20:20 by PhotoJ_USW

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20:20 ONLINE MAGAZINE SHOWCASING 3RD YEAR MINOR PROJECTS

20:20 2020 has been a year of turmoil. Firstly, the raging bushfires in Australia, then Baghdad International airport was struck by a US drone and brought down the Iranian Major General. With war breathing over our shoulders, sexual harassments being outed, recession and racial tensions over police brutality reaching boiling point, the deadliest pandemic in modern history is still killing thousands around the globe, pompting schools and workplaces to shut down and people to remain in their homes. 20:20 covers the stories from this year of turmoil, from businesses booming or being

neglected during the lockdown, to students being lost and confused as they graduate into uncertain economy with peak unemployment rates, the effects of Covid-19 on the live arts, sports played behind closed doors and the people that make our NHS. On a lighter note the issue also covers the personal stories of creators, traders, commercial couples, music listeners, protests within Bulgaria and the exploration of various ethnic groups.

‘Covid Class of 2020’ by Abi Davies.

‘Class of 2021’ by Dominika Starościk.

‘The Forgottern Heros of the NHS’ by Natalie Ball.

‘Football Behind Closed Doors’ by Steffan Clifton.

‘Survial of the Live Arts’ by Dali Mia Poulsom.

‘The Music That Makes Us’ by Kira Butters.

‘The Volunteer Economy’ by Lily Watts.

‘101 Days of Protests’ by Melisa Numan.

‘What does Asian look like?’ by Aarthy Balaganesh.

‘Behind the Art’ by Caitlin Bolt.

‘Soulful Traders’ by Mehek Seth.

‘Commercial Couples’ by Riley Rosser.

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‘Expat Resilience’ by Jai Ashton

Rhys Edmunds , 21, Theatre and Drama Graduate

COVID CLASS OF 2020 One of the many casualties of the 2020 Coronavirus outbreak are the thousands of final year students across the country who found themselves in lockdown during their final weeks of their degree. Online teaching replaced face to face lectures and graduation ceremonies are indefinitely postponed. In this article I speak to recent 2020 graduates about how they feel the virus has impacted their future. Q. What was it like graduating during a pandemic?

Q. Has the audition process changed a lot now?

A. It was a bit weird, it kind of felt more special because they were

A. Well, yeah they have. I’ve only been to 2 or 3 in person auditions

trying to overcompensate for us. Obviously, we couldn’t be there

but most of them are through self-tape now. It’s quite challenging,

physically but I was quite lucky my family were all preppy so they

especially by yourself. I had a thing through for this film, and they

got me like a big gown and stuff. They surprised me too, I didn’t

asked for me to do this one scene and it was 50 seconds long –

even guess it was coming and I went out (of the house) and came

there was no one at home with me so I had my ironing board up

back and they had fully redone it to look like a graduation ceremony

and my washing basket on top of it trying to get the camera to eye

so it was quite lush. We had a nice Zoom call and our teachers were

level! I asked my friend from Uni if she could record herself saying

advising us to drink and things because it was a celebration and

the female parts and leave gaps between lines so I could fill them,

after an hour or so, people just started asking if they could say a

it’s a change in that way. In person, I think, obviously they need to

few words. Then, it ended up being around 45 people saying a few

see under your mask so it’s kind of like the element of trust that you

words around 5 minutes each so we were there for like 6 or 7 hours

don’t have COVID. I had an audition and ,you don’t shake hands

in a Zoom call! It was nice because there were people who you

anymore, but I’d take off my mask to do a scene and then put it

wouldn’t think would openly express themselves, saying things like,

straight back on at the end.

‘you guys really meant a lot to me these last few years and helped me build my confidence’.

Q. Did COVID-19 affect your plans for the future? How?

Q. Have you found there are less opportunities to audition now or more? Tell me about the project you’re working on right now.

A. Yeah, well I’m not sure really. My original plan was to save some

A. I’ve had more. Now, i’m getting sent loads of stuff and it’s so easy

money over the summer and move to London but there wasn’t

to do because you can video it yourself and it saves you driving

much point to that right now because the industry is at a standstill.

places. It’s a play called ‘Cicero’ written by my friends Connor, Shai

So at the moment I’m getting my PT (personal training) and then

and Peter. We were meant to do it during April but because of the

getting the qualification which I had planned to do anyways. I’ve

lockdown in April we had to cut and stop it but they’ve kept basically

got an agent and I’m still auditioning for stuff so it hasn’t changed

the same cast but changed the script kinda so now i’ve got the

too much because all through the summer I just practiced anyway,

main part which I wasn’t orignally haha. It’s changed alot because

doing what I wanted to do.

you can’t be in the rehearsal space for too long because of health and saftey, but I’m glad that we’re back doing some sort of play even if it’s short and limited in what it is. We had a zoom call back

“The director would say ‘I wanna see you smile’ but you can only see our eyes.”

in September when we decided to go ahead with the production and it’s so technical, there were all these new COVID rules and we had to sign a COVID contract which is like you have to wear a mask during rehearsal. It’s really funny ‘cause the director would say ‘I wanna see you smile’ but you can only see our eyes.

to COVID. I went from not being able to leave the country to not being able to leave the house! Because I couldn’t go travelling I’ve been looking for employment and besides that I’ve been trying to keep myself busy. Applying for jobs is hard especially now with COVID with lots of people out of work, there’s more and more people seeking jobs than there are jobs available. I’m looking for jobs in other areas other than Chemistry and mostly looking at graduate scheme type jobs, it can be quite annoying because there seems to be hundreds of steps before even getting to the interview stage. You have to go through Psychometric tests and other assessments before getting to an interview, for the interviews to then be online!

Q. What advice would you give to future graduates if they end up in the same situation as yourself? A. My advice would be to make the most of your time at University and make an effort to keep in touch with friends you made along the way even if that’s online. For online exams, they’re interesting because most of mine were open book which means that the way you study changes a lot rather than having to remember the information you need to be able to have a good understanding instead so I’d keep that in mind. I haven’t got much advice to give on applying for jobs because if

Lewis Davies, 22, Chemistry Graduate

I did I’d probably have one by now, haha. But I’d say just stick to it and keep trying because that’s all you can do.

Q. What was it like graduating during a world-wide pandemic?

pre-recorded on YouTube. My family was obviously disappointed as they wanted to watch me graduate with my peers.

A. If I’m totally honest, it didn’t feel like I had graduated at all. One day I was in the lab with my supervisors and other students and the next day I was leaving with no plans to go back again. All the exams were online, and I had to switch to distance learning which was okay but it’s not a brilliant replacement for normal lectures. The graduation ceremony was very generic and non-personal and was

Q. Did COVID-19 affect your plans for the future? How? A. Yeah, they did. I had money saved from my year in industry during my third year of university and I had planned to go travelling to South East Asia after graduation. Obviously, that didn’t end up happening due

“Applying for jobs is hard especially with lots of people out of work”

“Don’t get disheartened when applying for jobs and the right one will find you eventually, lots of people are in the same situation right now”

Maisie Morgan, 21, Mental Health Graduate

Q. What was it like graduating during a global pandemic? A. Well, it was interesting. It was a real double-edged sword. On one hand, doing a journalism-based course with one of the biggest news stories to happen in a century made for really rich material. It gave me the opportunity to explore more creative avenues of photography because I had to redirect my project into something I could do from my room. On the another hand, yeah it is dissapointing, we didn’t get a graduation ceremony and it would’ve been nice to celebrate, you know, the achievement with my classmates and family but it is what it is.

Q. What have you been up to since graduating? A. Through the summer I was really fortunate to get on the governments ‘Track and Trace’ programme which felt good to make a contribution towards a national effort to combating COVID-19. It was always a temporary contract and it just so happened that the end of the contract lined up really nicely with the start of my masters. So, umm, I got to work that and because I wasn’t going out and socialising and spending money on beer I got to save up and buy a few nice things for myself so yeah, it was good.

Ben Rice, 35, Photojournalism Graduate

Q. Did COVID-19 affect your plans for after graduation? A. It actually did have an affect because I started working in November 2019 but then they (place of work) requested my graduation certificate but I couldn’t give it to them because of COVID. So, that kind of put me on probation again for another six months, it messed up my whole permanent job role at the bank.

Q. Did you try anything different that you wouldn’t have considered doing after graduating because of the virus? A. Hmmm, I started my own business! So, I started that, ‘Bare Aesthetics’, which is selling UK skin care products to Sri Lanka so that had me interested!

Q. What advice would you give to the future graduates who may end up in the same position as you? Niddhi Ojha, 25, International Management Graduate

A. I would just say, to take to it easy..it’s a global pandemic. No one can push you to a corner or, you know, treat you differently because you don’t have your graduate certificate. They need to come up with something or the other to sort you out. Graduation will suck and you won’t get the whole festival-type feeling but other than that it’s pretty

chilled.

“Use social media that’s a major major thing, mental health wise as well, just keep in touch with people”

Sian Kirby , 21, Perfroming Arts Graduate

Q. Has the situation affected your future? Have you had to adapt any of your initial plans? A. I had quite a few legal jobs lined up that I was planning for throughout the year and left, right and centre, all of them were being cancelled. Because I do Law, it’s extremely competitive so even just getting to the interview stage is a big achievement but obviously all that got cancelled and postponed for even next year or just completely.

“Myself and thousands of students, especially in Wales, have had to adjust and revitalise their plans last minute” Myself and thousands of students, especially in Wales, have had to adjust and revitalise their

Daniel Onafuwa, 21, Law Graduate

plans last minute; I have friends who’ve had jobs cancelled, their years abroad cancelled and

seeing

that

around

saddening

especially when you know we’ve all worked hard.

Q. You’d mentioned a company you’ve created to me before this interview. Can you tell me more about it? A. I’d love to. It’s called The Community Law Project UK limited. Because of the pandemic and the personal experiences I’ve faced in getting calls saying, ‘You’re successful but because of this pandemic we can’t offer you a role because it’s been cancelled’, along

with seeing law students and all my friends

Geography etc who have said, ‘Hey Dan I

struggling, as well as seeing how this

know you’re very active in your legal sector, is

pandemic has affected other disadvantaged

there any way I could get some experience?’.

people, I wanted to, but couldn’t help them

I wanted to find a venue to be able to help

and they’re the ones getting hit the worst.

everyone at once and solve all the problems

So, I wanted to find a way to solve the issue

that have been occurring. We’ve recently set

of those people not getting their work and

up, we’ve got a website and socials under the

getting my friends employed. I worked

name, The Community Law Project. We’re

with great individuals to be able to start

going to launch officially later this month

a company built on the backbone of law

(October 2020) but we’ve already had an

students, law graduates and even regular

email list of over a hundred students and

students who are interested in getting

grads who are ready to get on that work.

legal work experience and having access to it. I’ve had friends who are doing French,

Words and Images by Abi Davies

Eddie Link, Media, Culture and Journalism

CLASS OF 2021 By Dominika Starościk

On March 23rd, 2020, the British Prime minister, Boris Johnson, announced a national lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19 across the United Kingdom. All non-essential businesses, schools and universities had to close their doors within a few days. Many were left to make decisions on what the best cause of action is to keep businesses and education going. When the government announced the lockdown restrictions students were urged to travel back to their family homes for the rest of the academic year as all university teaching was changed to online. Wales has dealt with the pandemic slightly differently to the other countries in the United Kingdom as, they started to put Covid-19 hotspots into ‘local lockdowns’ at the end of September. Cardiff was put into a further lockdown by the Welsh Government on the 27th of September which then later lead to a 2 week ‘fire-breaker’ lockdown across Wales to prevent the spread of Covid-19, however the universities were still able to keep their doors open. The interviews were held with students who were in their 2nd year of study during the beginning of the pandemic and are now studying their final year. They express their feelings and expectations towards the changes in teaching.

Ryan Crosby, Sports Performance Analysis, Cardiff Metropolitan University

Ryan Crosby,21, Sports Performance Analysis, Cardiff Metropolitan University

Ryan says that the university has been keeping them updated on any changes to teaching. “The university has been in contact with us via email since the beginning of lockdown in March, giving regular updates on what was happening. They seemed to approach the communication very logically and released information as and when they had it.” Ryan also mentioned that since the beginning of the new academic year Cardiff Metropolitan University has put one-way systems and numerous exits and entrances to help keep social distancing in place. As Ryan is studying a sports related degree some form of face to face lectures had to be put in place. “It is a 50/50 balance between online and in person lectures, with one day a week on campus. There is more of an emphasis on completing pre-lecture content now there isn’t the same interaction level with online lectures. I feel that I have been less productive as there are so many distractions at home compared to a lecture hall or library. My average marks before lockdown were very high, but they have dropped significantly since being taught online. I will admittedly say that I haven’t been putting as much work in, but I need to be in an environment such as a classroom or library to put me in the mindset.”

Courses that are non-practice based have not been given the opportunity to study within campus grounds as seminars and lectures have been changed to remote learning. Chloe Harding, 21, studies History at Cardiff University says “my course is taught all online, with a split between recorded lectures, live online seminars and set readings. It feels that there is a lot more work now that everything is online. I find it difficult to organise my work as every module is taught differently. For example, we have to access readings for the same module in different folders, some are sent through email, others are in the handbooks. It’s all very mixed up and it takes me a while to find what I am looking for sometimes.” Chloe mentioned that she feels “lazy and less productive” as she spends majority of her time studying in her room, staring at a computer screen for hours. The amount of work we are given is just as much as the previous years, maybe more. I do believe that I am learning less as my day consists of moving from my bed to the living room, and then back to my room again. When we were taught face to face, I’d have to get up get dressed and leave in time for my lecture, however now that I can’t go into the campus, I’m finding myself getting less motivated each day which is bad for my university work and mental health.”

Chloe Harding, History, Cardiff University

Sophie Perkins, Illustration, University of South Wales

Research has found that thousands of jobs have been lost due to the pandemic, which has left many final year students worried about getting work after graduation. Chloe Harding has plans to teach English in China after graduating her History degree at Cardiff University, however, due to the pandemic and travel restrictions across the world, she is worried that the current situation with lockdown will ruin her plans. Ryan Crosby is hoping to find a job in the field of his Sports Performance degree, whether it be in Cardiff of another country. “I think the pandemic will affect the chances of me finding a job, especially that sport itself has suffered heavily. I haven’t yet figured out what I will do, if I don’t come out of university with a job in the field I have been studying for. I have got experience in working within hospitality and customer service, which is always an option, but it will be disappointing if I don’t manage to get a job relating to sports analysis.” Final year students have suffered greatly due to the pandemic. The workload which is required to be completed in short periods of time and the uncertainty of the future. They have held their heads high to get through their final year at university knowing that they have worked to the best of their ability considering the circumstances.

Matilda works in the antenatal clinic in Pinderfields Hospital. During the Corona Virus Pandemic the hospital was locked down and people were not allowed to come and visit loved ones, this was especially hard when it came to visiting relatives and loved ones who had given birth during the pandemic. “I’d say the maternity wards became a lot busier with there being more women becoming pregnant over lockdown and it also became a lot harder as the wards were patients only unless they were coming for a 12 or 20 weeks scan” says Matilda who found it hard having to turn family and friends away due to the restrictions during Covid. “Most of the time patients were fine and understood the rules set out by the hospital but there would be patients who would get upset and not understand why they couldnt enter the appointment rooms”. These kind of situtations can be hard on staff and cause feelings of guilt and stress, stated Matilda. Staff were put in difficult situations in having to turn relatives and close family members away from wards during Covid in order to keep all patients and staff safe during these hard times. Apart from the changes within the hospital, work didnt really change for me, I still had to go to work everyday while everybody else stayed at home, it was hard not being able to go out and see my friends and to be able to unwind after hard days at work, says Matilda.

