new year – new approach. alongside the sessions we run independently, we have planned some sessions over the next few months where we will ‘pop-up’ at pre-existing groups. our first one was at ‘thursday’s together’ at a local church. this is a foodbank and social event every thursday, where local people can come and collect food, have free tea coffee and biscuits, and socialise in a warm building. it was established during covid, but has continued due to ongoing demand. yet another example of the time, resource and goodwill of others doing the work of the government. i could cry … but i won’t. instead, i will do what i can to balance need, desire, demand and outrage.
we were invited to introduce ourselves to the people who were amassing in the cafe area of the church. one of the great things that they do at ‘together thursdays’ is distribute wooden spoons with numbers on to visitors as they arrive. this way, those there for the foodbank get to sit and socialise pending the calling of their spoon number. this negates any need for queueing – offering a fair and safe way to access the service, that respects the dignity of those placed in this situation by the ever increasing gulf between the haves and have-nots in this country.
we stationed ourselves after the food – a stop-off point where we invited anyone who showed interest to sit with us and draw with us. we had several takers and distributed flyers for our men’s sessions. chris – a regular at ‘doto’ – was at the church, of his own volition, advocating for us, which was a lovely thing to experience.
we had a really enjoyable time – someone played the piano next to us for much of the 2 hours we were there, we had many conversations with people interested in joining us … just not today … and 3 men who did stop and draw with us headed off saying they would see us on the 25th, our next men’s workshop.
but what did it do for my practice? honestly, very little. yes, it made me think more deeply about how to approach recruitment for a socially-engaged project. it made me hopeful that this strategy was going to work and swell our workshop numbers. it allowed me to trial a way of teaching drawing using lights to cast shadows which were then drawn, and using this as a starting point to understand shape and form a bit more. but my drawing? i can’t think how it was nourished by this experience – i feel the need to rethink how i can artistically benefit from this process.
