“Who knew so much goodness was right here all along?”
What over 55 people told us about growing creativity in Gloucestershire. On 16 September, we convened more than 55 people for a day together at the Friendship Café in Gloucester around one question: how can we grow creativity in our communities better, together?
The space between something and nothing: learning from Create Local
The space between something and nothing: learning from Create Local
One question we get asked a lot is: “What do you actually do in a neighbourhood?” The honest answer is: often, we wait.
It's not the kind of thing you'd expect the Chair of Arts Council England, and former Director of the Tate, to leave with. But it's exactly the kind of detail that keeps drawing him back to Matson.
Shaping an Inclusive Future: Our Ongoing Journey
CG’s Co-Director Tracey Thomas recently contributed a powerful post on equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB) to the Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance website, reflecting on CG’s journey towards becoming a truly inclusive organisation.
The Voice of Nature: speaking from nature’s perspective.
In this blog we hear from Jacqui Stearn about being the Voice of Nature on CG’s board and how Julie’s Bicycle programme alongside Jacqui’s own creative practice have supported her to speak from nature’s perspective.
Future Talent: Creative Health practice in Gloucestershire
In 2022 and 2023, Create Glos teamed up with the NHS to run a series of micro experiments designed to test and build the infrastructure needed to support neighbourhood-led arts and health. Read about the process and findings.
Celebrating Creativity: The Legacy of the National Gallery’s NG200 Art Road Trip in Gloucestershire
In 2024, the National Gallery marked a historic milestone—200 years of bringing people and paintings together—with a year-long celebration known as NG200. This ambitious initiative looked both to the past and the future, launching a nationwide festival of art, creativity, and imagination to set the tone for the Gallery’s third century.
Top Tips for Ripple Effects Mapping - on your own!
Creative Catalyst Sophia, works in the Forest of Dean for Create Gloucestershire. She has used Ripple Effects Mapping to keep track of the connections she is making through her work.
What we learnt from our creative conversation about HOW we work together support health and wellbeing,
In June 2023 Healthy Communities Together (HCT) Gloucestershire held a Structures of Togetherness Event in Stroud Sub Rooms, a creative conversation about whether HOW we work together in the county to support health and wellbeing, matters as much as WHAT we do (hint: HCT thinks it does).
Image credit @myron_rogers
Thinking differently about creative health
Research shows that participation in creative activity and art can reduce stress, improve self-esteem, and promote recovery.
But the therapeutic value of participatory arts extends far beyond benefits to individual health: in facilitating and amplifying authentic creative and cultural expression by and for marginalised communities, it also has the potential to reduce health inequalities on a much broader scale.
Creative Climate Action Toolkit - for small creative businesses and freelancers
Creative Climate Action Toolkit focuses on actionable, achievable and nuanced climate action to support smaller creative businesses, organisations, collectives and freelancers. This step by step approach also helps combat the overwhelm often felt at the scale of the crisis.
Striving for more Inclusive Recruitment
Create Gloucestershire is continually looking at ways we can be a more inclusive employer. And over the past couple of years we have made lots of significant changes to our recruitment process to make it as flexible and accessible as possible.
We’ve put this blog together to share our learning about what we did. And at the bottom of the page you’ll find a checklist that we hope you’ll find useful.
The Art of Libraries toolkit is here!
We are delighted to announce that our Art of Libraries toolkit is now available to download.
The toolkit is packed with creative and practical ideas to support artists and library staff to work together to make an irresistible creative programme for children and young people.