Matilda Mottram Maternity Admin Officer at Pinderfields Hospital.

THE FORGOTTEN HEROES OF HEROS OF THE NHS These are the staff who kept the National Health Service running during Covid-19, they work in the background booking appointments, arranging surgeries and talking to patients, but when Covid-19 struck they were all but forgotten in the Media. These are their stories of struggling through Covid-19 and the changes put in to place.

Words and Photography by Natalie Ball

Jessica works within Access Booking and Choice at Pinderfields Hospital as a Waiting List Clerk booking surgeries for the Hospital. This building is where the mass majority of appointments are booked from surgery to routine appointments and also contains the hospitals contact centre. At the start of lockdown this building had a huge task ahead of it in having to manage clinics and cancel all surgeries apart from emergencys and cancer appointments. “We had to cancel all out-patients at the start of lockdown apart from emergencys. We had to inform upset and angry patients that their long awaited surgeries were cancelled and they were understandably distraught. Advising a patient that their surgery was cancelled during ‘normal’ times was hard, but at the beginning of a pandemic was a lot more stressful and with us having to give the news with no real time scale for elective threatre lists starting up again, it was heartbreaking” says Jessica. Staff across the services have had to deal with increased stress and anxiety throughtout the pandemic. In 2019 a survery carried out by the NHS found that over 30% of sickness within the service was due to stress and ever increasing workloads. This is only set to rise in 2020 due to the pandemic and staff struggling to keep up with huge workloads.

Jessica Ball Waiting List Clerk at Pinderfield Hospital.

“

I feel like I dealt with the pandemic itself quite easily, ive been fine with staying in at home, just going to the supermarket and work, but once lockdown ended and work loads increased substantially I started to have panic attacks. I was crying in the office uncontrollably with overwhelming feelings of anxiety because I felt out of control with not keeping up with filling our threatre lists with patients. I felt inadequate, not fast enough and I felt like I was letting the service down and I ended up being off sick from work for 5 weeks”.

“COVID created new ways of working and new systems having to be put in place. We did save time in many places though by doing meeting over Micorsoft Teams instead of walking to other areas of the hospital, but it also created larger workloads as we had to create more email documentation of discussions that had taken place during the meetings to share with staff and keep them updated. During lockdown staff needing more emotional and mental support due to things changing significantly inside of work and outside of work. We had to totally change the office layout to create social distancing for staff and follow hospital guidelines. Lots of new information needing to be captured on the cancer database in regards to patients and Covid-19 which increased workloads and stress levels for staff. There was a huge shift in demands from services and constant moving of staff to support with sickness and annual leave as a result of Covid, this impacted staffs mental health and wellbeing subtantially.”

Jacob Brown Assistant Cancer Access and Performance Manager at Pinderfields Hospital.

Andrea Busfield Booking Team Manager in Access Bokking & Choice at Pinderfield Hospital.

“Working and managing teams in a busy appointments centre has had quite an impact on both myself and my staff. I have noticed a significant increase in staffs stress levels as work loads have increased. I try to stay upbeat and motivate staff as much as possible and I know how hard this lockdown has been on them. Staff sickness has also increased due to Covid as if staff show signs of Covid symptoms they have to Isolate for 14 days and also any staff they have come into contact with also have to self isolate, this meant huge pressures on the service and increased work loads shared between the staff working within the office. One of our first priorities was to ensure our staff were working in a safe environment. This meant a huge re-organisation of our working areas to achieve this and a change to working practices such as condensing hours and looking at allowing staff to work from home, which was not something we had done before. All outpatient appointments were initially cancelled or changed to telephone appointments to limit patients coming into hospital where possible. As the lockdown began to ease the majority of our appointments remain non face to face i.e. telephone or video consultations but there are some patients that need to be seen face to face. This has involved a huge piece of work re-mapping our outpatient areas to ensure social distancing measures are maintained in waiting areas and to allow sufficient time between patients for rooms to be cleaned down etc.

As we now enter a second lockdown, I do feel that we are better prepared to deal with it as processes are already established.”

Julie Ball Lead Administrator in the research department at Pinderfrield Hospital.

“I felt under a lot of stress during the pandemic and unsupported as an office administrator. One office administrator in our department retired due to extreme pressures caused by stress and anxiety during Covid-19”.

Julie works within the research department at Pinderfields Hospital. During lockdown she took the difficult decision to retire and return due to overwhelming stress within the work place. Working from home due to having to shield as I was classed as a vunerable worker caused my anxiety levels to rise significantly. Working from home was extremely difficult due to lack of communication from the team as they were still within the office environment where they would work a week in the office and a week from work so would have updated contact and general information delievered to them from there, says Julie. When lockdown happened things were slow to get set up and I had limited resources at home, I had to work from my old laptop until I could have a computer set up for me. We then heard rumours that home working staff were not doing as much work at home which caused anxiety and frustration within the team and myself. We felt as though we needed to prove we were working and contributing all the time. When lockdown was eased in August and people started to return to the office work loads increased substancially. We had nurses entering the offices on a regular basis bombarding us with jobs they wanted completing, this was hard for some of us you still continued to work from home 50% of the week and we suddenly felt overwhelmed by it all. Sometimes I think office staff get ignored, but our voices count also, we need to be listened to when we say we cant cope and we need better procedures put in place to protect our mental health and Covid-19 has only made this more obvious now stated Julie. I have loved my job and I love working for the NHS. I feel like when we take a job within the NHS, even admin, we take on signing up for any circumstances, especially ones like these and making sure patients are seen and cared for is our top priority, but we need our health taken care of as well and we need to be listened to and we need to be seen.

Leon Ball Facilities Technician and Fire Response crew at Leeds General Infirmary.

Leon works two jobs at Leeds General Infirmary, his part time job is assisting the emergency helicopters landing as on stand by Fire Response Crew. Leon main full time job is as a Facilites Tecnician. During the first lockdown Leon helped set up ICU wards for Corona virus patients. During the Pandemic he would mainly move Covid patients around the hospital, for this he has to wear full PPE to protect himself from the virus. There was a solid month were I didnt really see anybody, not even my son because I worked long hours in work, I moved patients around wards as they made more space for more Covid patients. I would also move patients to the morgue who had died from Covid. One day while I was at work was particularly hard as I had to move a Nurse who had died from Covid to the morgue. This had a huge impact on my mental wellbeing as we didnt know when it was going to end, these were very uncertain times and very scary times for safe working within the hospital, they were difficult times for us all, patients and staff as a whole. I would come home emotionally drained from it all. It was hard not being able to see my son as much as he lived with his mum in Wakefield and due to restrictions and me working in a high risk enviroment I didnt want to risk their health either, says Leon”. Since the lockdown was relaxed in August I get to see my son more now which I am thankful for and we try to spend as much time together outdoors and enjoying our freedom again. I look forward to things going back to a bit of normality, me and my collegues have worked hard during the lockdown, we have cared for and comforted each other but sometimes I just feel we can be forgotten. I think during the Pandemic people have come to see that we are an important cog within the NHS as a whole and I hope that it stays that way because cleaners, porters, health assistants are just

FOOTBALL BEHIND CLOSED DOORS 211 days have passed since Cardiff City last kicked a football due to the new deadly disease Covid-19. In that time sport has changed radically and, maybe, permanently... Words Steffan Clifton

FOOTBALL BEHIND FOOTBALL BEHIND CLOSED CLOSED DOORS DOORS

p to the present date 12/11/2020 Covid 19 has taken over a million lives and changed our daily routine drastically. Life as we know it has gone with social distancing, hand sanitizer, empty pubs and restaurants becoming the new

FourFourTwo November 2020 8

norm. It has been a long journey for football to return with the last game played on 11th March in the UK. Due to the fast spread of the pandemic just 2 days later the FA suspended all games. It was due to return on April 3rd but Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for the country to be in lockdown and on March 23rd nobody could have predicted the weeks of no

football. On 21st of August the Welsh Senedd announced that elite football in Wales would return the following month. This was met with excitement by Welsh teams. With the return of football in these uncertain times came feelings of comfort and familiarity. After 211 days on 27th September Cardiff City hosted Swansea. It was no ordinary

match day with fans not allowed in the stadium and no atmosphere for the players to feed off, especially from a derby game. There is no replacement for the fans on the terrace cheering to push their team forward creating a feeling of somber silence but for the shouting of the players. As a reporter I felt the occasion was less tense and less of a spectacle without them. But the show must go on and safety must come first. The clubs

‘‘Its been difficult for everyone, but we’ve done everything we can to get the games back on safely’’ - Iain Derbyshire have to work to the guidelines. from the welsh Government and the League association, all wanting to get the games played. As a photojournalist I had to fill in a Covid 19 health questionnaire before arriving at the ground. On the day I had my temperature checked and a one off accreditation sanitizer and face mask before entering a deserted press box where keeping the 2m distancing was easy. Even the substitutes were social

distanced in the empty stand. Even changes on the pitch seemed strange as water breaks were frequent due to low fitness levels after not playing for so long and 5 substitutions allowed. No handshakes before the game, just a knuckle touch allowed to decrease the chance spreading the virus. Water breaks, no cheering fans, more substitutions, this was now the reality of football for the foreseeable future. How football has changed in 211 days. Its not as I remember it but it was fantastic to see it back. FourFourTwo November 2020 9

SURVIVAL OF THE

LIVE ARTS

The circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic has had a detrimental affect on the future of the live arts industry. The Arts is a thriving part of Wales and makes huge annual contributions to the economy. We spoke to some individuals, from the grassroots of Cardiff that who are known for working within the sector.

Photos and words by Dali Mia Poulsom

‘we can only hope that we aren’t left in the dark’

Emily Kocan Bassist - Clwb Fuzz ‘‘From the beginning it was clear that the live arts were gonna be vulnerable to the impact of this pandemic, this industry holds a quarter million jobs and contributes around 4.5 billion to the UK economy per year, yet we are given no certainty that there will be stability for us when the pandemic has passed, we are at risk of losing important culture, societies and wellbeing. It’s extremely unnerving to hear, so many of us could be out of work for who knows how long. As a band, we’ve had disruptions with all sorts of plans we had this year but we’ve taken this time to really get ourselves ready for the next stream of plans. Recently The Welsh Government announced a £53m fund for art bodies up until March which is said to help those whose jobs are under threat,

it is also to go towards researching how they can continue these activities safely in the climate of COVID-19. However, the UK’s economy is already at a big financial loss due to a Brexit that four years down the line still hasn’t happened! The arts were already under threat before the virus, we’re struggling during the virus, we can only hope that we aren’t left in the dark post-pandemic, especially with Westminster in the picture. There are so many ways in which we can showcase live arts and keep money coming to our independent venues without them being close contact live shows. They can also be networking events, workshops, exhibitions.’’

Ellis Walker Promoter and Musician - Mellt ‘‘Prior to COVID, about three quarters of my income before was performing in the band. Also I worked with other groups producing material whilst working in a bar to supplement my income. All this ceased when the lockdown began. Coping during lockdown has been difficult for me because although I’m still able to work on material and do things at home, it doesn’t really compare to the thrill of playing in front of a live audience. The feeling of ‘I should be doing more with this time’ is a very unhelpful feeling that has stunted my impulsive creativity.I have applied for a few of the government grants and gotten nothing, I am dumbfounded with they way they have worked. A first come first serve policy for grant applications is preposterous, I have spoken to so many people who were also struggling.’’

Kane Hardiman Actor ‘‘I have been incredibly limited in the amount of acting I can do, especially as I can only now go into uni only once a week.Over lockdown I had spent the majority of my time at my home back in Hertfordshire as I had high risk members in my household. I’ve tried to keep myself above water by concentrating on things such as my voluntary work placement at the local Sherman Theatre in Cardiff.

I think the governments support is dire, especially in response to the new “Rethink, Reskill, Reboot” scheme. There needs to be some sort of revolt against this. We are still yet to see a real overwhelming amount of support for the live arts. There are many little things we can do to help the live arts industry and embrace the online world to support it, such as online streaming shows and recordings.’’

‘THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME SORT OF REVOLT AGAINST THIS’

Tara Turner Performing Arts student and trainee at Coyote Ugly ‘‘I’m a very practical learner and rely a lot on faceto-face interaction to help with my studies and everyday life. When COVID took over the world, I found myself to feel somewhat alienated from the world outside my front door. I kind of went into “survival mode” with everything, working until I was completely drained of creative fuel. I’ve been trying to keep busy so my mental health stays balanced but I had my fair weeks of laying around and doing sweet F A. I don’t think people really understand how much our futures and jobs are at stake here, especially for the self employed, students, the poor and those who have business in the arts over the next two years. We all have been utterly screwed over during this pandemic. At this time, more than anything and particularly in Wales, the Live Arts industry needs recognition.’’

#SAVEOURVENUES

Joe Woodward Vocals / Guitar - Clwb Fuzz ‘‘I miss gigging and having more to do musically. The government hasn’t done enough to support the live industry at the moment and are the ones slowly killing it off. Rushi Sunak’s comment on telling artists to re train was just offensive. At the moment, it’s really helpful to donate to venues and art businesses because that’s the only way small independents can try to survive.’’

Alias Booker Musician and Artist ‘‘Remember where music starts, your favourite band started playing gigs in places like this. I just hope that everyone realises and puts more of their own time and effort into supporting these places instead of taking them for granted. I have yet to see any sort of help thrown in the way of the live arts and don’t think we will see anything. The industry is already being seen as a lost cause and those who have been told to retrain and to forget about their interest is astonishing. Distribute money more fairly instead of pumping it into Wetherspoon’s.’’

Sam Hoy, Indie Promo label HOYFEST; annual Cardiff festival and roughly 20 stand-alone shows a year. ‘‘In June, I curated online gigs every saturday night. Between the jogging and the gigs, £1100 was raised for NHS PPE. I fully understand the need to postpone the shows, but the people who work within the industry, the venues that house them, cannot be left behind. The labels, the thousand-seater venues and the big promoters can outlast the setbacks. Independent promoters who’s profit margin is maybe £100, would never survive a social distanced gig with half the crowd. I find it gutting that a lot of freelancers, new bands and photographers etc will just leave the industry and not return, even though they’re the cogs making it tick’’

#LETUSDANCE 39

Lewis Morgan General Manager of Porter’s Cardiff, a freelance audio engineer/ musician & the bassist of a band called Colours Of One ‘‘During lockdown at Porter’s Bar, we tried to keep our programme and live-arts alive by streaming some of our popular events & gigs. We also made merch which sold out in three hours. I’m not worried about the arts having a future, because art is essential, there will always be art. I am very worried about the future of the industry as it currently exists. Most of my friends work in this industry & are extremely talented people who have trained for years in this sector. Over 400 venues are at “high risk” of closure and the industry is projected to lose 60% of its workforce. Venues will start closing, businesses will start folding and I feel like the industry could potentially lose a huge part of its workforce and infrastructure. When things finally get back to “normal”; I’m afraid that the “normal” we’re expecting won’t exist anymore. Although the government have offered funding for Graroots Music Venues & other Cultural institutions;

the support itself has had to be fought for, & receiving anything has been an agonisingly difficult and slow process. I will say that I am thankful to be in Wales, the Welsh gov has offered more support and has tried to keep things simple. However, the way the UK government has treated the self-employed who are the majority of the workforce in the live arts sector is abysmal. They should absolutely provide 80% furlough to these workers, Westminster saying they can’t support these jobs because they’re ‘unviable’ is objectively wrong.It is important to be supporting campaigns. Check out your local venues and what they’re doing to try and raise money, support them if you can. We (Porter’s) are incredibly thankful to the MVT (Music Venues Trust) who have literally been our lifesavers during this pandemic. They have amazing #saveourvenues and #letthemusicplay campaigns that are definitely worth supporting as much as you can.’’

