Discovering New Stories

12 Aug

I have been doing some research into the life of Joash Woodrow whose story I am using as inspiration to develop a new piece of writing.

His story is an amazing and inspirational one. The tale of a promising young artist who withdrew himself from society. A man who became a recluse with little contact with anybody except his close family. A man who, when he left his lifetime home during his elder years to move into sheltered accommodation, left a treasure trove of nearly 5000 pieces of art including painting, drawings and sculptures. Many of the pieces that were discovered are now deemed to be world-class pieces of art and some of the most significant pieces created in the UK in the twentieth century.

I find Joash’s story fascinating because of the questions that it provokes about art and the part that it plays in our lives. The big questions it rouses for me are:

How much is art about the individual and how much is it about the collective experience?

What motivates people to create art when they no longer have the desire or ability to share it with anyone else?

What right do we have to display the work of others when they had no desire for it to be shared and displayed themselves?

Answers on a postcard please…

Making Exceptional Things Happen

27 Jun

On Friday I attended a conference at Band On The Wall in Manchester that was held to launch the new cultural strategy for the city. One of the speakers at this event was Jim Cassell who runs the Manchester City Football Academy. It was fascinating to hear him talk about the processes that they go through to identify the children with exceptional talent, then go on to take them to their full potential so that they finally end up (hopefully) as professional football players.

As someone who works a lot with young people I was really interested to get an insight into the methodologies that they use with the young people they work with. However, where it became a bit more challenging for me was that the whole objective of the programme was to skim off the most talented young people and work to push them to their full potential. Clearly this is a really important thing to do in all areas of work with young people, identifying the best young business people, artists, scientists… and supporting them to be the best that they can, but the fact is that these young people area tiny percentage of the whole population. Most young people may not be so immediately identified as exceptional in a specific area. For me this is where the real exciting challenge is – supporting these young people who may not initially be seen as the best to make exceptional achievements. Of course, the challenge of this is much greater than the challenge of supporting the next David Beckham or Nigel Kennedy…

The key to it all though, is the fact that, if all children are given the chance to do things that are exceptional when they are young and get a taste for what it feels like, they are much more likely to try and strive for it again and again as they grow up. I’m going to use the words of Brendan Dawes to sum this idea up (because he’s much better at expressing things than I am and was also a speaker at the conference);

“Average never changed anything…Ever…”

A great motivator for everything that any of us do.

Play Matters

16 Jun

Yesterday I was in an inner city primary school delivering a project called “Dreaming The Future”. This project works with children to use creativity and play to decide what their ideal future would look like and then start to create an action plan to get things moving in that direction. As part of the session the children look at pictures and decide which are positive and negative and which they would like to include as part of their future.

In this particular workshop I was surprised to see that the children had included this photo above as a negative picture. In part of our discussion over the decisions that they had made I asked why they felt this way about the image of children playing. Some of them felt that the children were too young to play out on their own which I suppose could be considered as a fair comment as the children do look quite young. However, the next responses that I got were less easy to accept.

Most of the children in the group felt that playing outside was dangerous because you may fall and injure yourself. They were also worried that outside was a place that they may get dirty. Another concern was the danger they may face from stangers in the area where they were playing. One of the children was even concerned about wildlife and insects and the possibility that they may injury you.

I have to admit that I was shocked to hear the children talk like this! Although most children are aware of the possible risks of outdoor play their love of the outdoors is so strong that they see past them to the fun that they get from playing. They also tend to think that playing outside is really important, especially without adults around, and think that the future should offer more opportunities for children to get outdoors, get mucky and have fun. These children’s responses got me thinking about what kind of world we are creating if it is one that tells children being outdoors and enjoying themselves is something to be feared and avoided. It also raises significant questions about where children are able to learn about risk, how to take it and how to deal with it themselves if they are not allowed to experience it first hand as part of free but safe play.

If children aren’t allowed to take risks in childhood how will we develop the adult minds that we need for the future?  Adults who are confident to have a go at new things, come up with big ideas and take the risks that need to be taken to solve the massive problems that we face as a species.

Yesterday I Had Fun!

