I’ve been lucky enough to spend the last couple of days at Dolbryn Creative Retreat. There are tons of residency opportunities for art practitioners which are about making, networking and these are all valuable. But for those of us who have either hung up our artmaking shoes or have never been artists yet are creative professionals - there are very, very few opportunities where you can take time, away from the usual routine, to not ‘develop’ your career as such but rather give space for all the swirling thoughts to settle. To think. Be a thinker.
So what have I been thinking about these past few days?
I focused my thinking with three strands of my current work as a backdrop;
an upcoming project sparked by Olivia Bellas through the Greater London Authority’s Future of Participation programme we collaborated on last year. This new proposal is to convene a ‘Civic Creativity Insights Group’ in order to create a group of approximately 8 artists/community leads/policy makers, with a purpose to develop a Walk & Talk methodology;
being part of the cohort of independents collaborating with Julie’s Bicycle to develop new practical, relevant, and accessible climate crisis resources for freelancers, producers and individuals making creative work;
and my longstanding work supporting the career progression of art professionals who find themselves marginalised in some capacity either by the art sector and/or society.
Inspired by Nora Bateson, I’m really trying to shift from a factory mindset (building the tools for a desirable output) to a meadow mindset (creating environments for diversity to thrive). Appreciating that it’s not just about ‘finding the solutions but also living the questions more deeply’. And if you will indulge me by continuing with the meadow analogy….understanding that extreme weather conditions occur and we live in a world where they are occurring more brutally and more frequently….see the art sector’s attempt to tackle the damage caused by Covid/BLM/ClimateCrisis/CostofLiving as a case in point. We need to be prepared to weed things out, often our own ideas and processes. I want to create the conditions we need for creative sector to thrive in its diversity, to feed the soil and not be so focused about planting a different set of flowers into a fixed bed, that is not biodiversity…it’s a meadow not a garden…anyway….you get what I mean! (hopefully)
As someone who is an almighty doer, and is always considering how my actions can go further, have more impact - being in this gorgeous, rural part of West Wales has just reiterated my need to slow down, take stock and appreciate I am part of a bigger ecosystem. I am coming to accept that now that I am an independent and no longer working for a big organisation, it is okay to apply my energy into smaller, more localised focuses. My small impacts all feed and interconnect. It doesn’t have to be big, top level, ego boosting visible work. And actually, I’m not even sure it is possible to explore intersectional, sensitive approaches to your work if you are frozen by the pressure of having to ensure what you doing is always a ‘game changer’. It’s okay, to take the time to research…to think….but think in specificity and not in globalities. Eventually this will all feed into the top level positive impacts you want to see for your sector.
Spending time at Dolbryn though hasn’t just been about having a bit of time away in the countryside - you are very much hosted by David and Sioned, and with David having spent nearly 30 years in the art sector, you have a knowledgeable peer to bounce your thoughts off, who will go for a walk with you and ask the right questions. It’s so easy at the moment to feel disillusioned with the art sector but being away for a few days, well…..I feel restored and I simply don’t think I would be feeling that if I hadn’t had the chance to get away and do a bit of thinking at Dolbryn.