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The Music That Makes Us By Kira Butters

Everyone has a favourite song or album we go back to time and time again. Music has an emotional impact on us, it can trigger memories of childhood, life-changing experiences and moments of sadness. Such songs can inspire or empower through lyrics, beats or notes. They can improve our happiness and sense of peace, they can inﬂuence the clothes we wear, what we do and how we interact.

Even though there are many diﬀerent genres of music, it can unite people. For instance, if someone’s favourite song is a classical instrumental piece, it could give the same feeling that someone else has with a rock song. Here we meet some individuals as they talk about their favourite songs.

Use your phone to scan the QR codes to listen to each song mentioned by the individuals.

Azzura If I had to choose just one song I would have to go for ‘Rhiannon’ by Fleetwood Mac. I ﬁrst remember listening to it when I was 17 and actually was writing an essay about Fleetwood Mac, I came across this video of the 1976 live performance. The version of the song performed there is slightly diﬀerent to the recorded version and not to sound too cheesy but I fell in love with it, as well as being in awe of the bands stage presence and Stevie Nicks’ performance whilst singing. The song makes me feel strangely powerful, as if I could do anything and everything at the same time

as feeling calm and sad, it reminds me of loneliness and strength. It’s probably unconsciously inﬂuenced how I write songs and it did inspire me to write a song about someone and come up with a character. It also inﬂuenced my taste in music as I’ve found since listening to it I’ve been more drawn to similar songs with female vocals whereas before my music taste was more around rocky bands and male artists.

Louie Parﬁtt My favourite album is ‘To The Moon’ by the Pope’s of Chilitown. The whole album is upbeat fast paced with just so many incredible tunes on it, it sets me up for the day and picks me up when I feel low. I ﬁrst heard them at a gig in a festival in 2016 just heard them in the distance and thought it sounded brilliant. I then stayed for the whole set and left thinking “damn they were incredible”. My favourite song is on that album is ‘Vamos A La Luna’, high octane feel-good tune that you can’t not dance too.

life, helping me through tough times and developing me into the person I am today. It inﬂuences how I see and perceive the world around me and how I act to make a positive change in it. By going to protests supporting marginalised communities, supporting independent places rather than big companies, helping the environment by making personal changes whilst also supporting people to create a larger change in the nations.

Music has always been incredibly inﬂuential in a number of aspects of my

Andy Rance

Victoria Blake-Dobell Choosing a favourite piece of music will always be an impossible task for me. Since the start of lockdown, I felt creatively drained, but something that I found incredibly inspiring was discovering Hania Rani, especially her piece ‘Glass’. It has a unique soundscape with delicate fragments reminiscent of the classical pieces I studied growing up. This and a lot of her work remind me of moments of

lightness and clarity, and they often have calming palettes of light blues and pinks. I smell early mornings and polished wood, all the while my neck and shoulders lose some of their tension. It’s restful and draws me to the piano, sometimes to compose, but mostly to just enjoy my time with the instrument.

My favourite song, to be honest, is Tom Walker’s ‘Leave a Light on’. I ﬁrst heard this after we’d just installed the coloured lights outside Livewire. Livewire is a youth project. It’s a charity that specialises in live music and mental health. The one line that always hits me. “If you look into the distance, there’s a house upon the hill, Guiding like a lighthouse to a place where

you’ll be, Safe to feel our grace ‘cause we’ve all made mistakes, If you’ve lost your way, I will leave the light on” It sums up my hope that Livewire can be that safe place for everyone.

Emily Hyatt My favourite Manics song is ‘No Surface All Feeling’. It’s got everything I need in a song; it can be played loud or quiet, it can be emotionally huge or tender, it sounds a bit magical. It’s very stirring for me, it’s a well of emotions where I can ﬁnd joy, rapture, sadness, nostalgia and happiness. Its incredible live and when I see them play it, it’s always a beautiful, uplifting and almost spiritual experience! I ﬁrst heard it when they played The White Room in 1996. I’d got Everything Must Go but I hadn’t really engaged with it, I was in my Radiohead obsession phase. They played ‘No Surface All Feeling’ along with ‘A Design For Life’ and ‘La Tristesse

Durera’ and it just floored me, it’s so big and beautiful and powerful yet it has a gentle element to it. I taped it and played it so often the tape for creased! That version led me to engage properly with Everything Must Go and I instantly adored the album version. The Manics have influenced my life massively. I’ve made lifelong friends because of them for a start. I met two of my closest friends in a Manics chatroom called Archives Of Pain in the late 90s and we hung out a lot and went to see them live together. Barry, my best friend who I ended up living with, died a few years ago but Helen and I are still friends. In late 2014 I’d stopped drinking after finally

taking action against my alcohol problem. I felt something was missing, I hadn’t listened to the Manics in years. Barry and I, for nostalgias sake had got tickets to see them play for the 20th anniversary of The Holy Bible. The second James Dean Bradﬁeld walked on stage I knew this was what I’d been missing. From that point on I was in love again. They got me through my subsequent breakdown in 2015 and I made lots of new friends and became part of the wonderful, supportive Manics family! They’ve helped me ﬁnd out what really matters to me, how to be honest with myself and what true happiness means.

Catharine Ecob It’s a very complicated question for me and there’s not a single answer. There’s diﬀerent types, for dancing there’s a song by an DJ called Sharam who’s remixed this track. It’s called ‘Deep Breath’ and it’s like a really uplifting vocal track, everything is amazing, and the sun is shining song. So, you’ve got something like that and then you’ve got one by a label called Bedrock, a track called ‘Emerald’. It is a completely musical techno number, and that’s great for dancing to in a place like Fabric in London, which is dark, smoky and goes until eight or nine in the morning. That’s a favourite for there.

Having a favourite changes depending on the mood. A lot of the stuﬀ, because you’re dancing for eight or nine hours at a time, you can love a track and then it disappears out of your head. Rave music makes me feel great, euphoric, at peace, content and it’s probably one of the few times in my life when I’ve been on danceﬂoors going, “If everything ends now, it will be okay because everything is so good!”. I just feel at one with the world and everyone around, and it just feels great.

Margaret Callaghan My favourite of all is ‘How would you feel?’ From Divide by Ed Sheeran. I think it’s because in all songs, I like a lovely melody and I go for good lyrics. This song has both. It has a really lovely melody, it’s gentle and it’s a proper love song really. I really like the lyrics and you can hear everything he sings. I heard him perform this song live when I saw him in Glasgow. He’s amazing live as well as recorded.

I think what it does, it takes me back many years, it reminds me of the way it was when I was a teenager and the way you would like to think a love song would be, with the lyrics and melody. It makes me feel really happy when I hear it.

Olivia Barbato It’s a diﬃcult question… I think one of my favourite songs is ‘Women’s World’ by Little Mix. I love how the song is a statement on women’s rights, it makes me feel really empowered and makes me want to stand up for my rights.

Katherine Rees My favourite album is La Traviata by the Royal Opera House. I heard the opera live when I was researching my dissertation. The album also reminds me of love, and it makes me feel calm. For me, classical music has helped me express myself in a way I cannot with words. It also brings me a sense of community, from being in a choir, and it really makes me happy. Discovering classical music created my career, as a Student Ambassador for the Royal Opera House. I mainly work now in helping others access the industry or experience the genre for the ﬁrst time. It makes me feel at ease.

Derry Orchard Without a doubt one of my favourite songs is Eyesore by Women which appears on the album Public Strain, which is one of my favourite albums too. The band is magic, and I can’t really explain how the song makes me feel, it’s a mixture of emotions, both melancholic and joyous at the same time. That’s really the strength of the song and it comes and goes in a ﬂash despite it being six minutes.

memorable. It reminds me of the switching of seasons summer into winter, winter into spring. Being obsessed with music and learning instruments inﬂuences the way I think about life and how I go about doing things. I think especially in regard to learning an instrument it’s like a discipline so I’m really thankful for having that in my life.

The composition of the song is great and the guitar interplay between the two guitarists is killer, it’s also really catchy and the lyrics are really cryptic yet

Luke Morgan Make a Smile ‘My name is Luke Morgan, I’m currently a fourth-year medical student and about three years ago I founded Make a Smile, which is a volunteering project at Cardiff University where we visit children in hospital and work with children with disabilities. Make a Smile is all about giving children opportunities that they might not have otherwise. So, for a lot of people it’s very easy to have these interactions with characters that they look up to, but for someone who may communicate in a different way, for example, via British sign language, you can’t have that same experience by going to a place like Disney. We’re all about giving those same opportunities to as many children as possible.’

Q: How has Covid-19 affected the work you do? ‘Covid-19 has affected us quite badly. Over the summer, all of our events were cancelled. We are now introducing new things, including a YouTube channel and a project called Teaching with Tiaras - where a princess is actually teaching a lesson to the children. As we can’t visit hospitals at the moment, wards can now book live calls with any of the characters that we have, which will hopefully alleviate the scary time that a lot of the kids are having.’ ‘I always say, a crisis is a good opportunity for mixing up a bit, to push forward new developments and introduce new things.’

The Volunteer Economy Volunteering makes a significant contribution to the global economy, helping to build a more cohesive, a safer and stronger community, increasing the social network between communities and neighborhoods. In the year 2017/18 alone, the voluntary sector contributed £18.2bn to the UK’s economy, with a total of 19.4 million British citizens formally volunteering. Since Covid-19 hit the UK in March 2020, there has been an increase in the need for community cohesion and coming together to help those most in need within the community. It’s recorded that a total of 16,000 people has registered to formally volunteer with Volunteering Wales since March this year. This project takes a look at those, often overlooked, volunteers in our community, and how the pandemic has affected the work they do. “Volunteering of this nature has had a huge impact on protecting communities and will continue to be vital in the next phase of the outbreak.” - Volunteering Wales. Photography and Interviews by Lily Watts

Martin Ricketts Blood Bikes Wales ‘My name is Martin Rickets. I’m a Volunteer rider for Blood Bikes Wales and I joined the organization in 2013, after I retired. For me, the most rewarding runs that I do, is if I’m on the night shift and I get a call in the middle of the night, and sometimes I’ll say to the pathologists, what is this? What’s so urgent about this sample? And they might say that it’s for a newborn baby who’s very poorly and we need to find out what’s wrong, and that really gets my heartstrings going. That is in a way, that’s why I do this. I’m not looking for thanks or anything like that. I know that I’m helping someone in need. So as a longstanding motorcyclist, it’s a wave. It’s me giving something back, in a way that I can do well.’

Q: How has Covid-19 affected the work you do? A: ‘In some ways nothing has changed, but in other ways everything has changed. Some of our riders, given their age, because a lot of us are retired, although not all of us, have been shielding. What it’s meant is that some of those riders haven’t been able to ride through the pandemic. But on the other hand, during the pandemic, a lot of people were furloughed from their jobs. That meant that those people could give more time to help in blood bikes. So where we lost some because they were unable to ride, we had others come foward who were able to help out.’

Pat Donovan Keep Roath Tidy ‘My name is Pat. I’ve been volunteering with Keep Roath Tidy for the last five years and I’m now retired. Litter is the one thing that has been bugging me for a long time. I just can’t bear to see it, so I thought rather than moaning, let’s do something about it, even if it’s a bit of a token gesture, someone has to do it.’

Q: How has Covid-19 affected the work you do? A: ‘When lockdown started, we had to stop. We started again when Keep Wales Tidy told us that it was safe to do so, and we had to implement the correct safety procedures, as recommended by them, in order to start again. So, we only started back up again about three weeks ago, we had to do a risk assessment and set up track and trace for the volunteers. I’ve noticed that there has been a significant increase in the litter during the pandemic and unfortunately it is not going down, there is a lot of disposable masks on the streets now.’ Q: How does volunteering benefit you? A: ‘It’s a great bunch of people that come and volunteer for the litter picks. They’re all committed and there is a great community spirit. It’s really good to feel a part of the community, to do something, as well as addressing my problem with litter.’

Steve Khaireh Butetown Community Food Project ‘I am Steve Khaireh and I’m a Community worker for an organization called Horn Development Association. I’ve been a community worker for over 30 years, working with the Council, and I now work in the voluntary sector. This is quite a unique project, it is six charities that have all come together; Horn Development Association, Grangetown Boys and Girls Club, Henna Foundation, Hayaat Women Trust, Women Connect First and Butetown Community Centre, and I’m the coordinator.’ ‘We set the project up during the first lock down that we had in March. I was just delivering food and going shopping for people, collecting their prescriptions, and I realized that the Community Center was closed, so, I contacted the management committee asked if there was something I could do for the people and the building and it went

from there.’

Q: How has Covid-19 affected the work you do? A: ‘It’s been crazy really in two ways for me. On a personal level, I was losing my faith in humanity, you know? I’m not happy with the way some of the decisions have been made and I’m losing that faith in people that are only interested in themselves. But since Covid-19, the amount of people who’ve come together. People from as far as Bridgend, have turned up and have come here to offer their help and It’s restored my faith in humanity. On a professional level, it’s the amount of people who desperately have no funds or no means to look after themselves is quite shocking. Something needed to be done to give help and support, and that’s what we’re trying to do.’

Matthew Harris Somerset and Dorset Railway ‘My name is Matthew and currently, I’m the head of recruitment at the railway. I’m also training assistant to Michael Abbot, who is the head of operations at the railway. So, the concept of my job is to encourage more volunteers to join the railway, which includes actively putting out advertisements on social media and on the website, working with the local community and further afield, working with schools and on other community projects whilst trying to gain some volunteers for the railway at same time. Young volunteers are the future of heritage sites like this one, they will soon be the ones to take over and will keep this piece of history running. So, it is important that we get as many young people on board as possible.’

Q: How has Covid-19 affected the work you do? A: ‘Personally, it’s not been too bad because I’ve just been going to work on the big railway, keeping myself busy. At this railway, we’ve had time to actually explore future goals and aspirations that we can begin to plan towards and apply for grants and Lottery Funding, which we wouldn’t have had the chance to do otherwise, as we would’ve been spread out working on the trains. Since we’ve been reopened, it’s been quite positive reaction, people have been returning to the railway. At the same time a lot of exciting things are happening behind the scenes because we’ve had this period of not running it.’

Julian Henderson Scope ‘My name is Julian Henderson and I volunteer for Scope. I’ve been a volunteer here now, for the last 10 weeks, and I’m absolutely loving it. First, I used to volunteer with another organization, but for one reason or another, the shop closed due to the last COVID-19 lockdown. I was told that there wasn’t space for me at the shop, so I had to find somewhere else. It was then that I came from Caerphilly to down here in Cardiff.’