26 May

I had a great day at the National Youth Theatre in London yesterday. They have a brilliant set up on the Holloway Road and I spent the day with them looking at the possibility of becoming an Associate Artist for them.

The structure of the day was basically an extended workshop looking at the different methodologies that NYT use in their work.  It was run by Anna from NYT, supported by some of the members, and the participants were are amazingly diverse selection of creative practitioners working, or aspiring to work, with young people.

I haven’t taken part in this kind of workshop for a long time and I am pleased to say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was so refreshing to have the chance to play some games and actually get out and have some fun. It was also a real luxury to see other practitioners working and see my own work within this context. The only challenge that came out of the day is figuring out how to make this kind of opportunity a more regular part of my working routine.

How To Move A Letterpress – Part One

18 May

Hire a big lorry. Preferably one with a crane on the back. And two nice gentlemen called Stuart and Shane who think that moving something that weighs a ton is a piece of cake compared to the monster machines that they are used to moving.

Haircuts By Children

5 May

The wonderful Mammalian Diving Relfex will be at Norfolk and Norwich Festival with their inspired Haircuts By Children performance.  This will see local children being trained in hairdressing then being let loose in a salon to cut the hair of willing victims. Advanced booking is highly recommended and don’t be scared. A friend of mine took part in the same project a couple of months ago in Newcastle and the haircut that his young hairdressers created was actually very, very good.

Things To Learn From Life – Part One – Running

30 Mar

  1. Most runs are hard the first time you do them but they get a little bit easier each time after that.
  2. Never give up on a run when you reach the bottom of a hill, no matter how bad you feel. Plough on, get to the top and then see how you feel – almost invariably you won’t want to stop once you get there.
  3. Break a run into smaller parts and run from point to point – most things are possible when you think about them in terms of the different bits that they are made up of.
  4. Keep pushing yourself that little bit further and you’ll be amazed how quickly you improve.
  5. Don’t let one bad run or one bad day put you off. Get out again as soon as you can and use what went wrong last time to make things better the next.

Why I Love McSweeney’s

4 Mar

I love McSweeney’s.

Today I read “A Universal Invoice For A Manhattan Child’s Birthday Party” by Justin Warner.  Have a look. It really sums up what I like about them. It says it all really.

They’re original, they have a sense of humour, they aren’t afraid to be off the wall, they aren’t afraid to let people have a go at things and input ideas, they’re happy to get out there into the community and get their hands dirty getting things done.

If I didn’t do what I do now, I think McSweeney’s is what I’d like to do instead.

Being Part Of Something Important

22 Feb

Communities are important.

They’re the glue that keep us together.

They’re the places we can go to be ourselves and to learn who ourself is.

To make good work that means something,  you need to find your community and be part of it.

You need to sit down and talk to people about who they are and where they are.

You need to listen to what they’ve got to say.

You need to accept that lots of people will know more about things than you can ever hope to and that what they say will help you.

You need to leave your car at home and walk a bit – walking around and bumping into people can give you a better feel for a place than zooming through it in a car will ever do.

You need to understand that this process of discovery and acceptance is likely to be a long but interesting one.

Once you have accepted all this you can sit back and enjoy the ride.

Who Am I? No…Really…Who Am I?

1 Feb

I am working on a play at the moment. It is called “A Little Voice A Long Way From Here”. I wrote the script but it is loosely based on a story by an American writer called Vendela Vida called “Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name”.

It is the story of a girl called Amber. When she is eleven her mother disappears. Six years later her father dies leading her to the discovery that he is not her father at all. This prompts her to take a journey to try and discover the truth about her family and, in doing so, also discover the truth of herself.

It is a funny thing when you write something. Especially a play. When you are writing you spend a lot of time with the characters so you feel that you know them really well. Then you start rehearsals and you have to hand the play over to other people. They say your lines differently to how you imagined and see your characters from a different perspective. When you see them doing this you realise that you don’t actually know your characters at all. They are strangers to you. You have to go out there and rediscover who they are.

Saturday was the first proper rehearsal for “A Little Voice A Long Way From Here” and the start of a new journey of discovery.

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