To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art...

“The first step—especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money.

The first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. 

To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. 

To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art.”

Chuck Pahlaniuk

Creating creative randomness... Dinner & Drawing 7th November 2013

Creating creative randomness...

https://www.facebook.com/events/594879453870102/

What will be will be and tonight we will see how far we can let go of the outcome & be taken over by our creative processes.

Price for the event = £15
which includes all food and materials.

Do let me know when you book if you have any specific health needs i.e. non dairy

Please pay in advance so I can plan accordingly either via PayPal (see the line above or directly into Open To Create... account;

Sort code: 30-92-90
acc. no: 25272768

Spaces are limited to 6 people so snap yours up!!

Next Dinner & Drawing events

3rd December 2013

We are hosting on different nights of the week to be as flexible to those who want to join in...

Really looking forward to having some more creative connections and sharing tasty food with you!

Thank you

Anna

Introduction to Life Coaching - 5 weeks starting from 6th November 2013 @ Idea Store Whitechapel (B2386)

Coaching Taster - 2nd November 2013 1pm - 4pm @ Idea Store Whitechapel (A2381)

The Orwellian Garden by Alex Beeching - Bloomsbury Festival 19th - 20th October 2013 #bloomsburyfest

Amazing artist, designer, illustrator and creative polymath Alex Beeching has conceived and is creating The Orwellian Garden for the Bloomsbury Festival 19th - 20th October 2013.

A pop-up 1940's office in which every piece of furniture is covered in a living cloak of plants. ]Oh, and did we mention the sea of shoes?

His idea is to bring a new, softer vision for humanity into being - contrary to Orwell's line in 1984 about 'giving a boot in the face of humanity'.

He has been working to create a living installation in the car part at Senate House, UCL -  near Russell Square.

You can expect to see superb succullents sneaking their way over desk tops, plants covorting with hat stands and stuffed animals saying 'Hello' from the strangest of places...

You can follow the conversation via 

Orwellian Garden blog

Orwellian Garden Facebook page

Orwellian Garden twitter @OrwellianGarden

See more about the whole Bloomsbury Festival via their website

And do come down to play in what promised to be a marvel of arts, meeting gardening, meeting installation and design...

Creating new creative networks... East London Creative Business Women Network / September 2013

It's really nice to be contacted by a genuinely passionate and determined women who throws herself into what she is creating with full gusto... which is what East London Creative Business Women Network is all about!

And Jessica Rose; Award-Winning Entrepreneur and Founder of the London Jewellery School is just that and more.

So it's exciting she will be co-presenting the next East London Creative Business Women Network meeting 30.09.13 at The Create Place...

I was unsure how things would shape up now Petra, our co-founder is taking a fully active member role i.e. could it be done, should it be done and how??

And literally as I was re-evaluating the network Jessica's email popped into my inbox...

Nuff said - answer received loud and clear...

You can book a place via http://elcbwn.eventbrite.co.uk/

And pay what you want on the night to show what value you believe you gained and support the growing of the network i.e. pay for venues, refreshments and the time it takes to do the marketing...

See you there! 

About Jessica: 

Multi-award winning entrepreneur and business expert Jessica Rose is the owner and Director of the London Jewellery School, the world's largest jewellery training centre. She set up the business aged just 21 in 2009 with only one class a month from a community hall in South London and now the school is a huge success having trained over 7,000 students with the running of over 50 classes per month. Her achievements in building a thriving business from scratch have been recognised by the local and national press including features in Marie Claire, The Times, Vogue, Daily Mail and Daily Experss to name a few and she has stared in interviews/ documentaries on the BBC, ITV and Sky News. She is also a regular blogger for huffinton post and ambassador of a number of organisations supporting young people and women in to business. For more on her story see - http://www.jessicaroselondon.com and for more about the London Jewellery School visit http://www.londonjewelleryschool.co.uk 

East London Creative Business Women Network FB page - come and join in!

Will you be there? https://igniteyourcreativityinthecitysept13.eventbrite.co.uk/

https://igniteyourcreativityinthecitysept13.eventbrite.co.uk/

Are you Open To Create... 3 month volunteer placement offered. Deadline 20th September 2013

I have been a volunteer on and off for over 20 years and know first hand the amazing benefits of volunteering. I have run different volunteer, intern and work placement programmes for over 15 years and love the satisfaction of a person willing to contribute learn and grow from being willing to give to a company.

Charlotte Hogg was an intern whilst I was working with Bow Arts - she was an awesome, go getting woman on a mission to suck up as much experience from working in the gallery, curating P1 show through to handling the rain on the opening night of the Open Studios with grace and good humour. She went onto to secure a place on the Whitechapel Interns programme and now works for the Royal Academy... 

