I'm very excited to be part of the 2024 Sheffield Showcase weekend. It's a weekend long celebration of all the varied cultural opportunities available in our city. And as part of it, Write from the Art is having a trip out to the Graves Gallery, Sheffield.
I love the variety of our city's art collection and am looking forward to exploring it through looking together, thinking, reflecting and writing.
This time last year, I was planning for my first ever Write from the Art session. I remember having the kind of feelings where it helps to remember that anxiety is just a different version of excitement.
It always feels like a bold move to offer something new and I was delighted when it went well. Of course, there is always more to learn but getting feedback like this helped me to take the next steps forward. It's always good to be reminded me that people find value in what I offer.
Philosophical Enquiry underpins everything
I'm trained as a Philosophy for Communities (P4C) facilitator and have been developing use of the method for work with adults, exploring ideas and creativity in community settings. I'm particularly interested in using artworks as the stimulus for enquiry, whether to stimulate new writing or for discussion that is valuable for its own sake.
P4C uses the 'Four Cs' of philosophical thinking: creative, critical, collaborative and caring. Learning to apply different kinds of thinking to suit the circumstance is useful for writers and creatives - and indeed everyone! I use philosophical enquiry methods in most of what I do now, including reviewing the development of my new workshop approach.
Critical
In many ways Write from the Art is a logical development for me, building on my dual experiences of facilitating philosophical enquiry in the gallery and creative writing workshops. There's a solid foundation to build on, that means I can critically appraise the potential value of the new approach. I'm applying my critical thinking to consider how to make best use of different aspects of each practice to make something new, engaging and useful.
Creative
Connecting between the two existing parts of my work has been a fully creative experience for me. Exploring the possibilities of creating something new is enriching my facilitation practice, which is a core element of my own creative expression. In the sessions, I use the group process to promote participants' creative thinking. There's something very special that happens when people get to understand how different people see different things in the same artwork. It's an exciting turning point, rich in creative stimulation.
Collaborative
For me, facilitation is a creative process based in dynamic collaboration. I love working in this space - working with a group to think, explore, create and reflect through authentic sharing. That's core to everything I do. But in creating Write from the Art, I'm also exploring a collaboration between practices; making art and creative writing. It's so interesting to learn more about the prinnciples for making art and apply them to develop ways into creative writing.
Caring
The core of my care in developing Write from the Art is that I want to make something really good, to offer a high quality writing workshop experience. And as a writer myself, I care about the people who join me, that they enjoy the sessions and find them stimulating, useful and productive. Which seems to be the case, from the kind of feedback I've been getting:
This was a great, light-hearted way to play with creative writing and build confidence in finding new ways to generate writing ideas.
I've been toying with the idea of wanting to do some creative writing, but wouldn't know where to start - this session was structured around a piece of art which helped provide a framework of thoughts and ideas to spark the imagination. I found this really helpful and will definitely be back again. thanks
Thank you so much for the lovely class Rosie! I enjoyed the activities, questions and mostly your energy. Hope to join you again!
If this sounds like the kind of thing you might enjoy - whether you're a seasoned writer or just think it sounds like a fun thing to do on a Saturday afternoon - you are welcome to join us.
And if you can't make the in-person event at the Graves Gallery, then perhaps you'd like to try an online session - first Sunday of every month, 4-5.30pm.
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