Q: From your role, have you noticed the effects that Covid-19 has had on the volunteering sector? A: ‘It has slowed down the rate of people coming into the shop and asking to help. I think people are a bit tense about doing it now, which they don’t need to be at all. We’ve had to do various things within the shop. When things are brought in, we have to put the stuff into quarantine for 72 hours, which means that we can’t touch anything that comes in for that time, just in case there’s something on the bag or on the contents, which could give us a very serious problem. So, that’s slowed down the integrated processing we do. Processing is the transmission of the product that we get in through the shop, sorted upstairs, then back to the shop floor.’ ‘Personally, I have a few mental health issues and volunteering has really helped me get through the pandemic, It keeps your head going and If I can do a little bit to help out others, I will.’

being able to “Just have that impact on someone is a fairly unique and privileged position. - Luke Morgan

”

In today’s political climate, we tend

to be disillusioned, passive. People in Bulgaria have grown so accustomed to lawlessness, lack of accountability and integrity of public institutions, that they no longer believe that it is possible to change anything. But we have to believe that we can, no matter what. And we need to be many to speak up and challenge the status quo, because corrupt politicians have planted their roots deep within many parts of the system. Since the beginning of 2020, a series of localised crises and scandals built up tension in the public sphere, which fuelled the wave against the Government’s almost uninterrupted 10-year-rule.

101 Days of Protests A story about the national awakening of the people in Bulgaria. Is there hope? Words and photography by Melisa Numan

January 2020 was marked by the drying up of several dams due to lack of maintenance of vital infrastructure and government clemency towards favoured industries abusing local water reserves. When the coronavirus pandemic happened, the government’s dreadfull approach to the situation brought about doctors and nurses resigning due to the lack of protective gear and inadequate emergency measures in place. Around spring, a chain of corrupt schemes involving profitable property along the Black Sea coast was revealed. The most eminent was Aleppu Beach, where a landslide cleared the ground for a hotel right on the beach, which the authorities claimed was merely a “fortification wall”.

Leaked photographs to the media of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov showed him snoozing in his bedroom beside a drawer full of bundles of 500-euro bills, gold bingots and a gun. The prime minister did not deny the authenticity of the pictures but claimed the money was planted. Then, the Anti-Corruption Fund, an NGO documenting and investigating high-level corruption, released a documentary about an insidious scheme for stealing high-profile businesses with the help of the judiciary. Transparency International ranked Bulgaria the most corrupt country in the European Union. A 2019 report states that at least 35% of the public procurement contracts involve corrupt practices. (Centre of the Study of Democracy) Bulgaria loses over €11 billion each year due to corruption. (The Greens EFA) Corruption between media, politicians and oligarchs is widespread. The country was also ranked 111 out of 180 countries for press freedom. (World Press Freedom)

For over four months, Bulgarian citizens are witnesses to the biggest anti-government protests the country has seen in more than twenty years. Every single day students, retirees, adults and their families gather in Sofia in front of the emblematic buildings of the former Party House, the Presidency, the Council of Ministers – or ‘The Triangle of Power’ as we often call it today. The trigger for action became a video that went viral on July 8, which showed Hristo Ivanov – judicial reform activist and co-leader of the liberal coalition ‘Democratic Bulgaria’, going by a boat to the secluded private villa of the leader of the liberal Movement for Rights and Liberties (DPS), Ahmed Dogan. He called his residence near Burgas and the restricted access to the nearby community beach illegal. In the video, Ivanov and his crew were seen being pulled brutally pulled away by policemen guards who refused to reveal if they work for the National Security Service – a government agency whose aim is to provide personal security to senior politicians and state functionalities. Later president Rumen Radev said that an investigation into the legality of the officers’ actions was under way. “When basic constitutional rights are publicly violated, it erodes the already shaken trust in the state,” Radev said. Reason for the mass eruption and civil unrest, however, became the police violence towards students and journalists on July 10, a day after the first mass protest took place in Sofia. Since then, other major cities such as Plovdiv, Varna and Ruse started marches against government corruption, the rule of oligarchy and police brutality.

Furthermore, the people chanting at the city squares, marching along the streets, singing the anthem with their hand on their hearts, carried endless energy, courage, conviction and desire for a better, more empowering future. What struck Stamen Belchev (27), one of the protesters, was that despite the diverse background of the participants and the different wishes about the outcome of the protest, they were there with the clear idea that they were fulfilling their civil duty and were ready to defend their position.

Stamen is a student of political science at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Bonn, Germany, with experience in a federal agency whose main task was civic education. Considering the size of Ruse, he was pleasantly surprised by how many people showed up. He was also impressed by the indifference of the large mass of passers-by and onlookers, which made the spontaneous cases of solidarity of some of others so much more valuable. Stamen added that more civic duty must be nurtured in our fellow citizens.

“The process is slow and difficult, but possible and lasting. Bulgarian society likes to brag about its uncompromising national heroes. It’s about time to start acting like them.”, said Stamen Belchev

Not only people who were present in the country participated. Many Bulgarians all over the world used their voice and though were not able to physically attend in Sofia, they still took part of the protests. Groups were organised in Vancouver, Birmingham, London, Vienna, Berlin, Auckland, etc. According to the State Agency of Bulgarians living abroad, there are an estimated 6 million registered Bulgarians living abroad, while there are around 7 million in the republic.

One of those who emigrated is Violeta Drenkova. It’s been 4 years since she moved to Sweden when she was 26 years old to experience the Scandinavian way of life. Regarding her thoughts on the situation, she said she was thrilled that Bulgarians were finally taking the ttorch and running with it. It’s been the first time that she saw such a movement in her lifetime. From the very beginning, as things were progressing after the beach incident by the Black Sea she felt she had to be a part of it.

“I knew in my heart that I had to go and protest hand in hand with fellow Bulgarians. This moment of potential long term change was too important to miss!”, said Violeta Drenkova

Violeta believes that the whole system needs to be revised and improved. She’s often thought about coming back but she has also spent a majority of her life living in the west. “It’s a complex decision to make but one that I try to look at as ‘never say never’.’’ On whether she would come back one day - “Absolutely, if the country begins to move in the right direction I can imagine myself taking a leap of faith and moving back.”

“It is because of you I am aboad, garbage. Resign!” Stamen Belchev at the seventh day of the protests in Ruse, Bulgaria.

‘‘While I was not seeking to escape the environment in Bulgaria, I was acutely aware that I would never have the same opportunities to grow and develop in the way I wanted to in my home country. Not only because work in a national environment lacked the diversity and multiculturalism that I loved so much, but mostly because of the deep-rooted corruption, wide-spread favouritism and the very low salaries in the public sector.

For the past 18 years, Elitsa Mincheva has lived - during her studies and then for work - in France, the UK and Belgium. Her main motivation to leave Bulgaria at the age of 18 was the desire to get to know and experience different cultures and ways of life. “My dream was to work in an international environment and use my talents to affect change on a greater scale”, shared Elitsa.

‘‘Let’s bring Bulgaria back! Resignation, Court and Jail!’’ Pictured here in front of the Statue of Liberty on the 26th day are Elitsa Mincheva and her mother Tanya Nahabedyan.

“During my studies, I toyed with the idea of working for Bulgaria’s diplomatic corps and was quickly dissuaded after some internships in the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, realising a junior expert’s starting salary amounted to less than 300euro. (monthly)” She took part in the protests this summer for a number of reasons. “First, because of the pure facts. Bulgaria is the most corrupt country in the EU, the poorest one, the levels of FDI have decreased 8 times since 2008, not to mention the 111th place in media freedom. There are very clear indicators that Bulgaria is a captured state where public institutions are used for private purposes, to enrich a group of criminal figures of Bulgaria’s murky democratic transition who have been using both executive and judicial powers to racket businesses, silence the media and altogether do away with anyone who challenges them. Including the President.” “Second, I took part in the protests for personal reasons. My friends have lived abroad for many years now. They did not move because they dreamed of an international career like me but..”

“..because since 2008, corruption has taken over all spheres of public life and the economy. It is most often impossible to earn a good living while maintaining integrity”, said E.Mincheva

“I want them to be able to choose freely where to live instead of being in economic exile. I want all of us to know that we can choose to go home knowing that we can thrive, grow and flourish as we are able in other parts of the developed world. This is our right as Bulgarian citizens and we have to fight for it against all those who have taken it away from us for years. I also took part in the protests for personal reasons as someone

close to me was asked to pay a substantial amount of money to win his case against an unlawful dismissal from duties by a public authority. This cannot be tolerated.”

Words and Photography by Aarthy Balaganesh

What does Asian look like?

Learning to navigate a predominantly white world is the first thing a person of colour learns. Here are seven people from Asia andAsian descent to show who ‘Asians’ are

To the Left: Aarthy Balaganesh (Self-portrait)

According to Collin’s dictionary, the definition of the term ‘Asian’ means belonging or relating to Asia. British people use this term to refer to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh; whereas American people refer to Chinese, Japanese or Korean.There has been a long debate on the term ‘Asian’ in the medical sector in the use of health sciences and also in general.

Asian itself is a rather vague and uninformative category as the continental boundaries are themselves a matter largely of social convention.

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We’re Asians but there is much more to that term than just being Asian, each subculture has its own rich history of struggles and victories.”

I am Aarthy Balaganesh. I was born in Norway to Tamil Sri Lankan parents and was raised in the State of Tamil Nadu, India where Tamil is the main language. I speak Tamil (both Indian and Sri Lankan dialect), Engilish, Norwegian. I also can speak Malayalam in an Intermediate level and have a basic understanding in Telugu, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Swedish and Danish. I identify myself as Tamil Norwegian. When I meet someone new here, they always ask where I am from. So rather than telling them, I ask them to guess. The usual responses are Indian or Indian American. When I say I am from Norway but I am Tamil, they look surprised. This gave me an insight how little people know how diverse the world actually is. And then I have to explain my ethnicity. People, who are not exposed to bi- or multi-cultural background, tend to confuse between nationality and ethnicity. Even though I am Norwegian, I am Tamil. Tamil is my ethnic identity. The generalised use of the terms ‘Asian’ and ‘Indian’, has been something that bothered me. So I asked few more people who are Asian descents how they feel about it. Here are six people who are from different parts of Asia, showing how diverse Asia is.

Meenu Srinivasan Tell me about where your are from and how you ethnicially identfy yourself “I lived in Chennai, India. My parents are from a town named Ernakulam, Kerala. I am fluent in English, Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi. I identify myself as South Indian as I hail from the south of India. The marriages in my community take place over 2 days, with the bride having to change into a minimum of nine saris each with its own significance.” How do you feel about the generalisation of the terms Asians/ Indians? “As a cultural term for the people of that geographical radius, the term Asian flies fine with me. But using it as a sense of generalising the entire community under one term is just very lazy. We’re Asians but there is much more to that term than just being Asian, each subculture has its own

rich history of struggles and victories. It’s not about learning every single thing about everyone but it’s the effort to at least remember the difference.” What do you like the most about being a Keralan? “I love the fact there is coconut in almost every south Keralan dish and its something that feels really holistic. The food from my hometown is prepared with a very holistic approach and they encourage everyone to eat without wasting which is very important to consider these days.”

Hafsa Khan Tell me about where your are from and how you ethnicially identfy yourself “I was born in Pakistan where my parents are from, but my mum came back to the UK when I was 4 months old. I was raised my whole life in the UK, I’ve never been back to Pakistan. I speak English and Hindko. I identify as a British Pakistani. I think I relate a lot more with my British identity because other than my family, I’ve never really been around other Pakistanis because my friends have always been from many different races. That being said, I love my culture, my family are quite cultural and traditional so I’m glad I’m very much in touch with my Pakistani heritage.”

How do you feel about the generalisation of the terms Asians/ Muslims? “When I was younger, I used to try to “hide” my ethnicity. I think the shame came from the stereotypes surrounding being ‘Asian’. This need to hide my ethnicity definitely continued throughout a lot of my teen years. This was just in a social aspect. Now that I’m older, I’ve definitely learnt to love who I am and where I’m from. However, what I will say is when filling out job applications, I tend not to disclose my ethnicity (or my religion) just because I wouldn’t want to think that I would be discriminated against and my skills for the job would be overlooked due to some stereotypes I’d be tied into.” What do you like the most about being a Pakistani?

Hindko is a cover term for a diverse group of Lahnda dialects spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in several discontinuous areas in northwestern Pakistan. Hindko today is spoken by close to four million people in Pakistan in the former Hazara division, which consisted of Abbottabad (now infamous as the city where the late Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was holed up), Haripur, Mansehra and Attock in Punjab. There are a substantial number of Hindko speakers in cities like Peshawar, Nowshera, Swabi and Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well. Speakers of Hindkos are known as Hindkowans. There is also a strong sense of a Hindko identity, as the Pakistani state realized when the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) was renamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2010.

“I love the wedding traditions and how extra we are as a country with weddings, there are so many different wedding events. They’re filled with colour and dancing and food which is my personal favourite. The extensive list of events can mean the whole wedding can continue over a few days which is just insane to me in the best way possible, sometimes people throw the most extravagant parties before and after the wedding. And I love how so many people embrace the clothes and the traditions of weddings when they might not be in touch with our heritage.”

Manish Kamble Tell me about where your are from and how you ethnicially identfy yourself “I’m from Kolhapur, Maharashtra, (India) but I was born & brought up in Ankleshwar, Gujarat (India). My Parents are from Maharashtra. Marathi is my first language. I also speak Hindi, Gujarati and English. I identify myself as Indian.” How do you feel about the generalisation of the terms Asians/ Indians? “From my point view, the culture, food, dressing style are almost similar but we are diverse when it comes to languages and traditions. So for centuries, even though we are diverse, we are inclusive. As a community as we believe in Unity in Diversity. Even though we, south asians, share history and culture, we are definitely not the same. I think it’s time for people to learn by asking questions rather assuming where we are from.” What do you like the most about being an Indian? “We have festivals throughout year. I like Diwali & Navratri since relatives get together every year and we celebrate as one family. Diwali is the Indian festival of lights, usually lasting five days and celebrated during the Hindu Lunisolar month Kartika (It usually falls in November. This year, Diwali falls on the 14th of November). We meet up with family, relatives & friends, and also ignite and watch fireworks. Navratri Festival is a 9-day celebration for Goddess Ambe Mata. We play Garba and Dandiya (Raas) for 9 days that honors, worship and celebrates feminine form of divinity. Traditionally Garba (is) performed around statue of Goddess Amba”.

Garba is the folk dance from Gujarat and is performed during the Navratri celebration. The theme of the songs are around the nine forms of Goddess Durga. The garba songs are upbeat and have catchy tunes. Dandiya Raas is also a folk dance from Gujarat which is performed during the celebration. The performers strike the wooden sticks in rhythmic beats, and a drummer standing in the center of the circle commands the rhythm of the dance. People assemble in two circular formations, with the inner circle moving in a clockwise direction, and the other circle moving in the opposite direction.

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We believe in Unity in diversity” 67

Rahmi Hussain Tell me about where your are from and how you ethnicially identfy yourself “I was born and raised in Cardiff but my parents are from Bangladesh. I speak English and Bengali and I also can understand Welsh, Punjabi and Urdu. I identify myself as Welsh-Bangladeshi” How do you feel about the generalisation of the terms Asians/ Indians? People assume that I am Indian. It’s so ignorant and frustating, there’s so much to being South Asian. People just think all we know is curry and ethnic clothes when every country has their own staple of things.” What do you like the most being a Bangladeshi? “The clothes. I love dressing up. It doesn’t happen too often but when it does, I love putting on a Lehengha. Lehenga is a South Asian dress that has a long skirt and top with a duppatta (a South Asian scarf) and enjoying the atmosphere around family and friends. Wearing lehenga makes me feel closer to my ethnicity and makes me embrace it even more” Both Bangladeshi and Indian cultures (and also Pakistan) was influenced by each other as before the division in 1971, it acted as one. Now Bangladesh is basically has the cultural basis related to Bangla whereas India is a large multicultural country, which also

includes Bangla predominantly in the State of West Bengal that shares borders with Bangladesh.