See Charlotte's reference below...

1. 
   
   
   

   Charlotte Hogg

   Press Assistant at Royal Academy of Arts

   
   

   Anna has a clear can-do attitude which makes even the hardest of tasks seem like light work. Dependable, committed and loyal, Anna is a pleasure to work with. Being a natural people person she is happy to share these wonderful qualities with an ever growing professional network, one that helped me begin my own career and which I know has helped many others in turn. My time...more

   May 24, 2011, Charlotte worked indirectly for Anna B. at Bow Arts Trust

So it's a little nerve wracking to admit to limitations of any kind? Especially when it requires bringing new people to your inner world of your business...

But it's time to take the plunge at Open To Create... so I can focus on more strategic grow whilst knowing the detail is being handled.

We are offering a 3 month volunteer placement at 1 day a week...

Deadline for applying is 20th September 2013.

See below for a link to the role description...

Open To Create... volunteer role description deadline 20th Sept 2013 from Anna B Sexton

Ignite Your Creativity Day Retreat in The City @ The Create Place 21.09.13

Picture yourself slipping away for the day to a magical place hidden in the East of London - that really is a hidden gem...

One step through the front door into the creative making hub you will feel inspire, welcomed and at home.

This bespoke creative making and thinking day has been specially made for those of you who find it hard even to retreat away from the city for a weekend.

Venue

The Create Place, 29 Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PJ

Directions

What will you being doing?

Together during the day you will re-ignite your unique version & vision of creativity in this special hub space created to champion all forms of creativity in the heart of bustling East London.

You will be encouraged and supported to play with making your own personal road map, hand folding and filling your personal guide book and experiment with your unique creative ways to think and make creatively on your own or in groups.

The session runs promptly from;

10am - 5pm Saturday 21st September 2013

Investment of your time 7 hours over a Saturday £80 / £60

We deliberately keep the group size intimate to no more than 12 places*

For your gift to yourself you will receive;

Benefits - based on feedback from previous retreaters

• Feeling myself in free flow and connection within an extraordinary group
• The reconnection I had with my own sense of play
• The feelings of great joy from creative making especially my handmade book
• Being in the group helped me to see I can do what I creatively love to do and that what was missing was the 'community' of creative explorers to do this with me
• Re-connection to fun whilst being grounded and connected at the same time
• How important being in a trusting and supportive atmosphere brings about pure creativity, love, warmth and this helped my creative process no end
• To know in myself I am on my right path
• To have re-discovered that place within me where creativity lives - to have re-discovered my creative engine

Features

• Personal creative coaching and mentoring from Anna B. Sexton on both days
• Work with guest creative professionals - Penny Stanford - hand made book maker & fine art printer
• All creative materials
• Morning tea & coffee and pastries
• Afternoon tea

* one place on the day is gifted to those of you who feel a calling to join in & right now it's not doable to join please email anna@opentocreate.com for more details of how to apply

Call Anna B. Sexton 07941 655 856 to let us know your needs

or email anna@opentocreate.com

Join in with the conversation via Open To Create... dedicated events page

https://www.facebook.com/events/379197532198076/

Artwalks Epsom and Ashtead common: SECOND ARTWALK

So pleased to see artist and walker Tim Ridley' Art Walks growing from strength to strength with Art Walk #2. of his summer artist in residency on Epsom & Ashtead Common going really well.

Read all about it via his webblog for the project - Artwalks Epsom and Ashtead common: SECOND ARTWALK: Yesterday we had almost the perfect weather for the second Artwalk of 2013.

Follow the chitter chatter via Twitter @tim_ridley

Use hashtags #artwalks #artistwalks #epsom #ashtead #common

See you for the next Art Walk #. 3 1st September 2013 - BOOK your free places via http://timridleyartwalks2013.eventbrite.co.uk/

Join in Tim's Facebook page for the project https://www.facebook.com/TimRidleyArtistWalks

Catch a copy of 'To Catch A Rabbit' 18th/19th July 2013 on Helen Cadbury...

How??

For today (18th July 2013) and tomorrow (19th July 2013)  To Catch a Rabbit is on very special offer!

Free Kindle download day!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/To-Catch-A-Rabbit-ebook/dp/B00CMFTPUC/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1374146366&sr=8-1&keywords=helen+cadbury+-+to+catch+a+rabbit

I have known and been working with Helen since 2009 and it's so amazing to she how her focus, determination and vision have manifested 'To Catch A Rabbit' - a crime novel based in the UK which has very strong chances of making it onto a TV screen near you very soon...

Check out Helen's website http://helencadbury.com/

Check out Moth Publishing's website http://www.mothpublishing.com/?page_id=8

New curriculum = rubbish day for creative learning & education

A picture speaks a 100o words, right?

