Two new offerings, one idea - on creativity, safe spaces and why both come from the same place

Some of the materials to be used at the first Young Creator’s Lab

It took me a long time to discover my own creativity. That might seem like an odd thing for an artist to admit, but it's true and I think it's the most important thing I can tell you about why I've spent this week launching two new offerings into the world.

The Art& Monthly Subscription and Young Creators Lab are different in almost every way, yet they come from the same space. They offer ways into creativity, invitations rather than something concrete.

I've spent years watching people encounter creativity for the first time or rediscover it after years of believing it wasn't for them. This is never simple to categorise because creativity is so much more than simply making something. Creativity builds connections, internally and externally, that open a bit of who we are as individuals and allow ourselves to become part of something bigger than the everyday.

I realise that this is quite an intense assertion on my part, yet it is important to state because creativity is often reduced in importance by a focus on concrete subjects - the technical vs the exploratory.

For me, creativity is not measured in definite terms. It forms the underpinning of every idea we have, about how we problem solve, or simply find a moment to sit with a creative idea.

My viewpoints have been developed through observation of how people encounter their selves. A recent interaction has clarified this even more. I'm taking a course about Quaker spirituality and last week we were tasked with drawing a response to the session. A couple of people vocalised that they didn't want to do it. Yet with some gentle coaching what they made was beautiful, not because they were skilled, but because the space was safe enough to try.

That's what I'm trying to build. Not art classes. Not programmes with outcomes. Just space — genuinely open, genuinely safe — where something can happen that couldn't happen anywhere else. For some it might be trying something new, for others it might be a return to a part of themselves, or in fact reflecting on what they already do and seeing different ideas come to life.

Art& is that space through your letterbox. One inward prompt, one outward prompt, a print from the studio. A small monthly invitation to notice and respond, for anyone who wants to reconnect with their own creativity, gently and at their own pace.

Young Creators Lab is that space on a Thursday evening in Lady Bay. Nine weeks, real materials, no grades, no right answers. Just young people making things and finding out what they're capable of, whether they've never picked up a brush or they've been sketching for years.

Both feel cathartic to me in a way I didn't entirely expect. When I support someone else's creativity, I'm also, in some small way, continuing to find my own. That's not something I planned. It's something I've noticed.

You can find out more about Art& here and Young Creators Lab here.

If either of these feels like it might be for you — or for someone you know, I'd love for you to get in touch.

Paul