Himanshi Nagi Bevan Tell me about where your are from and how you ethnicially identfy yourself “I was born in New Delhi, India but I grew up in Cardiff most of my life. I am fluent in English and Hindi. I also understand and speak Punjabi and Urdu in an intermediate level. I am an Indian” How do you feel about the generalisation of the terms Asians/ Indians? “I might look Asian but honestly I can be as British as it comes. There is this stereotype where Indians are meant to sound ‘Indian’ whereas most people normally say “oh you don’t sound Indian or Asian” or ‘ohh you don’t look Indian’ or “ you’re too light skinned to be Indian”. And also Indian women are meant to be religious, simple, respectful etc Whereas I’m the opposite, I’m not religious, I’m outgoing, I’m independent, I don’t believe that my elders are always right and I’m not afraid of speaking up for my thoughts. I am married to a white British man who is forever learning to balance both my Indian/ white inner personality when it comes to listening to Indian music, watching Bollywood movies or talking to my Indian family in Hindi but also trying to uphold my modern views and opinions along with my western British cultures. I have always looked for a balance but unfortunately I don’t think that it exists and I don’t think I am either of those. But to the general public they only look at my skin colour and create a predetermined generalisation of a type of Asian. The term Asian is too broad. People loose their identity.”

What do you like the most about being an Indian? “The respect and humbleness we are taught and raised with, the elegance of Indian women are something I like in my culture. And Bollywood movies are everything! We are also very dramatic. Everything is very dramatic in our culture. It comes mainly from the Bollywood movie we watch while growing up.”

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The term Asian is too broad. People loose their identity” 68

Jodie Lin Clarke Tell me about where your are from and how you ethnicially identfy yourself “I was born and raised in Cardiff, but was fortunate enough to have spent a great deal of my childhood in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia. I speak English and I also have a basic knowledge in Welsh and Malay. I identify myself as half Welsh and half Malaysian. From a very young age my identity was defined by the lessons I have learnt from my parents, not by the colour of my skin. I went through school and university being the only mixed race kid and found it difficult to really connect with anyone else. People look at you and you know exactly what they are thinking. You’re either not ‘Asian’ enough or ‘white’ enough. But what happens if you are both? I struggled with understanding who I was and I wasn’t prepared for the negative stereotypes thrown at me. When it comes to identity, people always want to fit in. They want to feel like they belong somewhere, and when you don’t, that’s what makes you stand out from everyone else. Now that I’m older and understand my heritage, I see being mixed race as special and as a great advantage. I am able to draw on the cultural experiences I’ve had growing up and my Chinese morals and values have shaped me into who I am today. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have been exposed to two very different ways of life.” How do you feel about the generalisation of the terms Asians/? “I am petite, mixed race, and have recently entered my mid 20’s. Before coming out as gay, I have experienced several encounters with men who have found me attractive, but never understood their obsession with Asian women. To them, my appearance was only seen as a fetish and a curiosity and none of my other traits seemed to matter. It left me questioning myself several times, “are you interested in my appearance, the shade of my skin, the shape of my eyes or me as a person?” These experiences have been painful and exhausting. It’s frightening how certain men perceive the population of in particular, Asian women. In the media Asians in general have been depicted as soft spoken and non confrontational. Asian boys are either the ‘Maths whizz’ or the ‘computer geek’. We aren’t seen as creative or have an interest in anything but numbers and equations. This is both racist and offensive. We are our own people. We are our own unique selves and personalities.”

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My appearance was only seen as a fetish and a curiosity and none of my other traits seemed to matter”

What do you like the most about your Malaysian heritage side? “The food without question! I prefer Malaysian food to British food. I love Nasi Lemak, laksa, satay, the list goes on. Food is one of the best parts about being Malaysian. Whilst Malaysian food is based on spices and different meats/seafood, it does not mean a vegetarian or vegan will go hungry as that is what is special about Malaysian cuisine. Arguably it is the cuisine with the most options for vegetarians. Food is one of the most enjoyable and exciting parts about being Malaysian”

Behind the Art by Caitlin Bolt South Wales is increasingly becoming creative and artistic. This year I have seen so many small creative businesses rising, particularly since the lockdown when people have found extra time to spend on their true passion. I’ve been talking to creators who run small businesses about why they do what they do, what it’s like running an independent business and how they have been affected by the pandemic.

GARDEN CLOWN

Tell me about yourself I’m Zahra Ameri, I prefer to go by Za and I was born and raised here (in Cardiff). Growing up ive always loved art my family are originally from Iran but moved here before I was born, so born and bred in Cardiff. I just grew up in the artistic side of things; my dad and my mum always encouraged me to do more art, they did want me to do other things like academic stuff but I was never good at that in school so I was always leaning towards the dramatics or anything to do with creativity, so that’s my upbringing. I’ve always been obsessed with circuses and clowns for some reason. When did you start this as a business? I only just started properly selling it on September 18th when I started bringing my stuff into the shop (Cardiff Creative). It was spontaneous decision because I wasn’t really thinking about selling but someone recommended me to try it and so I did. I wasn’t really sure how it was gonna go- I knew floral garden stuff would sell but I wasn’t sure about the clown stuff, but I’m quite surprised. I’ve only just started so i’m seeing how its developing. What are your goals artistically? To establish it as a proper business, sell and expand. To make it a business that can be gifted to anyone, to spread the love and colours and flowers and try and promote second hand goods and be more environmentally friendly. Sustainability is very much important to me – obviously “garden clown”, anything to do with making sure the flowers are

Garden Clown is a circus-esque clay and painting business by Zahra Ameri. Za is colourful inside and out. She has always been artistic and she brings her vision of becoming a circus clown- and general love of clowns into her creations. She also expresses her interest in witchcraft and tarot through her products.. You can find her products at the Cardiff Creative shop in Queens Arcade, Queen Street, Cardiff

grown, the bees are happy and the seas are clean! But yeah my plans are to expand, make it more known to Cardiff and sell more so I can keep making. How would you describe your style? I’ve always been inspired by circuses, clowns, witchy things especially and tarot. So its mostly polymer clay goodies like clown-head pins and tarot card necklaces all out of polymer clay and then the painted prints are all watercolours. I’ve never really enjoyed acrylics; the only time I use them is on the clay but I love to use watercolours and the way I describe those painted print pieces is flowy and floral- again with more clowns. I find the history of tarot and witchcratf so interesting, my favourit is the fool. I really like the meaning behind the fool because in the picture you always have this man who’s walking and he’s always oblivious to his surroundings; he’s walking towards a cliff and he doesn’t really care, he’s got his little bindle thing and he’s just happy to keep walking. He doesn’t care what’s going to happen because he knows that something is going to happen and it’s going to be exciting and new and its going to be an adventure. I love even drawing out the card for myself because it makes me happy and it makes me realise that something different is going to come or something new, there’s going to be a drastic change in my life and I always love that. I like moving on to things and doing new things. If I could insert myself into the fool tarot I would.

Why clowns? A I’ve always been obsessed with theatres, I always wanted to be a theatre actress but it wasn’t until about 5 years ago, my tutor in college was like we’re going to do this form of theatre called commedia dell’arte which is this really old theatre technique of clowning; it was like the first form of theatre and it kind of was the ridiculousness of it that made me love it and the more I looked into it the more I realised I would love to be a circus clown or any kind of performance clown and obviously that’s kind of a business that isn’t as easy to access, I wouldn’t say it’s a dying business but it’s hard to get into. I’m still going to strive towards being one but at the moment im just selling the stuff that I love because of it. What message would you like your art to send? Support clowns they’re not as scary as you think.

@gardenclown

@catlawsonjones catscraftsuk.com

CAT’S CRAFTS Cat Lawson Jones exudes positivity and she brings this into her creations. She creates primarily embroidery pieces; upcycled clothes, wall hangings, accessories and more, as well as branching out into jewllery and now creating a zine. Her work focuses on body positivity and female empowerment. Her products are stocked in Cardiff Creative Shop, Queens Arcade and on her website. Tell me about yourself I’m Cat, 27. I come from a creative family so it was a given that I do what I do. I have two serious health conditions; chronic delayed pressure urticaria which is from delayed pressure, so you have to think about the things that you put on your body, how you sit. For example, if you sit on a wooden bench you’ll get a stripe of hives to match the pattern of the bench. I also have cervicogenic headaches which means the two discs in the back of my neck have slipped slightly and therefore the muscles surrounding that have shortened, so it’s just a more severe tension headache that comes with sinus stuff; sight, balance, mobility; the full shebang. It’s a lot easier for me to be my own boss because I can control the hours that I work; if I’m sick one day I don’t have to work. Unfortunately it’s not my full time job yet so I still have to get up and go to a building with a boss, but running my own business is so much better for my health. Describe your work to me. It is about femininity, body positivity, women empowerment and a little dash of all things cute. My business started off by solely creating embroidery pieces that echoed a message of positivity, whether it be ‘strong is the new pretty’ or ‘all bodies are good bodies’ and then as time went on I realised that I could do other things within craft. I wanted to make pom pom earrings for example, or earrings that say ‘fuck boris’, so it’s a wider range of things that create the artwork, not just embroidery but that is always the starting point to create something. How does your political ideology influence your work? It has the sort of two-fold thing going on but it always comes back round to this point of feminism like ‘fuck boris’ because he’s not doing anything for women; he’s

still allowing for women to be in poverty. Another part is I’m fed up with everyone being so negative about themselves, so let’s make some artwork to celebrate our differences. It’s a broad spectrum of feminism I guess. How important is it for people to create feminist art? I think its really important because we can get lost in the written word. I’m a visual person, if you give me something in a visual form, I absorb it much quicker than reading. I feel like art shows how important that movement still is because people are still having that discussion about it. Tell me about the zine that you are working on. My dissertation was looking at how women were portrayed throughout the ages and the ways our bodies changed to adapt to male preference. I spoke to a lot of women about how they viewed themselves. That really kicked off everything I do now. It just blossomed into ‘why are we so negative about ourselves?’. I wanted to create a piece of work where women looked at themselves and went ‘I’m fucking fantastic, my body is absolutely beautiful’. I wanted it to be in the form of a zine to represent the magazines that we look at and think ‘I so wish I was her’. I’m having so much fun with it, it’s all coming together now and I’m hoping that it’ll be really well received. So the concept is different women telling their stories?

really looking at yourself and thinking ‘what can I say that’s positive and can I continue to do this?’. Saying something positive to yourself every day has a great impact on your mental health; you start to feel it. We can stop what seems like a never ending negativity towards ourselves because we all look different, all our bodies curve in a different way but that doesn’t mean we’re not beautiful. I want to change the way women see themselves. What is it like being an artist in Wales? I enjoy being a female artist in wales, the community that I’ve found is very inspiring and supportive. Things that happen in Wales for artists are fantastic; my very first market was a feminist event in Chapter and it was one of the best experiences of my life; meeting all these fabulous artistsic women, I could just see so much love in the room for being a woman. How has the pandemic affected your business? Having 4 months off to solely work on my business is fantastic. I understand for people this has been horrific I’m really lucky that I haven’t got it yet but having these months that I could just create has been great, it’s given me ideas for new things to make so it’s a to and fro. My sales tripled and now the shops are back open that I’m stocked in they’ve seen a massive increase because people are realising that spending money on handmade things is the way forward.

There’s 14 overall, they’ve submitted images of themselves to me; how they feel comfortable, I don’t want to set guidelines. I want them to feel positive doing it and for them to be in control of how they show their bodies to me. I then draw and stitch them up. They also send me a quote about their bodies; I’ve had ones that say ‘I love the strength my body keeps on giving me to fight’. It’s

SWEARING IS COOL Andy runs Swearing is Cool; an urban streetwear brand which celebrates positive swearing, claiming certain words and flipping the connotations, along with sustainability and the LGBT+ community. The brand is stocked on his website.

Tell me about yourself

Why the swearing?

Andy Morris, I’m 37. I’ve been running Swearing is Cool for about a year, my background is finance but I also do fine art, I do a lot of work with Lego.

Its looking at swearing in a positive way; In the right context, I personally think it’s fine. It’s that narrative of saying something like ‘be fucking nice’, as long as its not in an aggressive manner then it’s a positive message. Theres been a couple of studies around the positive nature of swearing; people who swear in their regular vocabulary are probably more truthful people, because they’re not filtering their vocab. They’re speaking as their mind is. It’s kind of claiming the words back; there are certain words that we can’t touch but the majority can be used in the correct context for positive things.

How did you start swearing is cool? I’d been working with Lego for about 6 years at that point and was getting fed up of playing with kids toys and wanted to have a creative rebellion so I went to the complete opposite and stuck swear words on things. But also I quite like the way it plays with people, so all of my original T-shirts were black T-shirts with black text on it so you didn’t see the text until you were really close and they all had little red dots to draw you in to have a look at it. That was the idea behind the branding. Fashion is new to me but coming from fine art, I knew how I wanted things to look. It took about 18 months of experimenting (with mediums and materials) to get the brand ready to launch. I’m learning as I go along and I like to learn the (embroidery) skills so I can do more varieties of T-shirts. The ultimate plan for Swearing is Cool was to do a three pronged approach; so I can do ‘swearing is cool’ which is the black on black; hidden. I can do ‘swearing is colourful’ which is rainbow patterns and then ‘swearing is censored’ which is going to be basically with the key words scribbled out; you can still see what it says but it’s clearly protected for delicate eyes. What’s idea behind the red dot? First of all it’s a trigger warning. Also, coming from fine art, you would put a red dot on something if it was sold so it played into that side nicely; if you sell a piece of art work it gets a red dot. Then I took it into the winky face logo because its impossible to protect a red dot so I turned it into a more rounded logo with the face, it becomes more protectable and more brandable.

Whats it like being an artist in wales? Chapter is a good hub for the creative community. Its been very welcoming as a new person in the fashion side. Cardiff council has been supportive of small businesses especially during the pandemic with access to funding. Being a studio holder within Chapter we fell through a lot of loopholes because we don’t pay business rates; Chapter as a company pay them, so we didn’t get access to government funding but Cardiff Council stepped in to support us.The creative community are really friendly, people want to help which is great. I’ve been speaking to people who are more established than I am to work out how to go forward to get industry contacts. So sustainability, I’ve seen, is very important to you? I didn’t want to be a fast fashion brand; in fact one of the phrases I will be launching soon is ‘fuck fast fashion’ because I’ve noticed during the pandemic fast fashion business is booming. But they are using T-shirt companies that are modern day slavery basically. As a branch, and as a person you have to have morals and as for independent businesses your brand is your

identity; it has to reflect what you believe. So it had to be sustainable and eco-friendly. Products have to last. Its mainly looking at the supply chain, making sure that all the suppliers have the correct certification to show they are sustainable. Again, I’m learning as I go along what I need to be looking for. As a brand it’s just trying to cut wastage down from a personal perspective and making sure my suppliers have the correct measures in place to be able to comply. About the rainbow collection and vibisibilty. “Love fucking wins” it’s trying to find a social conscious behind certain things. I did the ethical ones to start with so like ‘fuck plastic’ and I’d always wanted to do one about pride, of course it didn’t happen this year but I’d wanted to launch it around that time. It’s just trying to raise more awareness and visibility towards these movements, and if you put a swearword in there it sort of forces the message, making it more powerful- again in the right way. I don’t think people mind ‘love fucking wins’ on a T-shirt, hopefully wont cause offence to people who are delicate towards swearing; causing offence to people who don’t support, I don’t really mind that.

