What happens when you have a podcast conversation about creativity and improvisation?
Talking with Susan Zheng on her podcast This Improvised Life an idea emerged from our conversation around Artful Inquiry and Embodied Leadership and, as all good improvisers do, we decided to ‘yes, and’ the idea (we accepted the possibility of the idea rather than the challenges).
The idea was Artful August.
But what’s behind that idea started long before that conversation
Creativity has always been at the heart of my work, from running a creative design studio, my own arts practice, and now as an essential element in Maverick Minds’ facilitation, coaching, and workshop design.
At a point along the way, I realised I wasn’t making space for my art, even though I kept saying it was important to me.
Over the Christmas break between 2021 and 2022, I made a commitment to create an artwork each day. I also knew I had to think through some of the logistics that would enable me to keep that commitment to what I called mm365.
In many respects, I had no idea where the idea would lead. I simply felt compelled to do it.
What started as a daily commitment became much more. I made collages, experimented, noticed more, tried things that worked and plenty that didn’t. I got frustrated, surprised myself and kept going.
Some days, an idea came easily. Other days, I was stuck and had to find a way in.
Each time, an artwork emerged, but so did a story and a form of ‘sense-making’ for me. As I brought together layers of materials, fragments and ideas, the creating became a way of noticing and making sense of myself and the world around me.
Over 365 days, the work accumulated. And so did my learning.
That practice changed my relationship with my own creativity. It sharpened what I noticed, expanded my creative work and shaped my thinking in ways I couldn’t have predicted when I started.
After completing and with the encouragement of others, I held an exhibition of all 365 artworks at Scrumptious Reads gallery and bookshop. People visited multiple times and told others about the show. People purchased my work. I developed a range of analogue conversation cards that I now use in facilitation and coaching, followed by digital Artful Inquiry cards that continue to evolve and are used when I work in a virtual facilitation and coaching capacity.
More than anything, it gave me an embodied experience of what can happen when we regularly make space for creativity, rather than waiting for the right idea, the right mood or ‘enough time’.
Research is adding another layer to our understanding of the benefits of engaging regularly with the arts and with our own creativity.
Daisy Fancourt’s work on arts and health, most recently brought together in Art Cure, explores how engaging with the arts has a positive influence on our health and wellbeing. In Your Brain on Art, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross draw on the emerging field of neuroarts and explore what happens in our brains and bodies when we make, experience and engage with art.
Which brings me to Artful August.
What happens when we commit to giving our creativity regular attention? Not just when we finally have time, but a little each day, including when we are in the messy middle of everything else that grabs our attention.
That is what Susan and I want to explore together, with you, over 31 days.
From conversation to invitation
Through the world of improvisation, my 365-day experience found its way into the conversation I had with Susan on her This Improvised Life podcast, in an episode called Artful Inquiry & Embodied Leadership.
What might we notice about ourselves? What connections might we make with our own ideas and with other people? Does anything shift in how we think, feel or approach things? What happens through experimentation? Do we become more willing to try, make mistakes, adapt or follow a curiosity? Might we develop skills we hadn’t expected?
From our conversation came a question: what if we opened a version of this to a wider community?
Not for 365 days, but 31. Not as a prescribed activity or a test of artistic skill, but an invitation to explore what creativity might look like for you.
What might we notice about ourselves? What connections might we make with our own ideas and with other people? Does anything shift in how we think, feel or approach things? What happens through experimentation? Do we become more willing to try, make mistakes, adapt or follow a curiosity? Might we develop skills we hadn’t expected?
And can we capture some of this along the way?
Part of Artful August is an invitation to notice and share what happens. Not to prove a predetermined outcome, but to gather experiences, reflections and observations as the month unfolds.
What emerges may be personal. It may also contribute, in a small way, to a wider conversation about creativity, creative practice and wellbeing.
So here it is: Artful August: 31 Days of Creative Wellbeing.
Throughout August, we’re inviting people to join us, make a little space each day for creativity and see what they discover.
You might photograph, write, collage, cook, garden, draw, move, make music, work on a project already underway or try something completely different.
I’ll be using part of my Artful August to work on pieces for my upcoming Collage Encounters exhibition and simply to experiment. Susan will follow her own creative thread. Everyone who joins gets to decide what theirs looks like, while together we go on an Artful Adventure.
You might follow something you’ve always been curious about, continue a project already underway, experiment with the prompts we share or simply use the time to see what emerges.
Susan and I will be creating alongside everyone, sharing prompts and encouragement, connecting as a community and improvising as we go.
The invitation is out in the world now, and the first people have already said yes.
An individual creative discovery alongside a collective experience.
Why not ‘yes, and’ with us and make August Artful, in your own way?
You can join as an individual, a group or a team.
Or get in touch if you’d like to know more.
More information in the link.
[JOIN ARTFUL AUGUST]
