Following on from my AHRC Cultural Engagement Fellowship at
the University of Sunderland, I have joined the University’s Enterprise Place
start-up support scheme to develop my socially-engaged ceramics practice.
Addressing the NHS’s ‘Five steps to mental wellbeing’ and
the Government’s recent Culture White Paper, the Fellowship aimed to investigate how an engagement with creativity and making might promote a sense of wellbeing
by encouraging social interaction and active participation in the learning of
new skills. As part of this, I developed a ceramics workshop programme for
clients of Forward Assist, a leading charity supporting military veterans in
north east England. These workshops were held in association with the National
Glass Centre. Alongside this, I have been working as an artist associate of
Equal Arts’ Hen Power Project, where I have been using clay and ceramics as a
way to engage people suffering from dementia in residential centres in the
North East.
These experiences of working with clay in a community
setting have inspired me to explore this aspect of my practice as a socially
engaged business and I will now be trading as Community in Clay.
Alan and Colin of Forward Assist applying decals to their fired ceramic works. |
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