At Absolutely Cultured, we are committed to supporting creative practitioners through our talent development programmes such as the Hull Independent Producer Initiative (HIPI) and Fruit Factory Network (FFN). Throughout the COVID crisis, access to this support and opportunities for to come together digitally are more important than ever.

On 30 April we hosted an informal discussion forum on the subject of keeping happy, healthy and creative at home.

In these strange and unprecedented times, we are all are having to find new ways to stay healthy, happy and productive (or learning that it is okay not to be).

We discussed how, as artists and creatives, we’re tackling creativity during isolation, where we’re finding inspiration, and explored how we can better support one another to overcome the barriers each of us may be facing.

You can revisit the session here, and listen to what everyone had to say:

Here is more information about our wonderful invited guests:

Dawn Mitchell – We Do Wellbeing 

Dawn Mitchell is the founder of We Do Wellbeing, a consultancy and training company focused on helping people to live healthier, happier lives. They offer a range of services that help develop resilience, build wellbeing and support people to adopt approaches to happier living.

Helen Stratford – Artist 

Helen Stratford is a socially engaged artist with a background in architecture. Her practice spans performative workshops, site-specific interventions, video, speculative writing and discursive platforms. Her work, including Play Anywhere Now or Never with Idit Nathan, often encourages audiences to rediscover locations or places and to re-evaluate routines that are familiar to them by exploring them in new, critically creative ways.

Idit Nathan – Artist

Idit Nathan is an artist whose work draws on a wide variety of traditions and methods; it is participatory, collaborative and theatrical. She collaborates with artists, curators and diverse communities to develop site-specific interventions and artworks. Idit often uses play as a productive and provocative space in which the participant is challenged to confront their accepted understandings.