Chris works as head of training and development for one of my favourite organisations: 64 Million Artists. Here he shares his story and the values behind the work they do.
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Do you have a question for Chris? He'll be around on Facebook today to answer questions and chat more about this topic. Find out what today's contribution has sparked and share your own experience (if you'd like to) by heading over and joining in the discussion.
About Chris
Building Creative Communities I’m obsessed with finding out how citizens and communities can creatively take control of their circumstances. It seems that more and more, communities are becoming aware of the limiting factors affecting their experiences at the state, regional and local level. More and more we’re aware that equality of opportunity is an illusion, and that we can only really fully thrive (or ’self actualise’) if we have resources, opportunities and responsiveness in our environment. Working as Head of Training and Development at 64 Million Artists gives me the chance to help practitioners of all different kinds build creative agency in a variety of communities. My background was working in community arts as a theatre and opera director. I loved developing large-scale operas with SEN students, community chorus members, alongside world-class professional signers. Witnessing the creative humanity of these groups working alongside each other was truly inspirational. From there I have been asking how I can explore collaborative creativity (and its social value) more, and this led me to working as Senior Project Manager for 64 Million Artists. At the core of 64MA are the the values of everyday creativity and cultural democracy. The first is about valuing human being as much as human doing: in believing that we are all born creative and that creativity is core to our humanity. Our way of being in the world is to create and creativity expresses our highest ideals, values and connectedness to each other. I passionately believe that creativity isn’t the preserve of professional artists alone - although I wholly embrace craft, expertise and talent too. Cultural democracy means valuing and including everyone’s contribution. It’s about breaking down excluding, minoritising or exploitative hierarchies. Digital technology has a big part to play in this too. Developing 64MA’s training and development work over the last twelve months during the pandemic has been a real thrill and a privilege. I’ve built courses helping socially conscious practitioners to facilitate groups online, to practice co-creation and citizen-led culture, and to build creative communities. Right now, I’m working with practitioners and community groups across the UK, all of whom are adjusting to complex, post-pandemic realities. As the world becomes more complex and technology more filtering, polarising and mystifying, I believe we need to continue to build creative, psychologically safe spaces in which the values of tolerance, acceptance and inclusivity are the norm.
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Not only will you get all the submissions gathered together in a beautiful ebook at the end of the project, you can also pop over here and catch up on any you might have missed. The password is 'crebels' (please don't share this link publically - it's just for you - thank you!)
Hello! I'm Hannah, and I'm hosting this community project because I believe making matters.
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