Shown above left, primary oils example
Shown above right, secondary acrylic example
Tell us about yourself and your creative practice (300 words max)
You can use up to 1800 characters to answer this (288 words)
I’m an artist/educator and founder of Go Create™. I have a BA in Art, Design & Marketing, 6 years National & International event/project management plus 20 years artist/educator experience. My primary art practice is oils and my work is in galleries. I also enjoy solving complex social and environmental problems and have developed 3 sets of children’s characters/worlds and associated workshop programs to teach art craft, design and skills including personal development for sustainability.
In 2006, I received £10,000 private investment to further develop the first educational series. In 2012, I set Go Create up to develop the workshop expertise. However, in 2013/14, I became the legal guardian of my sister’s babies which pushed me from London to Margate. In March 2019, I pulled workshops from Wimbledon to consider how to reformat Go Create, bringing interests that inspired its inception to the fore, and to consider how to lead from my practice. Shortly after my piece ‘A Bar Of Soap Will Do’ was shortlisted in the Turner Contemporary Portfolio competition. I’ve since redeveloped my kirstykennedy.co.uk website and am on track to complete my first accomplished oils collection for Summer ’21. I’ve also been developing concepts for several exhibitions including ‘The Nature of Wellness’ stemming from my secondary painting practice which links wellness to nature but also explores wellness in terms of mental wellbeing.
Since Lockdown, my work has taken a further directional twist: I’ve became increasingly aware that my life experience, research interests and methodologies direct me towards art therapy but lean out towards mass communication and workshops/education. I’m looking to prioritise my own development leading up to the creation of early intervention art based programs (comprising exhibition material and workshop delivery) to support mental health/wellbeing.
* Tell us about the developmental opportunity you want to undertake, what you hope to get out of it and how you will go about it.
You can use up to 1500 characters to answer this (250 words)
An opportunity to consolidate research and push secondary practices to feed into early intervention art programs to support wellbeing.
I’m looking specifically to draw on insight as a sibling of someone with an extreme mental health condition (paranoid schizophrenia) as well as art therapy interests. Art engagement can be therapeutic and healing in nature but I’m wanting to arrive at workshop approaches which help individual explore more overtly their own ‘wellbeing’ or ‘personal development’ through art.
Part 1 (wellbeing workshop development)
To consolidate mental health research.
To research and engage as a reflective practitioner with different art or creative writing and art therapy approaches as a methodology to develop my own methods.
Part 2 (artworks).
To experiment and push the ‘plant theming’ of my secondary painting to represent states of being, graphically towards more complex tangled forms as a starting point. To also investigate, with a touch of art theory the creation of sculptures and illustrations which respond to mental health or issues surrounding it.
Importantly to consolidate the project, research and insight into an art book which incorporates visual material spilling out from earlier experimentation.
Overall, I’m expecting to arrive at a set of research led tools/workshop approaches which enables me to step straight across into delivery of wellbeing or personal development programs which can be complemented by Go Create pre-existing workshop expertise.
The opportunity would cement a range of skills: educator, writing, research, communication, and give concrete purpose to secondary painting and illustration practices leading to a step-change.
* Why is this important for your practice at this point, and how will this help create future opportunities?
You can use up to 1500 characters to answer this (250 words)
Lockdown has had a major impact on mental health of so many. My deep insight and research into how severe mental health conditions can develop over time alerts me that early intervention through the arts is crucial.
I’ve applied for this particular grant at this time because my secondary practice requires development and the mental health art topic and the development of wellbeing workshops requires incubation, experimentation, even playfulness.
Ideally I would like to engineer and test a string of programs within the Margate community starting with mental health/wellbeing, towards personal development and up-skilling/engaging locals in accessible arts and so they play a greater part in the local art scene. Leading towards regeneration and eco sustainability through the arts. I’m hoping smaller arts council wins potentially support grander scale ambitions.
My overall goal at present is to reformat/re-purpose Go Create potentially with college support and to achieve well paid support to pilot schemes in the community which in turns allows to self-sustain exhibition builds, study and work on books to achieve my long-term highest artist/educator vision.
I’m currently in discussion with Broadstairs’ College about development of a self-promotion and enterprise program for creative practitioners and an artist in residence opportunity as we come out of restriction ie later in the year. Forming collaborative college links is vital. Importantly this grant allows for interim practice development within my control to support a directional change and potentially communities as we come out of restriction.