Well here's what I think about the newly released national and particularly creative subjects curriculum served up by Mr. Gove,  Secretary of State for Education.

I don't get his thinking and can't see how he and his team have the bare face cheek to release the curriculum whilst it so clearly has not been created in relation to what most teachers and educators believe is needed for our current and future learners.

We must keep speaking out, sharing about this deliberate shun of both common sense,  a well rounded creative curriculum across all subjects and what this means for our children's basic human rights.

At a time when so many people are becoming more sedentary and unwell through lack of physical exercise to leave dance out as a distinct art form is foolhardy and will prove costly in terms of personal physical and mental health and collective spend in health care in the coming years.

Equally to leave out to film and drama in such a way leaves me cold given how well our theatre and film industries have been doing in the last few years. These industries are part of our global exports and a creator of much needed jobs, income and taxes. So one wonders what Gove sees will replace these if our students don't have the access to the subjects and be able to access HE & FE post school without the basic grounding in these subjects.

To have such low level of linking up of the curriculum to the creative industries shows just how little joined up thinking there is within this government.

No wonder more and more employability courses are being taught as pupils are being left ill equipped to face into their futures whatever career pathways they chose.

These measures also buy into the 'intern' culture so many companies use to 'give' young people the real life skills needed to work in business, well as long as it's for free.

I find the time, energy and investment in bringing into being this 'new' curriculum  an utter shame on Gove and his teams and one that we and future generations will be paying for in so many ways.

I do agree with Karl Wozny's comment;

"Gove has not taken any notice of Henley or recognised Rose or Cambridge Reviews, all of which champion the arts in education. Gove has also failed to listen to teachers, the people on the front line. Which school in their right mind would want this curriculum? I guess Academies and Free Schools can choose to opt out, and many schools are already choosing independent Curriculums like IPC. The only good thing I can see here is that it's up to arts organisations to help liven up this new uninspiring curriculum and we can hope to trust in schools to enable this and that extra funds promised by Gove to do this will be given. I think schools should follow the Australuan system whereby every parent pays around £100 a year into a 'pot' so that their children get a continuous steady flow of cultural enrichment. Those that can't pay can have it funded by Pupil Premium. I think it's time to take control and try different methods.
Karl Wozny 09 July 2013"

But don't just want to get into business mode of seeing this as an opportunity to make in roads into the massive gaps left by Gove's new structures.

I want us to keep pushing this Government to see society as a well rounded whole. One where not everyone has the means or background to find it easy to access the additional measures and schemes he is suggesting... i.e. weekend creative clubs hosted in local universities.  Many parents of children today, and likely more so in the future, did not have a good relationship with their own schooling, let alone the funding to access FE/HE so we are being called to look at the issues raised by the new curriculum together, creatively and in 360 degree fashion so it really reflects all of today's learners  and the many challenges they and we face.

Read more about the latest changes via The Cultural Learning Alliance website - thankful this organisation exists to keep us all updated on the changes.

Exciting new show @ JVA Project Space - Meg Mosley Jerwood Show 13th May - 31st August 2013

What can I say, well I actually have a lot to say, but what can I say in the face of the full force of nature that is 'Megastar'?

She has taken the world of Trow-Vegas by storm and for 3 months has dained to come to London and share her very own brand of fierceness and gift for living Life to the max, darlin' 13th May - 31st August 2013.

JVA Project Space - Meg Mosley show 13st May - 31st August 2013

She is not to be messed with yet with some gentle steps an approach can be made into the the inner circle of Megastar and her entourage of dedicated followers and fans.

Think high glamour, outrageous glamour and something of the middle England high street thrown in for good measure.

She is nothing if not a dichotomy.

Mark my word get amongst her unique brand of self directed fame and fortune and you too could be your own Megastar 

However be warned there will only ever be one Megastar...

Follow Megastar trending via #mylife

Jerwood Show 

Jerwood Visual Arts presents a new body of work titled #mylife by Wiltshire-based artist Meg Mosley. This solo presentation features two films; Agog, The Grandmother Diaries’ and Viva Trow Vegas, Just a small town girl and the launch of an online music video, which will take place during the course of the exhibition.

Meg's website - check out her amazing films especially the one her with her 'Gogs' in Lourdes!

Meg's artist Facebook page - come on' you follow this rising start and get amongst her meteoric rise to fame!

More information about the show

Mosley’s work explores the documentary format and how stories can be manipulated, published and spread through the internet. Her projects often involve her family and friends as source material, as well as engaging local communities who participate as part of large-scale, orchestrated, performances and gatherings. These events are normally organised through social media channels and are then retold and re-presented through narrated video documentary.

