NEWS FROM THE BUDDIES
Sadly, officially our Buddy Group has ended now – how quickly it seemed to go. Next week Buddy Leader Anne Barrell and I will be meeting to evaluate the scheme. The official six week period ended with an entertaining evening when the Buddies gave a talk to around 30 Network members, telling us what the experience had been like for them.
Every Buddy pair was represented by at least one partner and it was great to see new work they had made during the 6 week period, see photographs of experiments, visits and expeditions and hear about the conversations they’d had (with an entertaining performance/reading by Clare Whistler based on e-mail conversations between herself and her buddy, Christine Binnie).
A feature of many people’s buddy experience was the effect that their buddy relationship acted as a catalyst, prompting action on things they’d been putting off. Sharon Haward cut her doll’s house in half (“it’s only taken me about 18 months to get around to doing this”) , Steph Grainger set up her blog (blog.stephaniegrainger.co.uk), Steve Croft “got away from the computer” and started transforming his digital collages into cut-and-stick-paper-and-paint collages on canvas. Of course some people had more productive experiences than others, but it will be interesting to see the long term effects of these relationships; no doubt some will fade, but others may flourish. I will look forward to following their progress and think we might need to have a buddy reunion soon so that we can all catch up with each other!
