'Collaborative Creativity' Online Workshop
Creating together on platforms using music to inspire is something I believe could benefit many of us, particularly people who are unable to get out easily due to personal circumstances, for example those who have physical disabilities, the elderly and people who suffer with social anxiety and find face to face socialising difficult or uncomfortable.
My name is Rebecca, and I am an Inclusive Arts practitioner, Illustrator and Textile Designer.
I have designed an online ‘Collaborative Creativity’ workshop programme for those in marginalised groups.
Over the course of 5 weeks, the workshops are designed for beneficiaries as a group to explore artistic expression together whilst listening to various genres of music, aimed at helping with mental health, connection, overcoming loneliness, and improving self-confidence and creativity, whilst providing a collaborative creative experience.
During each 2 hour session, we will create artwork together, experimenting with quality art materials (provided for each beneficiary for free, ensuring equality in access to art materials and support.)
Sessions include exploring a multitude of materials and methods ensuring that there is something that all beneficiaries can connect with. These can include, Quink ink and water, watercolor pencils, white chalk pen on black/brown paper, charcoal, and ‘art from art’ using fineliner, or white pen and tracing paper, over previous pieces of their art or chosen image.
The workshops offer a fully collaborative experience with each session highly influenced by group ideas, discussions and decision-making which encourages a more organic flow.
Every activity will always be optional, so that each beneficiary is able to choose how much or how little they want to participate throughout.
At the end of each session, there will be time allocated to reflect and discus ideas, making collaborative decisions about what we will do in the following session.
This art programme evolved from my time studying Inclusive arts practices where I chose to explore how people, with and without learning disabilities, could create a positive space to produce artwork together during the pandemic. It was observed that the programme I designed and delivered, successfully created a positive space for participants to produce artwork, reduced social isolation and anxiety, and improved access to the Arts.
This has inspired me to pursue this format and widen the scope of participants in the hope of helping and encouraging more people to connect and build in their own confidence artistically, socially and mentally.
If you would like to explore how I could deliver this arts programme specifically for your beneficiaries, please get in touch:
If you are interested in the history behind the programme you can find out about this and more below
'Creating together online to music'
Using online platforms to enable those who are otherwise restricted, to be able to access the Arts, as well as experience the social interactions that are so crucial to our mental health and wellbeing, has become a personal focus for me as an Inclusive arts practitioner, as I believe that this is something that could be incredibly beneficial for many.
This art programme has evolved from my time studying Inclusive arts practices where I chose to explore how people, with and without learning disabilities, could create a positive space to produce artwork together during the pandemic.
Initially inpired by a short collaborative art session I created using Zoom, which included people both with and without learning disabilities creating breifly to music together.
The positive response it received from participants provided the starting point to my methodology.
The workshops took place over 5 Zoom sessions, where I was joined by Lucy
an Inclusive artist, Will (with Kat his PA) and Laura both Rocket artists https://www.rocketartists.co.uk
OUR JOURNEY TOGETHER
As I was aware that we would all have different quantities and types of art equipment, I put together an initial ART PACKAGE for each participant, and delivered one to each of them, insuring that we all had a variety of quality materials to explore with together.
Throughout the workshops we made decisions together about the type of music we would listen to, which I set up for us within the Zoom platform during each session
During our discussions we also decided on the art equipment we would use to create with each week.
We explored creative skills and ideas together, listening to music and using different materials.
One of the main things we discovered was that using music whilst creating together was favoured by everyone.
This became a huge contributing factor toward creating a positive atmosphere.
Although space was restricted both physically and visually, it did not stop us from creating together.
Instead, the Zoom platform allowed us to collaborate and share a creative experience together that would not otherwise have been possible due to Lockdown.
THE METHODOLOGY BEHIND THE WORKSHOPS programme
The arts programme I designed and delivered, successfully created a positive space for participants to produce artwork, reduced social isolation and anxiety, and improved access to the Arts:
BASED ON FEEDBACK FROM PARTICIPANTS
&
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
SHORT COLLABORATIVE ART SESSION:
Participants stated they "really enjoyed it"...found both tracks to be "relaxing." Also finding different music affected the marks being made and the colours being used.
But most importantly to me, the music was:
"a good way to get into the drawing” and “...took away the fear of not knowing what to draw”
and instead just..."let it flow”
FROM MY ART RESEARCH PROJECT:
PARTICIPANTS FEEDBACK
sharing our art work together on Zoom:
“We all used the same materials but our marks were very different”
using an online visual platform:
“Nice to see you on Zoom”
art package:
“I liked using materials that I don't often use”
listening to music:
“Relaxing, Focused”
EXTENDED RESEARCH
‘Mozart effect’ The study found that:‘Creativity was higher for participants who listened to ‘happy music’ while performing the divergent creativity task, than for participants who performed the task in silence.’
Leading to the conclusion:‘music listening may be useful to promote creative thinking ...when creative thinking is needed.’
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
I found the movement, colour and also the choice of equipment I used was inspired by the music. I also found that listening to the music helped me to relax into creating more, and set the mood for me to mark make in.
The outcome provided evidence that the lockdown restrictions we've all experienced, can actually help us to develop more ways of creating, collaborating and communicating online as well as providing a safe and comfortable space for those in marginalised groups to explore their creativity collaboratively.
key aspects such as listening to music together, using online visual platforms such as Zoom, having art packages delivered or ensuring a variety of art materials are accessible and having group discussions and decision making all contributed to creating a positive space to produce artwork together during the pandemic.
You can find out more about this Art Reasearch Project by visiting:
What To Expect From The Programme
These collaborative workshops run over a period of 5 weeks, meeting once a week for 2 hour sessions.
the outline is as follows:
First session starts by introducing ourselves briefly in whichever way feels most comfortable to each participant.
brief run through of what we will be doing
(first session we will run through art packages and discuss the links between music and creativity)
Listening to music, exploring art materials and creating together
Sharing and discussions
Short break
Listening to music and creating together
sharing and discussions
Ending with a group discussion about what will be happening in the next session.
(ie materials and music will be discussed and agreed on by the group)
If you would like to explore how I could deliver this arts programme specifically for your beneficiaries, please get in touch.
