Watching the creative community lifting every one up brings me joy....
I don't think I am the only one out here feeling overwhelmed, sad, angry and quite frankly scared about the current lockdown. It's so hard to see what life is going to be like weeks, months down the line. But one thing that has given me incredible hope, and given me joy is seeing the incredible ways the creative community is supporting each other.
Artists are streaming free classes, organisations giving normally paid resource's for free, and artists talking and supporting each other across social media.
There are hundreds, if not thousands already popping up and these are a few I have come across to far which have simply given me so much hope and joy to see....please use the comments section to tell us about anything you are offering or have been inspired by so far!
Creative Boom
The brilliant Katy Conway, founder of Creative Boom has set up an online forum for creatives to vent, discuss, and stay in touch - such a much needed space for those of us who are feeling a little out at sea right now.
"So we've started Creative Boom Chat, a free and private forum – built on Discourse. It's away from social media and the search engines. It's non-commercial. It's a friendly and supportive community (any nonsense or negativity and you'll be politely asked to leave, that's not what Creative Boom is about)". Katy Conway
Rob Biddulph
The rather superb childrens book writer & illustrator Rob Biddulph is running free online drawing tutorials for kids #DrawWithRob (and adults too if you fancy it!). These fun filled characters and creatures are inspiring the next generation of artists! Check out his website for more details....
SCIP
My little creative collective based in Seaford will be posting creative ideas to do at home with your little ones! We are also all home schooling so cant guarantee how regular these will be but as we discover something fun to do with our kids we will spread the word!
It doesn't come naturally to everyone to instigate creative activities, so we hope to keep our ideas really simple for everyone, of every ability and level of crafty confidence! SCIP focuses on using things you may have found round the house, and recyables in a bid to keep crafts as eco as possible! Follow the team on instagram & facebook @wearescip
Benji Davies reading live!
The lovely Benji Davies and many other wonderful children's book writers and illustrators are bringing their work to life with live story readings of their famed books. Watching Benji with his little girl reading Storm Whale and battle the wind in the garden was just lovely! Keep tuned and hopefully there will be more of these to come!
Onneke's Design School
Onneke is a famed designer, a Not on the Highstreet bestseller and incredible person quite frankly! She's launching a design school for kids which we are really looking forward to checking out with our eldest....the first one is all about composition - and although designed for kids, actually adults who aren't visual artist's already will probably get a kick out of learning some new skills too
Lets all try and keep creative, enjoy a little extra time to develop new skills and perhaps start those projects we always wanted to try!
Start a new sketchbook project, gets those paints and canvasses out, learn a new piece of design software, create a new dance routine, write a new novel, discover opera, teach your kids to draw, and cover your home in wonderful creations!
In our home we will be having a very art based curriculum for our kids - its the only way we will keep sane at Boxbird HQ!
For me, I have lost most of my clients thanks to the virus, so I will be working on blogs for Boxbird, creative content for SCIP and maybe writing down some children's book ideas I've had for a while!
Graham is ploughing on with new screenprint designs, which he was originally producing for the May Open House in Brighton! After that he has mused over the idea of doing some painting again! That would be amazing to see
Stay safe and Stay creative!!!
photo credit Rachael Goriestani
