Spark Creative Practice Summer School

Join me as I share things I’ve found helpful for exploring and understanding your creativity – things to read, watch and listen to. There will be activities lead by guest tutors and a chance for you to share your own go-to sources of inspiration.

#sparksummerschool

4 weeks devoted to re-igniting your creativity:

week 1 – Play

Mon 5 – Sun 11 Aug

In this week we’ll be thinking about letting go, forgetting work and our creative ‘to do’ lists and focusing on the things that bring us joy, just by playing.

We’ll be joined by guest tutors Rachel Jones-Jones and Maegen Icke from the Tool/Toy project.

week 2 – Look Inside

Mon 12 – Sun 18 Aug

In this week, now that we’re a bit warmed up from some unstructured creative activity, we’ll begin re-considering what it is that drives our own creativity. Understanding the combination of passions that make up our own distinctive outlooks on the world.

In this week I’ll be leading the practical activity.

week 3 – Look Outside

Mon 19 – Sun 25 Aug

In this week we’ll turn our attention outwards – finding sources of wonder in our surroundings, paying attention to the ordinary and extraordinary in our urban or rural everyday lives.

We’ll be joined by guest tutor Nadine Haigh, fine art photographer and landscape architect.

week 4 – Connect with Others

Mon 26 Aug – Sun 1 Sep

In the final week we’ll consider how our creativity can be fired up by working with or for others, how connecting with other people offers so much possibility.

We’ll be joined by guest tutor Vanessa Woolf, professional storyteller.

How will it work?

Each week follows the same format:

• At the beginning of the week I’ll kick off the topic with a blog post and a shorter Instagram post.

• On Mondays and Tuesdays, here on my blog, and via Instagram posts and Stories, I’ll share with you resources you can read, watch and listen to which should get you into the mood for exploring the week’s topic in more depth.

• Then, on Wednesday our guest tutors will lead a practical activity via their Instagram Stories that engage with the ideas we’ve been considering that week.

• On Thursdays I’ll ask all of you to share via Instagram your own sources of inspiration, things you turn to when you need to re-ignite your creativity – things, people or places other makers, artists & designers might find helpful.

• The rest of the week is free time to explore on your own, to do the activity and to reflect on your creative practice.

• On Sundays I’ll be posting the results of my own investigations into my creativity and asking you to share your own findings or discoveries via Instagram.

Notes on the structure of the course

This course has been designed as a low-key, easy-going kind of thing.

There’s no reason why you need to follow along each day or week – you may not have time right now, or you may wish to do it all in one concentrated batch during a break later in the month. Or you may it useful at other times of year. Whatever works for you. At the end of the course I will be putting everything together into one handy pdf download so that you can refer back to it easily at any time.

Similarly, don’t feel any pressure to share the results of the activity if you don’t want to. My aim isn’t to make people feel uncomfortable, but to offer a space for connecting and thinking about our creativity collectively, if you wish to do so.

Why am I doing this?

Well, this time of year, with its long, warm days and holidays, is a great time to take a break. But, I always feel a little guilty if I’m not doing something that feels useful for my main creative practice/work. So, I find myself signing up for business courses or reading books that claim to help me get clients or boost my productivity. But, is this really helping?

I’ve just finished a very big project which took up most of my time since January. And I’m tired. I want to look ahead, to imagine new projects, to come up with fantastic ideas, but I’m feeling a bit disconnected from my creativity. It took a bit of a beating in the service of my work and I think it needs a little bit of care and attention.

So I thought I’d create this course. Not as a way to maximise my creative output, but to just stop and think about my creativity. The heart of it all. Why I do what I do. Where it comes from. What gives it fuel, what puts it out. A chance to play a little, to remind myself what making a mess and having fun feels like. A chance to remind myself that my creativity is innate and vital, to nurture it a little by asking ‘what do you need from me right now?’

Maybe you feel a little bit like this too? Then join me.