I was invited to write a blog post for Norfolk & Norwich Festival on my Yarmouth Springs Eternal in February 2021. The article shares some background on the inspiration and research that inspired the project, and how the project will be delivered this year. For the latest updates on the project, follow @YarmouthSprings on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook:

I’ve stared out at my back garden from my desk in Gorleston-on-sea almost everyday since March 2020. It’s usually the place I make plans before travelling elsewhere in the region to lead Community Arts projects. Whilst indoors under ‘Stay at Home’ orders, I look out and notice rows of packed terrace houses with square windows looking back at me, blocks of dense leylandii hedge and intersections of alleyways. I can see shed roofs in weathered shades of brown and grey, every so often featuring a prowling cat. Birds zip from tree to tree and clouds swirl in ever-changing formations against skies of pink, blue, grey and white.

As you can tell from the description, this suburban view isn’t a nature reserve and if I search for images of a “nature view” online, the acid green hills and waterfalls don’t resemble what I see! These idealised perceptions of nature can give distorted expectations and unhelpfully separate us from feeling part of the natural world. For me, the Lockdown experience has highlighted that ‘experiencing the natural world’ isn’t a phenomena happening elsewhere in vast conservation-managed pastoral landscapes, it’s also the vernacular view from my desk window and found on daily walks around town.

Read the full article on the Norfolk & Norwich Festival blog

If you’re looking for inspiration or distraction during lockdown, I’ve complied a list of some of my publicly available creative resources. Over the past 10+ months, I’ve been commissioned to create live and pre-recorded video workshops and resources exploring range of visual art mediums and themes. Some activities are linked with the work of a particular institution, such as a museum and their collection, whereas others look at broader subjects

The age range is suggested and generally the materials required to take part are easily accessible from home, or could be swapped out for other more available kit

It’s been a total learning curve for me to produce these during the lockdowns from home, but I hope they bring some creativity into people’s lives at a difficult time!

Photography

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Drawing

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Nature & The Outdoors

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Recycled & FOund Materials

In the Summer, I was commissioned by Creative People and Places: Market Place to develop and pilot a new project exploring the isolation, disconnection and lockdown experience. In the Autumn, I led Let’s Talk A Walk, a remote art-making and walking project with two groups in Fenland and West Suffolk. I was invited to write a reflective blog about the project, exploring how it developed and the challenges faced…

‘Doorstep curiosity’ is a phrase I noted down during a Zoom catch-up with Creative Agent Ali and Marketing Officer Alice, a few days after the Let’s Take a Walk workshop. My own nature-informed arts practice took on a new resonance this year. Experiencing nature’s sights, sounds and sensations became essential to my wellbeing. The little things have really captured my attention. Self-seeded plants growing through the cracks in flint walls became a symbol for the resilience to find a way through. It was these experiences that inspired the project.

Let’s Take a Walk didn’t begin as a walk. In fact, for the Creative Conversations in Isolation call-out, whilst the country was under ‘Stay at Home’ orders, I wanted to find inspiration at home by unlocking stories in the objects we live with. I’d been running still-life drawing sessions over Zoom and through this, became curious about arranging and connecting with everyday ‘stuff’…

Read the full blog post on the Creative People and Places: Market Place website

I’m incredibly happy to share the news that Arts Council England are supporting Yarmouth Springs Eternal in 2021 through their Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants scheme

I’m very grateful to Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Producer Sally Rose for their mentoring and support, project partners originalprojects;, and the generous funding from Norfolk & Norwich Festival’s Creative Individuals Norfolk fund, East Anglia Art Fund, Norfolk County Council’s Arts Project Fund and Better Together Norfolk

Look out for more information about the programme in the coming weeks, ahead of the events launching from the Spring Equinox to the Summer Solstice next year. Follow Yarmouth Springs Eternal on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for news (@YarmouthSprings on all platforms)

I am over the moon to be one of 6 other Norfolk-based artists and creative practitioners who have been awarded funding and support from Norfolk & Norwich Festival’s Creative Individuals Norfolk fund.

My project, Yarmouth Springs Eternal, will explore the natural world, reflecting upon isolation and anxiety experienced during COVID-19. Participants will listen, look, smell, touch and taste to share the experience of seeking out hope and watching spring unfold. It will engage communities in Great Yarmouth, including adults who have experienced homelessness and migration.

The project will take place in Spring 2021 and has been supported by originalprojects; through help forming the programme and access to a central Great Yarmouth venue to base the project at

I’m so pleased to have been commissioned by Creative People and Places: Market Place as part of their Creative Conversations in Isolation micro-commission fund supported by Arts Council England.

The project is still in development, but I plan to connect with groups in Fenland and West Suffolk remotely through a guided sensory art-making walk in a location of their choice.

I’ve been trialling ideas in my local area – collecting photos, drawings, rubbings, words and sound captured in the landscape Find out more about Creative Conversations in Isolation on the Market Place CPP website.

Thank you Becky from Supporting Your Art for inviting me to be interviewed about my work during lockdown. In the interview, I talk about some of the challenges I’ve encountered with working remotely and how I’ve worked around them.

Also on Becky’s blog, you can read a recent interview from ArtatWork CIC about how they’ve adapted their regular arts groups during this period.

Read the interview on the Supporting Your Art website.

A few weeks ago in April 2020, I was interviewed via Zoom during the COVID-19 lockdown by Gemma from Publib – an online public library and resource for socially engaged arts practitioners.

In the interview, we talked about what drives my practice and how this has changed during the current lockdown situation. I highlight my work with Waveney & Blyth Arts and the project I led in the winter/spring with Norfolk Museums Service & Kick the Dust – Norfolk and the fantastic Norwich International Youth Project NIYP.

Take a read on the interview section of the Publib Sea website.