@swearingiscool swearingiscool.com

@maisiescraftss Maisies Crafts Company on Etsy

MAISIE’S CRAFTS Maisie creates jewellery, ashtrays and coasters from crystals and dried botanics encased in resin. She channels her spirituality into products with the intention of bringing good energy to her customers with the right crystals. Buy her products through her Instagram or Etsy. Tell me about yourself and how you got to where you are with your crafts. I always thought that my passion was acting and I realised last summer that I didn’t really want to pursue that career. The number 23 was always reoccurring in my life and I was like ‘what does this mean?’ So I researched it and found that 23 is the number for understanding what your true path is in life so I was inspired to find my true passion and do what makes me excited in life. Since crafting I’m getting into the mindset of not having to go down the normal route of uni, getting a job and working for someone. I wanted to be independent. With lockdown I had so much time to invest into this business and I was doing meditation everyday so I was in a good headspace and it just helped me invest myself into the business and into myself. I’ve learned so much about crystals and it brings you a different perspective on every day life. Energies scientifically are drawn to each other and it’s the same with crystals, they form by energy so it would be stupid to say that’s not going to make us feel a different way. What are your goals for future? It’s September 2020 now, so I would say maybe September 2025 I want to be based in New Zealand, working with a small team of artists, helping to create my designs and to have that as an online business with ‘x’ amount of products going out online through my own website. I’d like to take my products to festivals for maybe 4 or 5 months of the year around the world. Using crystals from Brecon beacons and welsh handpicked flowers. I focus my work on my surroundings so I try to have at least one Welsh botanic in each piece. I want to show that off because I don’t think I would have gotten

to where I am today if I wasn’t born and bred in wales and I just feel so connected to this country. I feel its important to show that artists can succeed even if they’re from somewhere small. I wish it was a bigger thing with artists from all around getting the recognition that they deserve. Why are crystals important to you? When I went to Amsterdam earlier this year, we spent the day in the botanical gardens and I was feeling connected to my surroundings. We were in this shop and there were jewellery stands filled with crystals and I felt drawn to the shop and I was drawn to maybe two particular pieces there. One was an amythest pendant; it had the seven chakra beads down the middle and another was a bracelet which had the amethyst pendant and celtic symbols around the bangle, which has welsh connections; so I bought it. At the time I didn’t know that amethyst is my birth stone but I got home and started to research. I’d been wearing these pieces for a month without realising that it was my zodiac stone and that just goes to show that without realising you are drawn to these things; its law of attraction and that is actually backed up. I think its so important to learn about it. Since realising the power of crystals and mindfulness my mental health has improved, it’s natural medicine. The earth gives us all the resources we need and it’s up to us to use them.

Do you have any advice for small start up businesses on developing a presence and a custom? I’ll tell you the secret, its basically just fool your audience to start off with. I didn’t deliberately fool anyone but a lot of the time you wont get the recognition you want unless its already there. I just used my Instagram that I’ve had for years and I had about 2000 followers that I had gained over like 6 years, so I just archived my social photos and turned it into my craft page, but kept relevant photos that show me as a person and also reflect the business. I think a lot of businesses make the mistake of only using their account for products and I think a lot of people enjoy my page because they see a person behind it as well and a lot of people like to feel like they know you, that’s why we have bloggers and influencers, its comforting snd if you have that in a business, its not just a business, you feel more connected and want to share it because you feel like that’s a real person who you can know rather than a robotic business page.

How have you built up the business so quickly? I’m lucky, I haven’t been able to afford all of my products, I had a friend approach me about investing in my business early on, he’s paid for 70% of the products that I own, so hes invested into it but for a lot of young artists they don’t have someone who they can trust who is willing to invest. So im lucky to have been able to get to where I am now in less than a year.

C. V HANDMADE A bespoke, handmade card and gift business run by Chloe, who values colour and calligraphy. She enjoys being a part of the thoughtfulness that her customers put in to those they love. Find her products on her Instagram or Etsy.

Tell me about yourself. I’m Chloe, 26. In uni I did psychology then I worked in secondary school for 4 years. Last year I started working for the NHS so I work in children’s mental health full time. It wasn’t until last year so say October I was buying birthday cards and I thought, I don’t want to do that anymore I want to do my own, I don’t see why I should buy from big companies so I started doing that. They were really rubbish to start and so I wanted to learn about calligraphy and do a course and things and its snowballed from there, so this is my side business. How would you describe your products/ business? Originally I’d say they were all sort of handmade greeting cards but I think its evolved over the year to more digital; still all hand lettered and still that bespoke custom thing. I do gifts, cards and illustrations but I’ve branched out so the Christmas cards this year I’ve done on the iPad; I draw all the designs on there and get those printed with my illustrations. I do home illustrations for gifts or I do ‘your story’ so it might be for a 50th birthday for example and it’ll be someone’s life in an illustration. I also do Christmas stuff like baubles. So I’d describe it as gifts and illustrations with a handmade feel. Have you had any stand out interesting stories that you’ve been able to draw up for people? Yeah so one I’ve done recently is for business partners who used to own a burger place in Victoria park and they were closing so it was like them leaving their job and then getting a food truck and moving onto the awards they got so like street food awards and I was able to draw the thing of their shop or their restaurant and its closed now so its a really nice memory to have and because its round the corner form where I live its nice to have done that

for a business that’s really local. There’s another one that I’ve really recently done so I shouldn’t say at the moment but her life has been really amazing; the woman whose birthday it is, it’s really interesting like so different and its just so personal that’s why I love doing it. You can imagine the person opening this gift and it’s so personal to their life; its really special I think.

What is your favourite thing about your business? Being able to do it myself so I make my own time, if I feel in the mood for it ill do it, in terms of logistics that’s the best part. I think the best part really is when someone gets the card, it’s not so much the person who’s bought it from me but the person who’s then receiving it; it’s nice knowing someone has gone out of their way to do something special for them. Why is it important to shop small/ independent? Its huge, especially now. A lot of the people I follow on instagram are small businesses that I’ve followed from the start of my journey or shops that are local and its been sad seeing them have to close over lockdown when somewhere like Tesco is open to lots of people. I think you’re supporting someone’s dreams shopping small someones livelihood and so much work is put in. I know now how much effort goes into printers, working out how to work software, making a spreadsheet, packaging, things I never even thought about. It’s not just making the products like I dread to think how much time I put into everything else. I think it’s nice too because then people share, working off Facebook and Instagram you get to see the heart and the love that goes into everything from a small business. Do you want to talk about your upcoming market event? Yeah, it’s at the corporation yard so in the

day it’s called the indie superstore and I’ve always liked going to markets I like that sort of thrifty atmosphere. At night it’s got food and drinks and my boyfriend is a chef so he’s going to be doing a food stall with his business. I was thinking I wasn’t going to do it but people encouraged me. It’s the 22nd of November which I think is a good time to get Christmas stuff out. I’ve been trying to figure out the type of stuff I’ll take, working on building up a stock which I’ve never done before because I just do it to order so I’m putting time aside to build up the stock and doing a couple of different things that you can only buy there to make it a bit different. Its my first ever market so I’m excited but nervous about like the wind and things falling over; things that that you probably don’t even think about. I’m hoping it goes well. What is your experience with the creative community in Cardiff? Its amazing, there’s a few people in particular that I can think of. So one I bought from in a market and I ended up designing her ‘thank you’ cards to go in her orders which is really nice to do. Cardiff’s not so big so that if there’s an event on, no matter what side you live on, you know about it and the same people tend to do the same events. Cat messaged me about advice for the market she was the one who said it’s windy make sure you stick stuff down and I don’t know if you’d get that anywhere else. I think we are really lucky in this city. Especially with women, we sometimes get a bad rep for being bitchy and people might assume we would step on each other to get higher and I think that really doesn’t happen here.

@c.v.handmade cvhandmadeshop on Etsy

@candygoblins candygoblins on Etsy

CANDY GOBLINS Keira’s earring designs range from kids toys to vibrators. Whatever they are they look super funky and unique. It is important to Keira for her products to be accessible to all genders. Find her products on her Instagram or Etsy. Tell me about yourself Im keira evans i run candy goblins we sell quirky unique jewellery online and in store in cardiff (creative shop) Your background, is this your sole income? My background is in art and design I studied illustration at cardiff met I graduated from there and spent a year not knowing what I was doing but I was making earring since I was a teenager, a lot of people told me I should try selling them so I was doing that on depot for a while until cardiff met offered me a place on their business bootcamp so I did that and got funding from Santander and so I was able to launch it into a full time business and since then I’ve been doing it pretty much full time yeah. How would you describe your creations? I’d say its quirky and unusual earrings for people who want to stand out, I get along really well with the queer community and it’s a way of expressing yourself through your fashion. Your designs are funky and quirky, what inspires you? Mainly toys, there’s nothing like going to a toy shop and thinking, could that be an earring? Could you get that into a piece of jewllery? I love the idea of the every day as jewellery and also love the thought of someone looking at it and going ‘oh wow that’s not quite the normal’.

Why is accessibility to all genders important to you? I have a lot of trans and non binary friends so I’m quite in the community despite being cis myself. And I just love the idea of fashion being accessible for everyone. Earrings don’t have a gender and historically they haven’t been gendered its only in the last few centuries that western culture has decided its for women so I love playing with the idea of other people bing able to wear earrings and it being accessible to everyone and the queer community respond to that with transgender and non binary people playing with different ways of expressing themselves What is it like for you being an artist in Wales/Cardiff? I really love being an artist in cardiff. I lived in port Talbot growing up and the art scene there is basically non existent, its very difficult but living in cardiff its been easy to find communities, obviously in uni I made friends through that and now they’ve gone on and set up projects and studios and so I made good connections there. Cardiff Creative has also been a really good one for me I volunteer there once or twice month to help them out and get to meet all of the other artists who sell their work in there and it makes a really nice tight community which has been great during lockdown, having other artists to talk to and knowing that you’re not alone in all this uncertainty.

obviously I lost a lot of sales there but it really picked up online because people have gotten into online shopping now. I haven’t been given any support from the government, I haven’t been able to get any funds from them, however, Princes Trust gave me a grant which has helped me to move all of my stuff out of my apartment and into a studio which has been such a relief because I had so much stuff in the flat it was honestly becoming a nightmare. What’s the importance of independent designers? It’s really important because you’re helping people within your community and you’re helping artists stay here, so if I was still living in port Talbot I wouldn’t have the community, I wouldn’t be able to sell in local shops and you risk losing artists to bigger cities. I love the community of Wales but then you hear of people moving to London and getting more opportunities so helping shop local helps keep people there, it helps to foster an environment in your area and just helps the community overall because the money is going to go back like I’m gonna get paid and go to the local shops and spend it there so it keeps it in our economy which is good.

Has the pandemic effected your busiHow do people respond to that? You get a lot of comments wearing the earrings people will be like where did you get that and I get a lot of positive comments when wearing them myself.

ness in any way (positive or negatively)? The pandemic has been a mix, so I sell my stuff in Cardiff Creative and

REBEL JONES DESIGN Rebecca’s designs are all things pastel with a touch of magic. From illustrated to do lists, to stickers to badges, her products are uplifting with a girl power feel. You can find more information on her Instagram and her products in various places discussed below and tagged to the left. How did you start the business? I started just over 2 and a half years ago. It stemmed from university, I didn’t do illustration at university, I did commercial music which was amazing but one day my band needed a new logo and for some reason I put my name forward to design a logo and ever since then I’ve loved graphic design and illustration. I started Rebel Jones Design because I graduated university with a 2:1 and even though it was in commercial music there were a lot of modules so one year I was able to create a logo, the band cover, posters like a whole graphic design package. So applying for jobs I looked specifically into graphic design and illustration in music because I thought that’s probably my best shot and every time I’d apply for a job it was always ‘you haven’t got enough experience’, which mind boggled me because growing up in school I was told ‘you have to go to university’ in uni as well that the course would really help set our life for when we leave and I couldn’t get a job. So my partner and I moved back to Wales and I thought if I can’t find what I want out there then I’m just gonna start it myself. I need to be really invested and love what I do to do well in it and there was nothing out there for me so I made Rebel Jones Design. How would you describe your work? Illustrated gifts and goods and I like to say I’m all about pink, pastel, magical and cute. What inspires you, artistically? I think it’s who I follow on Instagram, I follow a lot of illustrators, small businesses so I get ideas from them. I love Pinterest, I go on and create mood boards and it really helps me when it comes to design, so that’s a huge part of my artistic side. Sometimes I’ll go for a walk and find inspiration; the other day I walked around the castle and there was a little goose and he was so cute I wanted to draw him so got home and I drew a little goose in an autumn scarf!

How have the lockdowns affected your business? So this is crazy but the lockdowns have made my business, like before the first ever lockdown I was on about 800 followers I’m now on over 2,200 which is insane! Its given me the time to just put every bit of me into my business, luckily I was able to get paid for my part time job via furlough so I was still getting paid whilst working full time on my business which would never come ever again so I had to take it and I really worked hard on my business and its helped me loads. I’ve been able to start my YouTube vlogs, my patreon, my new website so its helped me massively.

helps artists afford certain things and people get gifts and rewards to say thank you for pledging and trusting my idea. I ended up getting 96 backers, I thought I’d maybe get about 50. I reached my goal in the first day so I did a stretch goal to get the iron on patches, reached that and ended up getting over £800 so it was very successful. What’s it like being an artist in Wales? I’m more on social media so its a range of different artists from around but I personally love Cardiff Creative which is a shop that sells handmade gifts, crafts, illustrations and things like that. I feel really lucky that South Wales has a shop like this because it’s helped me and I’ve grown so much there.

Any current or upcoming events? I just recently did a market for Emily Harvey arts. I’ve got the etsy market coming up from the 5th to 6th of December; ill be going live, there’ll be a discount code that people can use. I’m hoping to get involved in more online markets so if anyone wants to find out more just give a follow on instagram and you can see updates there! What was your experience with Kickstarter? Kickstarter is amazing! Its a platform for artists, crafters, small businesses, anyone really. For example, I wanted to get some enamel pins made; its been a dream of mine since I started the business and it costs a lot of money to get pins made. So what happens is you set a goal; my goal was to aim at £350 and if you pledge £6 you would get the enamel pin at a discount and an iron on patch and if you pledge £8 you would get the iron on patch, the enamel pin at a discount and a personalised ‘know your worth’ card with a thank you letter from me on the back. People are pledging at something that could potentially not be a thing, because if you don’t reach your goal unfortunately it just doesn’t happen, but no one pays until the end of the 30 days. It

What is Patreon? It’s a monthly subscription, there’s loads of artists, signers, podcasts and so many things on there. I have different tiers that cost a certain amount. I have the Butterfly tier for £2 a month and with that you get a monthly podcast where I talk about successes, failures, tips etc. you can get involved in my monthly art challenges and tagged on my social media. You also get exclusive links to products which aren’t out yet, voting polls, behind the scenes and and an awesome thing with mine is you get to get involved in discord which is an app where we talk about business stuff help and ask questions. I have Larimar for £3 and Rose Quartz for £5. Then the bigger ones are Amethyst for £10 a month and Clear Quartz for £12 and you get an exclusive goodie box every other month along with so many other things like a draw with me video, 15% off and 10% off commissions. The next goodie box is going out next month!

@rebeljonesdesign rebeljonesdesign.com RebelJonesDesign on Etsy

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SOULFUL TRADERS BY- MEHEK SETH Soulful Traders is a piece on how young creatives from the current younger generation are making money during a global pandemic (COVID-19) by running their own small businesses at a time when there are no job prospects for the people of their generation who are either straight out of or are towards the end of their education/ degrees, all with bills to pay. The way these young creatives are making money and running their businesses is by combining three simple things- spare time due to a global pandemic, their creative skills/ content creation and the basic knowledge on how to effectively use social media platforms to run business pages on there. With these three things, the six young creatives I have covered for this piece, have managed to start their own short term ventures that hold the promise of long term profits. Adhereing to the changing times in both the creative industries and the business world, young creatives everywhere with their small business ventures are now moving towards the new successful way of business in this new world- online! Soulful Traders highlights the stories of six of these young creatives from Cardiff, proving that even a global pandemic cannot stop them from achieving their dreams and goals.

