughter, partner and a friend. I work as a facilitator and community builder, and I have had the privilege to be the host of The Sheffield Pioneers.

I am currently curious about the relationship between our sense of belonging and our ability to take action on the issues that matter to us most.

"It is a magnificent thing to be alive in a moment that matters so much. Let's proceed with broken-open hearts, seeking truth, summoning courage, and focused on solutions."

Who do I choose to be 🔥 (as the world burns)?

Joanna Macy Buddhist scholar, deep-ecologist and one of my greatest teachers

I don’t know about you, but the feeling of fear has well and truly arrived. My head spins with the complexity of the challenges that face us all. It spins with the constant grappling with what I could/should do, be, say, buy, sign, and just as often with the delightful optimistic fizzing of plentiful ideas and solutions, that feel equally urgent. I find myself lurching between heart-swelling hope and pit-of-the-stomach despair, ready to run away to the woods and never come back.

I came into this journey with a ‘simple’ question, ‘who do I choose to be?’ with a little added emphasis, ‘as the world burns’.

The backbone of my journey has been inviting dozens of people to share a cup of tea with me.

Together we chatted about choice, community, belonging and what a fucking mess we’re all in.

McKenna

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The question I leave with: How can I continue to work with others to co-create a sense of belonging, as we plant seeds for the future?

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” - Meg Wheatley

In the end, the world is just individual people making individual choices in individual moments.

If we want a different world we just have to choose it.

What choices do you choose to take?

As we close out this chapter of our journey, I am leaving with a slightly more nuanced question: ‘How can I continue to work with others to co-create a sense of belonging, as we plant seeds for the future?’. I am committed to continuing the work I love, to create and hold powerful spaces for change, to gather people together, to nourish spaces where we feel we belong and I chose to do that whilst imagining and fighting for the future I want to share with This is what I heard my children, with their children, and all of you.

1. Overwhelm and urgency are real, but commitment to being part of the change is also real.

2. Community is widely Contact... recognised as an antidote, hello@stellamckenna.co.uk Email but whilst some people www.stellamckenna.co.uk Website have found that community, @stellamcleodmckenna Linkedin most feel they are still @stellamckenna__ Instagram searching.

Reflections

Sharna How was I to know where these past 6 months would take me? But it’s provided ample time and opportunity for personal development…

Really personal! Meeting the other Sheffield Pioneers has been invaluable as it’s given me, first and foremost, a bunch of new mates.

Through our networks and creative forces Sheffield can expect a lot of positive projects from us all. I’m happy about that.

Mandy - Meetup We uncovered the history of the magical Grade 2 * Listed Beehive Works and used our ‘hive mind’ to explore the new layer of Sheffield history we might bring to the building. The most effective conservation technique is to keep a building in use. To protect those spaces that and uniquely, distinctively of Sheffield, we need to strengthen our connection to our spaces and be empowered to bring them back to life.

Christina The Sheffield Pioneers have been a supportive, inspirational group that have shone a light on so many of the hidden gems that make up Sheffield – I have felt inspired, enlightened and honoured to work with such a wonderful group who have reignited my passion for the creative process Stella ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together’ - from reality tunnels, to grandmother's footsteps, to walking tours and transcendental meditation. These six months have been a collective whirlwind of new ideas, unexpected gifts and a welcome reminder of the importance of finding a place where we know we belong.

Sarah I feel that I have stretched myself during this creative process of exploration. I have been vulnerable with a new group of people, I have presented my own ideas and I have facilitated workshops. Thank you to the Pioneers for being so welcoming in my city of Sheffield and I look forward to our future friendships and collaboration <3

Instagram @thesheffieldpioneers Blog page https//medium.com/enrol-yourself/ Introducing-the-sheffield-pioneers-2021-9067c1c7e63

~ Cathy ~

“Thank you for making me feel I belong”

Emma The Sheffield Pioneers has provided a dynamic group of people to socialise with, be creative, discuss, support and have fun. The group have been a listening ear, a sounding board, and provided incredible accountability to my Learning Question, required at a time when the world was in a state of flux and I had much time for reflection, when it was time to move on, grow and I very much needed different voices and ideas the group have supported me and I thank them sincerely for this.

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Lora What is a journey but a myth You are busting every step of the way.

Everyday, shifting and changing You walk the path, together To arrive somewhere.

Sit still, breath.

Learn to unlearn To live a happy, creative And most importantly, healthy Life.

Meet through the river Of the body and the mind Say it loudly For when it happens, we’ve arrived.

Charlie It’s been an important journey - with some surprising twists! The Pioneers have made a real impact on my personal life and have given me many reasons to build something in Sheffield, and it’s been a delight to spend time with each of them!

Wayne An ethos of mutual challenge and support along with a genuine desire to understand one another’s journeys have been the key underpinning elements of this pioneering class of ’21. A fundamental lesson I have learned is the importance of the quality of attention we pay to each other.

The Learning Marathon is a 6 month peer-led learning accelerator designed to integrate into life alongside work.

Enrol Yourself is an award-winning social enterprise redesigning lifelong learning by harnessing the power of peer groups to multiply individual and collective development.

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