The films on display in the JVA Project Space attempt to explore issues to do with belonging in two distinct areas of influence; the understanding of the love, friendship and family life and the trials of ageing; and the influences that reality television, glossy magazines and short-lived ‘celebrity’ fame has on those who live in ordinary towns, in this case the town of Trowbridge (Trow Vegas) in Wiltshire.

Agog: The Grandmother Diaries is a documentary record of Mosley’s relationship with her grandmother, offering an intimate and rare insight into the granddaughter-grandmother relationship. In this work, the artist explores her grandmother’s belief that glamour represents a form of empowerment. The film is an interplay of humour and reflection. Through the course of this film, the artist and her grandmother engage in a series of parties, holidays and photo-shoots that are inspired by her grandmother’s glamorous past and lust for life.

The second film Viva Trow Vegas, Just a small town girl sees the artist travel to Las Vegas in search of the glamour and extravagance that is used as a reference point in her home town. This two year project is the culmination of a study of glamour in its contemporary guise. Mosley uses different media, including video, photography and film, to record a wide range of interactions. In doing so, she teases out the joy and pathos in examples of contemporary culture and takes her home town of Trowbridge on and adventure inspired by the glitzy constructed world of Las Vegas.

During the exhibition Mosley will launch an exclusive music video online which was shot in her home town of Trowbridge and will be shown on YouTube. Please visit this page shortly for further details.

Cherishing creative memories from Ignite Your Creativity retreat 22nd-24th March 2013

What an absolute wonder cooking up and co-creating Ignite Your Creativity Retreat was... 

I am still all a glow from the amazing creative connections, ideas and new directions fellow creative retreaters have been discovering for themselves during and since the weekend 22nd-24th March 2013.

I keep thinking about the word re-treat in this way as the retreat still is re-treating me with most splendid of memories, ideas and sense of creative flow...

What would retreaters tell their friends about their time away? Sarah Bellorini, our amazing Personal Biography workshop leader and creative collaborator said;

"Incredible venue, invite only, so very, very special place that not many people have the privilege of experiencing – this adds to the whole experience and energy of the retreat; incredibly safe and creative environment where you can participate as much or as little as you need and want with additional support from very experienced and caring organisers who have your needs as central focus; amazing food and a great loving, affirming space created by all the participants who are hand-picked and are open and able to contribute to the depth of the experience due to where they are at on their creative journey and capacity to contribute to the overall dynamic of the retreat. It is an incredibly special place and space. If you think you’ve been to something like this before, you haven’t! "

Below are selection of snaps captured during our time away together making hand made books, cooking together and learning and performing a new snog specially crafted by a new super band, formed on the island, SuLi! 

Big hearty creative thanks come from me as the process to create the weekend was not always an easy one - but boy, oh boy well worth every challenge, false start and hic cup along the way. Busy planning the next two in July and November this year...

Will you be there to creatively play?

WOW 2013 - Women of the World Festival 2013

Bag of Creative Surprises 10th March 2013 - Women of the World Festival

To High Rise or not to High Rise... 24.01.2013

In the space of one day I have been sent  the two following articles

One about making the most of shrinking space in New York City... 

New York City unveils its vision for micro-apartments under 400 sq. ft.

Through to the other about how high rise living is killing us... through Alex Morton's latest think tank report about how terraced houses should be brought back and high rise blocks be knocked down...

Read the report here... Create streets



This Inside Housing article gives an overview of the paper and highlights the dichotomy facing urban planners, architects and community builders in global cities and suburbs...


Policy manager Rebecca Roberts-Hughes says: 

‘Decisions on high rise developments and their future should be made at a local level and include the existing population. We would not advocate the demolition of all existing high rise residential buildings, especially in a time and of housing need and where existing communities may be flourishing. 

‘Quality design is the most important aspect when it comes to homes of the future, our research has shown that people want space, light and privacy. We believe there are more than just a few types of buildings that can achieve this.’

And as someone who have been involved with the re-development of Erno Goldfinger's Brownfield Estate I am not so sure what the answer is to the growing demand for housing that is well designed with decent & lasting materials plus affordable to more people. Plus real consideration and investment being made for the external social and community areas in and around new developments...

What I do know is taking an active part in the debates and furthering proactive actions does make a different...

You can read more about Greening Brownfield - a community garden I co-founded in 2009 as part of the re-development of Brownfield Estate 

It has been used as an example of Best Practice by The Green Alliance in their latest publication A Better Place to Live; A Toolkit for High Rise Green Living

For starters...

So today I decided to get back on the bike with blogging - a little bit outside from those posts I do for Open To Create...  and my more business related blog

So this is going to be more about some of my more personal noddlings, thoughts and passions outside the box of my more creative business space...

Do get amongst this and give me feedback as this is the best way to grow, learn and discover more...