JOHNNY (PAINTS JEANS) GURNETT Johnny Gurnett is a 21 year old creative from Essex who hand paints on people’s denim. His business only started about a month into lockdown, after he lost his previous job working at a bar. He was doing a lot of artistic things during the lockdown- him and his friends were drawing, having arts and crafts days, etc, which is when he thought “okay, let’s be productive”, “let’s try and actually make some money off of what I’m doing anyway”.

Coronavirus has definitely had a positive impact on Johnny’s business. He wouldn’t have started if it wasn’t for the coronavirus. His actual job had him busy too- it wasn’t a job in the career that he wanted to pursue, it was just a part time, “give me some money” kind of job at a bar and Johnny hated it and found it horrible.

Johnny’s current job working on a Netflix production- a job in the career path that he actually wants to pursue, has unfortunately led to him taking a bit of a backseat on the jeans business. Being busy all week only leaves him with his weekends free, a time when he just wants to relax rather than being st at a table all day painting. Due to the limited amount of time he has for creating his products, his production time has gone from a period of 4-5 days to 4-5 weeks now, however he says it is still his passion and he loves doing it, so he’s definitely hoping to continue the business for as long as possible.

When asked if he plans to move his business from social media to actual retail shops, he said that he doesn’t plan to do that as of now, but says that it would be an amazing end goal to achieve that. He says as nice as that would be to happen, he likes to keep it realistic sometimes.

Johnny wanted his business to be a bit different, which is when he thought of trying to do something he didn’t know anyone else was doing. He thinks he first saw it on Twitter where someone had painted a little pattern on their jeans and he thought, “that’s really cool, I could probably have a go at that”. Starting the business was quite an investment because specific paints needed to be bought along with certain liquids to help keep the paint on the denim. All his friends were amazing, so instead of having to buy fresh denim they gave him a bunch of theirs to practice on- and this was perfect for Johnny because he was practicing on their denim and that way he had stuff to upload onto his Instagram (@johnnypaintsjeans (@johnnypaintsjeans). ). His business is completely Instagram run at the moment. He takes orders through people messaging him on there and has found that the business is growing quite quickly because it’s a lot easier for people to share and tag friends on there.

The response to his business has been amazing! His business is quite different and not a lot of people have done something like he is doing. A big factor for his business was the re using of the denim and being a bit more environmentally friendly, because personally Johnny says he hasn’t really been like that in the past and he’s been one of those people that buys new clothes all the time, he says “don’t get me wrong, I’m not a saint, I still do buy new clothes and stuff”. However, wherever he can, Johnny really likes to buy things that have a bit of a history to them, like from a vintage shop.

“it is possible, that’s the great thing about social media, you never know who’s watching, sometimes in a bad way or a scary way, but, you never know, someone amazing could be watching and who knows what doors that could open.”

A lot of the jackets that he’s got plans for at the moment are all vintage jackets that are from vintage shops in Cardiff- trying to support small businesses. “It’s all about helping each other and supporting each other in really uncertain times”, times”, says Johnny.

For now Johnny is just going to keep doing what he’s doing, because he genuinely enjoys it and just wants to see where it goes, not going to force things to happen.

LARA BALCOMBE Lara Balcombe is a 20 year old creative in Cardiff, Wales who is a digital and mixed media illustrative artist. Her work mainly focuses on the female form along with masks and ceramics. She first started putting up her work and on social media about four years ago when she was in college but has only been doing commission work for a few months during the corona virus lockdown. Instagram is the main social media app that Lara uses to sell her work on (@lara.mai. (@lara.mai. creative). creative ). The response Lara has received an Instagram has mostly been positive and has encouraged her to keep creating and sell even more for work online. Her art business is currently her only source of income, other than student loans. The reason Lara focuses so much on drawing the female form is because she believes that it represents a sort of alter ego of hers and even though they don’t necessarily reflect her they are kind of a reflection of what she wants to be.

“Instead of being like oh, I can’t go out anywhere, it was more like, well what am I going to create today”

When asked about the social media competition increasing during lockdown in the art world, Lara 100% agreed with it. She says that now it seems almost over saturated because you see a lot more people put up their creations on social media just for fun rather than intending on creating a business out of it because they know full well that they’re probably going to do something like a law degree in the future. Lara says that this definitely makes it a lot harder to run an art business on social media and feels that it kind of “cheapens” the idea of making art in a way.

She says that Corona virus and the lockdown has positively affected her business because it gave her a lot more time to create work and helped increase the amount of work that she was also putting up on social media, which naturally helped increase her commission work as well. The lockdown was definitely a lot easier for Lara to deal with, with the help of her artwork.

Lara’s end goal for her business is to end up being a tattooist which fortunately for her ties in very well with the digital artwork that she’s already creating, which she is hoping to keep doing in the future as well.

TESSA HARRIS Tessa Harris is a 23 year old creative in Cardiff, Wales from England who is a water colour and digital artist. Her digital artwork is more of the commission work she does, as compared to the water colour work which is more of creating art for her. Tessa only really picked up painting again during the corona virus lockdown, mainly because of the extra time on her hands and thinking that she probably needed to try and make some money. She has been doing the digital commissions for longer but does not enjoy them as much because she finds them less creative and are a bit more like “this is a logo design I want”, whereas normal painting, Tessa finds is more of something she enjoys as opposed to just doing it for the sake of money. It’s a hobby that Tessa has turned into a business.

“Social media is so diverse now. You can do whatever you want and it doesn’t matter if you don’t fit into a niche”

“Art is one of the best side hustles to have, it’s the best safety net”,, says Tessa. net”

Ever since going back to university, Tessa has had to shut off her digital commissions and only takes commissions if people directly message her for them since she has absolutely no time anymore while doing her postgraduate degree and keeping up with the constant business demands. She has been doing digital commissions for about 2 years now and had only started doing the painting commissions during lockdown.

If it wasn’t for the corona virus lockdown she would have stuck to doing what she was doing before, which was doing things like logo designs, tattoo designs and tee shirt designs, digitally, as opposed to now where she is actively trying to find commissions, online. A lot of the work that Tessa enjoys creating is a lot of self-portraiture along with the female form and that is mainly the stuff that she puts up on her social media even though it’s not necessarily the work that she uses for her commissions. The social media platform on which she displays her work is Instagram and sells her work mainly through Facebook (@ (@ tkeh_art). tkeh_art ). Tessa finds that on Instagram art has kind of been diluted simply by a lot of people doing art on Instagram, causing the hype around art online to die down a bit. She says that there is a lot more interest in it but there’s a lot more people doing it now which has caused the hype to go up but also stay the same in a way.

Tessa says that she would like the business to grow to a point where she can feasibly do it as a full time job, but has no predictions for the future as of yet.

TROY CLARK Troy Clark is a 29 year old creative from Wales who is a painter/ artist. Troy started off as a working artist developing bits and pieces of a cross between portraiture work and ‘space’ work. Troy primarily creates portraiture work which is what he started with professionally about 4 to 5 years ago and has been selling on social media for that long as well. Troy’s commission’s are currently his main source of income, other than student loans for university, which he says is quite lovely as it is actually his passion that he has managed to make a successful business out of. Most of the origins of his current work come from a long-term collection called ‘I need space’ (as seen in the image). All his work is based around expressive forms of art, especially through emotional artwork. Troy has painted the entire collection based off of what he is feeling at the time so there is a context and a structure to the work and it’s very expressive through the colour schemes to create that real raw emotion, which, is really thought provoking for audiences which is what he’s been told by many people and it pushes them to think about things in very different ways. Troy says that even though this wasn’t his initial idea for the collection, he is very happy with the way that it’s developed. Troy primarily runs his business off of portraiture artwork and he runs it mainly through Facebook and Instagram, which is where he gets most of his advertising and all of his commissions done (@ (@ troyclarkfineart)) along with word of mouth as well. A troyclarkfineart lot of his clients post pictures of the work that he has done and will also speak about the work that he has done and the business kind of pushes forward through that.. Facebook and Instagram are very visual apps so people are able to see the extent of the work that Troy does. Coronavirus did not affect Troy’s business at all, because it’s not work that is restricted by travelling, it can be a little bit annoying to get materials for his art sometimes but that’s really the only disadvantage that he faced due to the Corona virus lockdown. Through lockdown a lot more people have been supportive of the arts which has helped boost morale for people like Troy to continue growing their businesses. In the sense of it being a business Troy says he’s always wanted it to be one in some way. However, Troy is now changing in the form of an artist by taking the business from a self-employed aspect to becoming a teacher. His hope is to become a qualified art teacher by the year 2022 and help expand young minds by helping them find their own artistic identity.

‘’Using the arts in the form of emotional support is fantastic and should not be looked at as competition because everybody is their own artist and has their own identity”

Troy deeply worries about social media negatively affecting things like theatre, mainly- visual designs and prop making and says that there is a sense of that being crushed by things going online. However the film and TV aspect of it will thrive on social media. He also worries that digital artwork will affect the way people view physical artwork and whether or not that will degrade and disappear.

“With the social media age it has opened the world of work up massively and has drastically changed the art world”, world”, Troy says. He says, that it is possible to be an artist as well as a teacher if you still have the time which is what he is hoping the future will look like for him and his business.

CAITLIN NORMAN Caitlin Norman is a 21 year old creative in Cardiff, Wales who is a ceramicists along with being a jewellery maker- which she makes out of recycled sea glass.

The social media platforms that Caitlin uses are, Instagram to advertise her work, as well as Facebook (@ (@ shroomstudio)) and she uses Etsy to shroomstudio sell her work. The response to her business both on Instagram and Etsy has been extremely positive as she has not only made enough sales but has also received incredible feedback from all her clients.

“Businesses moving online makes content so much more accessible” Personally, Caitlin says that the Corona virus lockdown has negatively affected her business because she finds herself swamped with University work and simply doesn’t have the time to make as much as she wants to. She also says that the lockdown has made access to materials quite difficult because she would usually go home and use her father’s tools but due to the restrictions caused by the lockdown, she was unable to do so. However, she is hoping to create more products by Christmas time and make enough sales to make up for the time she lost during the lockdown. Another disadvantage that Caitlin faces with her business is having to balance her other job at Mechies café along with creating jewellery for her business. Fortunately though the job does provide her with enough money to buy stuff for her jewellery making business but it does take up a lot of her time, which she says she does not have spare. Caitlin tries to be as ethical as possible with her business. She does this by handpicking 90% of the sea glass herself and buys the rest from a lady in Cornwall who hand picks it as well, so, she doesn’t buy the fake plastic glass and makes sure that it is all ethically sourced sea glass. All the boxes that she sells her jewellery in are recycled cardboard as well. “We’ve all just got to be a bit mindful”, mindful”, she says. Caitlin says that even though things like craft fairs still happen, in reality, now, craft fairs are not running and things like it are just not happening anymore, making online businesses and selling the definite way forward. When asked about the future of the business, Caitlin says that actually selling her jewellery in a shop would be the dream but is not 100% sure about that goal being reachable currently.

CAITLYN GRIFFITHS Caitlyn Griffiths is a 21 year old creative from Bristol who is a rather unique type of creative who makes literally anything and everything. All the work that she creates mainly revolves around things that she actually wants or needs rather than it adhering to a specific type of art/ creation.

The main thing that Caitlyn struggles with for her business is marketing and advertising her work. She says that she thoroughly enjoys doing the ideas, the making, the costing and the packaging too, but struggles a bit with advertising and trying to get customers to buy her products. The social media platform that Caitlyn uses to run her business is Instagram (@csg_made @csg_made)) and has been selling on it for the past three to four years. She receives all of her commission work through people directly messaging her on her business Instagram account and thoroughly enjoys turning their ideas into artwork.

When it comes to Caitlyn’s commission work, she likes to make functional things for other people but tries to make it in a way that they would find enjoyable, and it helps to know more about what exactly her clients are looking for in the finished product for her to accordingly create it. One of Caitlyn’s most recent and biggest commissions that she has done this year is a colouring book called “Animals On Acid”. Acid”. She came up with the idea of the book with her flatmate on one fine inebriated night when they decided to colour in a drawing that Caitlyn did and ended up having a lot of fun, which is when the idea of creating an entire colouring book with similar drawings came into Caitlyn’s mind. Once most of the drawings were done, Caitlyn spent about a month digitising the entire book to make it a lot more visually appealing rather than having hand drawn drawings, which would also help later in both selling and producing the books at a higher rate. She did not make the book with the intention to sell it initially but unfortunately since she could only order a certain number of books from the printer, she decided that she would try to break even, making it the end goal of the project, which eventually led to her selling the books. She has currently managed to sell out all the books and is planning on ordering another box for Christmas, hoping for the same result!

Caitlyn says that the corona virus lockdown has been really good for her business. Since most of her selling is primarily digitally or online having a lot of customers suddenly move online as well has been really beneficial to the business. Back in Bristol, Caitlyn converted the shed in her garden into a little workshop space for her to do all her work in during lockdown, which is where she mainly created the colouring book along with other works of art.

“What’s the point in making if it’s not something for yourself”

Caitlyn says that she would love to have a little shop for herself where she could sell all the work that she makes and she would like to have it in a place like Cardiff since she can see herself living here for a long time.

When asked about wanting to hold a fulltime job or not Caitlyn said that she would like to have a main business along with a lot of other small side businesses. She definitely wants to keep up with the commission work for as long as possible as she enjoys it and is making good money off of it.

The end goal that Caitlyn has for her business is to cultivate a brand more than anything and have a big enough following where there is enough demand that she can sell things under that brand name and people would want to buy them, but nothing too global, just a good establishment and a nice little community.

COMMERCIAL COUPLES

A series of interviews with couples who own and operate businesses together Images & Text by Riley Rosser

RHYS & ANN

THE CURTAIN AND NET CENTRE We are David & Ann Jones and we own the Curtain & Net Centre in Barry, Wales. How did your roles in the business develop, were they always set-in stone or did they change?

Do you have any advice for young couples that are thinking of starting a business together?

D: In the beginning, yes; I was the upholsterer. Ann didn’t know anything about upholstery. but she knew about sewing. Ann worked in a glove factory before we met. So, I said sew, and she sewed perfectly. Thats how we moved forward. Then, as we grew, Ann took more responsibility of things like ordering everything we needed. Which left me more time to do what I’m good at in the workshop. Ann showed her strengths that way and I showed my strengths. I let her get on and if she had a problem, she’d let me know. If I had a problem, I would let her know. A: Now I’m the boss!

A: It depends what they think they’re going into. D: If you’re going go into a business, it takes a minimum of two years to start earning money. A minimum of two; It could take you three. A lot of people think you’re going into business and from day one think, “I’m going make thousands!” But it doesn’t work like that. A: They’ve got to do their investigative work to see what the area needs. Don’t do something random; You’ve got to go with what the area needs.

What was it like to spend so much time together at home and at work? A: Yes, but we were lucky in that respect. We had ups and downs, like everybody. But it just worked. D: We just seemed to get on. We were lucky. It just worked. Then, when our children came along, we did everything as a family. It seemed to work for us. A: It is hard work. D: Nobody can teach you. You learn as you go along, and you learn each other’s weaknesses. The old joke we had was I’m the boss and I’m going to fire her. A: and I always said, you don’t need to fire me I’ll walk out! D: So yes, it all worked out reasonably well.

