Our Experience: Getting into the Creative Arts

On Sunday 5 July, Artswork hosted United in Art, a free online workshop festival curated by our Youth Board. United in Art was designed to widen access to creative practice, focusing on a range of skills and creative approaches that the Youth Board felt would be especially inspiring for young people, while also showcasing the work of artists representing voices from the margins. The day concluded with a conversation between three artists: photographer and videographer Rosie Hadridge-Powell, multi-disciplinary artist and musician Cleo Savva, and visual artist and theatre-maker Nicolette Carter, chaired by Kaia Allen-Bevan from Youth the Gap CIC.

This is the fourth and final article edited from a transcript of their brilliant conversation, which the Youth Board wanted to publish to widen access to their inspiring ideas.

Building creative success through action and connectivity

Kaia:

If you were a young person in today’s age in the creative industry, what advice would you give them? What guidance or next steps would you suggest and how would you start to seek opportunities as a young person in today’s age?

Nicolette:

My biggest piece of advice for anyone who wants to physically make art is keep a space for it. So, I mean, if you haven’t got a room, have a table in a corner that you have your sketchbook and your paint set. Because if you put things away, you’ll lose your flow. And if you’re writing music, you need somewhere to do it and you need somewhere to a quiet space and maybe even like an hour in the morning. So I used to make music on Mondays. I did my music on a Monday and then I do my painting on a Tuesday, even though it’s an imaginary structure, I’ve made it for myself. Make a structure, keep a space for it and just try to commit to it, if you want to learn how to do something.

You’ve also got more opportunity now because of the internet to find out somewhere or somehow to do things. So just see what’s out there, look for the ways you can learn practical skills. Just do it!

Rosie:

For me, I think it’s about…

So, you’re not doing it for marks, you’re not doing it like at school where you’re, getting grades, just make stuff! Similar to what I think the other two have said as well about connections, just show up to places. When I just came out of uni, I started going to gigs and just taking photos of bands and then sending them the photos. And then every now and then, one band would be like, oh, cool, could you come to the next gig?

That ended up being a way in, I think, for me.

Cleo:

Like the others were saying, just make.

And if you make loads of stuff that you think, oh my God, that is absolute trash, it doesn’t matter, because sometimes you just have to get it out. You know, I’m working on my first ever album now, at nearly 32. And I’ve spent my whole life, the last 10 years, playing on other people’s records, making stuff with other people. making stuff that’s, you know, sat in my hard drive and it’s kind of died a death. Or stuff that was just really silly, you know, really stuff that was not meant for anybody else. Just meant for me to get something out. Because the industry feels very serious. But actually part of creating is just finding joy in whatever it is that you’re doing. You know, I have ADHD and I make up songs about all kinds of madness to remember things. I’m singing my to do list because otherwise I’m never going to remember what it is. And that’s creative, you know, you could call that art. So just keep making and don’t let anybody tell you that you’re not an artist, you know, because they’re all wrong.

But also look for a network of people around you to build connection. Because then it’s all about collectively sharing and collectivising your skills and collectivising your financial resources and collectivising whatever resources you have to make a thing. Everybody gets something out of it. But that is also a process and requires conversation and morals and ethics and values and communication. All of the things that bell hooks talks about when she talks about love ethics. That is all really the basis of all of this work. I think it’s love, respect, knowledge, communication, trust and commitment.