What is the next step for your business? D: Retire. I’m getting too old and while Anne is younger than I am, we don’t want to go forward. I think it’s time to call it a day. We can’t see us doing any better than we already are. A: There’s nowhere else to go. I don’t want to start going to some next shop. D: We’ve just been at it too long. It needs young people. like when we started, we were young, we had the ambitions. We have exceeded what we wanted, we wanted retail shop, living accommodation. We’ve done that, we paid for it, and we’ve got it.

“Really, we bounced off each other. Going into business, you think you know everything but you don’t.”

RHYS & SARA PALETTA PIZZA “the restaurant has tested our relationship the most but equally we love, respect and trust each other even more because of it.” Can you please introduce yourselves and your business?

Has coronavirus been the biggest struggle so far for your business?

Hi, my name is Rhys Cafaro and this is Sara Cafaro. I’m a Barry boy. Sara grew up in Naples and moved to Wales with her family when she was 8. We met in college studying Italian in 2004. I offered to give her lifts home in my Vauxhall Nova but she knocked me back a few times and preferred to get the train! Eventually she relented and we got talking, her dad needed a waiter and I had lots of experience and it was handy because I wanted to practise Italian.

Yes! We had the fear because we remember Carlo’s Place closing during the recession in 2008. So when the national lockdown came a couple of days before Mother’s Day, we started to worry; Perhaps more than most people. Our chef left at the time too! After 8 weeks we decided as a family to just do takeaway and it was a big hit. People were fed up with cooking for themselves and they wanted a treat. We also decided to do DIY Pizza Kits for children, and they flew out, very popular indeed. We are not out of the water yet but as a family we didn’t give up, we adapted, and we pushed on.

What made you branch out into your own pizzeria? We worked well together, I got on with her family and it was a very busy restaurant, it was called Carlo’s Place. Then they opened Il Vesuvio nearby and that did very well too; we both worked there. Initially we didn’t want to open our own restaurant, even though we liked the buzz. We saw how it takes over your life. When the space was up for sale, nobody wanted to buy it. So with some encouragement from Sara’s parents we went into it 50/50 partners and we haven’t looked back since. What made you want to open the business as a couple? It was a “No brainer.” When you have already worked with someone for so long there is no need for thinking or discussing. Things that need to be done become instinctive. If we didn’t work together, we never would have seen each other because I teach by day and my wife cooks at night. So we would have been passing ships. Besides, there is nobody that I trust more than my wife, I have her back and she has mine; We look after each other in life as well as in business.

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What is it like to try to find a work life balance when your partner is your business partner? That balance is the biggest challenge because we want to drive the business forward and make it grow but we also want to take a step back and take time for ourselves. We feel relaxed at different times, stressed at different times and with the nature of online enquiries we don’t really get a full day off. I hear overly positive reviews of working with a partner. What’s your experience been like so far?

Do you have any advice for other couples who want to create a business together?

It is not always easy, often we disagree and on occasions we have had the odd flare up in front of staff but on the whole, we are patient and tolerant people. It is a highly stressful environment and to make everything run smoothly at the restaurant there requires a tremendous amount of effort behind the scenes. We always take our work home with us and that is the battle, to try and switch off and not talk about business.

For new start-ups, I would say that the restaurant has tested our relationship the most but equally we love, respect and trust each other even more because of it. We also know that we won’t do this forever, it is just another milestone on our journey

“That balance is the biggest challenge because we want to drive the business forward and make it grow, but we also want to step back amd take time for ourselves”

BARIŞ & HELEDD ARRIAN LEVAS

“I come from the Arrian Nation and arrian in the Welsh Language is money or silver. Then levas is clothes in Kurdish.” I would have thought that owning a business together means spending a lot of time together. Has that been your experience?

Can you introduce yourselves and your business? We are Heledd and Baris and the store is called Arrian Levas

H: We don’t really. Because he’s always going to the bank, going to Nelson to work, and then I’m here when he’s not here. We don’t need for both of us to be here and Barish’s nephew helps out a lot too.

I hear overly positive reviews of what it’s like to work with a partner. What has your experience been so far? B: I have never done it like this before, but I think it is very similar to working with family. I think we haven’t really had a problem working together as partners. I think it’s good. Sometimes I’m no good at the woman’s clothes, and I need her ideas to find out how women will come to the shop. She’s also very good as a partner because she’s on the internet much more than I am.

B: I think the same. When you’re in a relationship, you don’t have to spend 24 hours together. Sometimes we are both working, she is working, and I am working. I do so many things throughout the day. Sometimes I am working 9am until 1am, trying to make more money, getting more stock, or making the business better.

H: I do more marketing and advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Depop. So we just do different things according to what we are good at. When I go home I go on my phone and I photograph the products. I set up an eBay shop and a Depop page. We have had our clothes modelled and photographed.

Has lockdown been the hardest time for your business so far? B: I think for a small business it’s always hard. Sometimes you’re lucky, the business runs right, but at the moment it’s much much harder than normal. If you look around, you see so many businesses opening and closing. One day they open a noodle shop, another day they open a shisha bar, another day it’s an off-licence. Because when people make some money, they want to try their chance at getting a better life. But we never give up, we always fight to make a better life. I think we’ll make a good business in here. Especially city road, it’s one of the loveliest places. It’s so meaningful and has so many people, people from everywhere

What is it like to run a business with a partner? B: Sometimes it’s quite hard, but we have to learn, we have to understand more, and make a decision together. H: Sometimes I’ll say no you’re wrong and you’ll say, “no, I’m right”, but you’ll then do what I say even if you don’t say it. Like when I said not to sell electronics because I thought it would look weird in the shop. B: Yeah, after I thought about it not being a good idea. H: After you listened to me!

How did you get started working together? How do you view the difference between formal and informal roles in a small business like yours?

H: Well, I was working for a charity before this and that ended, so now I’m looking for work. When he was working on the space, I was always helping. So, he asked “do you want to be a partner?” I said I don’t really want that responsibility but in practice, we both spend a lot of time here. It’s more of his project and I support him to do it and because he’s often working away from the store, I’m here a lot.

H: With small businesses, official & unofficial, I don’t think there’s much difference between them to be honest. I feel like the work I do is valued. I don’t feel like I’m just informally doing work, being taken for granted, like women always do.

“I think if you have a small business you are more happy than a big business, because you know your limits.”

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“I feel like the work I do is valued. I don’t feel like I’m just informally doing work, being taken for granted, like women always do.” 5

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GEORGIA & JAMES

GEORGIA’S DOG WALKING

How did you get started? Georgia: I started at the dogs, I volunteered walking the dogs. Then i moved out, so i didn’t have a pet and then i thought, why not make money off of something i love? So then I advertised on Gumtree and started walking dogs. I brought James along with me because I was new to it all. Then James actually started helping by taking pictures and social media. It just came into its own thing. James: It was never really the intention of fully starting a business. It was the intention of making some side money. But then you think, “this is quite a good idea” and then you love dogs which is your passion.

I hear positive experiences of running a business with a partner. What’s your experiance been like so far? James: Definitely positive, but I would say that working together in a club was more difficult. Because in the club, we were at different levels. I was a shift leader and she was on the door at that time. So that made it a bit strange. Georgia: As dog walking goes, it’s a chill job. It’s our thing. James: I think it’s definitely important to be equal. It has to be equal because otherwise one side may feel it’s unfair as they are doing more work.

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So, you have worked together before, how did that affected your experience? Georgia: I think it helped. We know how the other works. We had worked as a team before, so we didn’t have to develop that. It was just easy. James: I definetly think it helped. Because we are already used to spending a lot of time together. When you’re working together and living together at home, that’s a lot of commitment.

Running a small business while living together, you must spend a crazy amount of time together? Georgia: yeah, but that’s always been normal for us. even after I recently changed jobs from one we worked together, which meant we spent less time together. But even then we still spent more time together than normal people do.

Do you have any advice for other couples that want a side hustle or business together? Georgia: You have to be really close with your partner. Because most people don’t like spending 24/7 together. You’ve got to have a good relationship, and already be a team. Because you don’t want to be arguing, a business will put stress on you. I say just go for it. If it doesn’t work, try something else.

“You might as well try it. Earn some money. It might be your business forever; It could be your career!”

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Expat Resilience Jai Ashton 2020 has been a challenging year for everyone as a result of COVID-19, especially for the hospitality and tourism industry. This sector and its people rely on the ability to interact with the people it serves, something that it has been not allowed to do for the majority of this year. The British expat community in the Algarve, Portugal is dependant tourism from the UK. In 2019 two million UK residents traveled to Portugal. However as of July this year the number was only 92,000. The fact British citizens must isolate for two weeks when returning from Portugal has resulted in a significant drop off in the amount of British holiday makers travailing to the region.

There are at least 35,000 British nationals living in Portugal with the vast majority of the working age of that population having built their lives on the foundation of a strong tourism industry. Their lives and work now hang in the balance due a lack of certainty not only from the implications of Brexit, but also if and when they will be able to get back to work thanks to the pandemic. However hearing the stories of British expats placed in this difficult situation there is hope. Plans may have been put on hold whilst others have found new opportunities. It would seem that the same pioneering spirit that led these people to move and start lives in a foreign land has also equipped them with the skills to survive, in what would seem an impossible situation. Praia Da Luz is one of the oldest, most popular and famous areas with a large British expat community. Since the 1980’s many Brits came to start a new life here, helping build the economy and businesses. There are now second and third generation children of those that came in the 80’s with many more new settlers and seasonal workers to supplement their numbers. Exploring the stories of how they have dealt with the current challenge will bowed well for the continuation of this community in southern Portugal.

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Bike To Shears Mike Wilson who is 28 years old and originally form Wythenshawe in Manchester, has lived in Luz since he was 15. ´His family’s reason for settling in the Algarve is a common one ‘We came on Holiday all my life basically and knew the area well, decided to move as this was the only place we wanted to go’. Mike began he career in the industry as a kitchen porter gaining qualifications as a chef which then progressed into bar work and waiting, which in an area dependant on tourism is the general progression and whilst not in any particular job permanently was, before Covid, fairly stable. Mike relieved that a lot of the children of expats worked in bars and restaurants set up by their parents going on to say ‘parents that have sort of set them up with bars and restaurants that they have continued to work in, so you’re looking at 30 plus year olds’. This means that there are many young families dependent on the tourism industry as a lively hood which he states was ‘busy, constantly busy all the time, then Covid kicked in’. Most recently Mike worked as a mountain bike guide, feeling as if this was a job he wanted to continue on in as he loves the outdoors however it was only for a small company with just him and the man he worked for. Once the pandemic started, but before lockdown he could see that the writing was on the wall and decided to leave in March in order ‘to help everyone out a bit’. He and his girlfriend Talia, a waitress, were at one point ‘thinking of moving back to England to look for work’ as due to the shut down of the tourism industry and no real furlough package made available for casual workers they could no longer afford to pay rent on their apartment. In the meantime they moved back in with Mikes parents which is when the opportunity to work for his father’s gardener arose. ‘The option was always there if I wanted it but it had never crossed my mind. Being outdoors is what it’s all about if you ask me’.

So Mike began work gardening, which going from a means of survival, has ended up becoming a great opportunity with him seeing it more as a calling and giving brith to the dream of him wanting to start his own gardening business with him stating ‘Im going to see how it goes, see how my financial status is but eventually I could see my self setting up on my own working for my self ’. For Mike the loss of job prospects in one sector, which at one point seemed secure, has allowed him to find another calling which in a stable tourism industry he would have never have considered. ‘I’m 28 now and I don’t really like the idea of depending on others to give me work, especially after Covid it can be a bit scary’. However Mike is aware that he has done well compared to some others ‘I’ve been very lucky because I lost a job and fell straight into another one, so you could say that I am one of the lucky ones’. ‘It’s not nice to see the people struggling’.

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From From France France ToTo The The Farm Farm Rosie Maclean, 29, was born and raised on her mother’s farm in Luz and even though her heritage and ethnicity is Welsh, she has spent near enough her entire life in Portugal. For the past four years she has worked as an assistant manager for a hotel in the Ski resort of Tignes in the Tarentaise Valley of France, Covid changed all that ‘when it all kicked off I lost my job and accommodation, I had worked for them for four years’. This left Rosie with no choice but to head home to the farm as she had nowhere to live and also did not want to leave her mother Ruth on her own with Rosie stating ‘It seemed the safest thing to do at the time, I didn’t know how long Covid would go on for, didn’t know what lockdown was going to be, didn’t know anything’. When Rosie initially moved back in with her mum it was just before Portugal’s lockdown. Rosie managed to find plenty of work on a local blueberry farm and also a local restaurant ‘going from no official work to 15 hour days was pretty intense and then it all dropped off the face of the earth’. When Portugal entered lockdown this allowed Rosie to help her mum catch up with essential work around the farm, which operates as a guest house for people on holiday. During normal operation Ruth is simply too busy to keep on top of all the work that needs doing.

When asked on what Covid would mean for the local tourism industry Rosie had this to say ‘I think tourism will change massively, I don’t know exactly how, but with the way quarantine works I feel maybe people will take month long holidays with the view of having their two weeks abroad and then if they have to quarantine when they get home they can’. Rosie and Ruth have already seen a shift in demographic as to who is booking rooms to stay at the farm. There has been more bookings from mainland Europe, namely Germany and France. Rosie believes that even due to Brexit and Covid there won’t be a massive change in Brits coming to the Algarve for the holidays ‘I think that Portugal is well aware of how much we gain from tourism, British tourism specifically.’

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Bubbles To Bar Sisters in law, Rosie and Gabriella Wright had big plans for 2020. In 2019 they had set up three business between them. Sunny Bubbles, a wedding Prosecco drinks service. Song Bird, a music events service. Algarve personal touch, an events decor service. The one thing that would drive these enterprises would be people travailing to the Algarve to get married, which unfortunately is one of the many things that has not been happing this year thanks to Covid. The business partners were fully booked for the season of 2020 which runs from April until October however all bookings have had to of been put on hold for at least one year. There is however a small silver lining as Rosie suggests is ‘people tend to book a year in advanced’. This means that the pair do have business but it does mean that it has been out on hold for a year. ‘We were geared up for a massive summer, I had both the boys in the creche ready for the season’ says Gabriella who is a mother of two.

Rosie, who’s parents own a restaurant in the area has been able to carry on working there whilst her own ambitions have been put on hold stating ‘I thought I was going to be flat out doing both continuously, but it’s been the complete opposite’. The business venture was supposed to be the long term plan for Rosie with her wanting to see it as a success. When asked if this was her plan for the forceable future she replied ‘Yea for sure, we really want to, if anything expand it and start doing more with it’.

Rosie Wright

For Gabriella, she has had to go back to her previous profession which is to sing at bars and restaurants in the surrounding area. The plan was to move away from that, as she found she was finishing too late and it was clashing with her role as a mother. The business plan was to help facilitate this, but like with Rosie’s plans, this has been put on hold.

Whilst their plans have had to be put on hold Gabriella has been grateful for the free time ‘which has actually been a blessing in disguise for me because my dad was poorly and when we had all those bookings, there would of been no way I would of been able to go to the UK to be with him, I managed to get back and was able to be with him in his last days’. The couple are hopeful however with Gabriella stating ‘I’m not even thinking that next year is not going happen’. With Rosie saying ‘You can’t stop the world, you can’t stop the industry’.

Gabriella Wright

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