In this episode Naomi talks to the Artistic Director of Strike a Light, Sarah Blowers. Sarah talks about the importance of never underestimating what people want to do. She notices that people are often taking a risk by coming along and getting involved. For Sarah, facilitation skills are really important to try to ensure that people feel safe. It is a tightrope of showing leadership, seeing potential and supporting people. It is really important to have an access budget to facilitate people’s involvement properly.

Sarah talks about how the work is often unpredictable and messy as you don’t know what might come up. She talks about the facilitation skills that she uses as a Producer of co-created work. She describes diving straight into working with a group, but that she builds trust by generating clarity and being super clear with people; she ‘chunks and checks’ what she is communicating. Sarah believes that it is important to use simple, clear language and to check back what has been understood.

When facilitation skills are not present, it is dangerous to attempt co-creative practice. It doesn’t work and people don’t feel safe. With good facilitation people will take really good creative risks. At Strike a Light they have 4 Community Producers on payroll who choose the artists to work with their communities. However, she notes that sometimes artists need to be ambitious about what can be achieved.

Sarah recommends having a lot of resources up your sleeve and play a lot of games. She thinks it's important to be flexible, warm and approachable, particularly when working with people who are vulnerable. This means being prepared to throw your session plan away in order to respond meaningfully to the people who are in the room. It also means taking time out to look after yourself and rest as it is demanding work.

There is a discussion about the need for supervision for practitioners to enable them to process what is happening in the creative process. Sarah talks about the importance of holding your nerve that the facilitation process will deliver the outcome you need, but might never have expected. The community will come up with ideas that the professional artists might never have had. She believes artists need to find the sweet spot where everyone is encouraged and enabled to come forward with their ideas. For her, the process of making is the most important thing.

In this episode Naomi talks to Conrad Murray, Founder and Artistic Director of Battersea Arts Centre’s Beatbox Academy about the importance of leaders of co-creative practice having solid art form skills.

Conrad talks about how important it is for the young people who he works with to see him utilise his art form skills. He has been on his own journey with his art form, saying he used to be the worst, but he really wanted to do it and that has driven him to practice and refine his skills. He also knows his limits art form wise and what he is really good at and encourages young people to find their strengths artistically.

He describes how he breaks down and then scaffolds the learning of beatboxing for the young people he works with. Conrad also talks through the journey from teaching art form skills to enabling people to co-create original material every week. He has complete beginners working alongside people who have been beatboxing for years. He notices that people are supporting and helping each other in the development of their art form skills. He talks about how he has created a culture and ritual that repeats every week.

Conrad describes the importance of being open about his own journey as an artist, so people can see him really trying, so that it might inspire them to do better than him. He feels passionately that artists need to have reached a level of mastery over their art form before they attempt to co-create that art form with anyone else. He argues this mastery is inspiring for young people.

He talks about growing up on a council estate and knowing how to code switch in different contexts. He thinks that artists need to have high aspirations for themselves in order to inspire people that they work with. In order to take co-creation seriously, you need to take your own art seriously. He saw himself as a performer first and then grew into leading co-creative sessions. He sees leading the co-creative sessions as a higher calling, but he combines leadership skills with his pre-existing art form skills.

Naomi Alexander is the CEO and Artistic Director of Brighton People's Theatre . Her AHRC funded research Let's Create: Do we know how to? identified 20 qualities, skills and responsibilities that are important for artists leading co-creative practice. The report and illustrations are available here.
X: https://twitter.com/naomi_ontheatre

IG: https://www.instagram.com/naomi.ontheatre/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomiontheatre/

Conrad Murray is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Beatbox Academy which runs at Battersea Arts Centre

X: https://twitter.com/rODIUMrECORDS
IG: https://www.instagram.com/rodium/ https://www.instagram.com/bac_beatbox_academy/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conrad-murray-a4b4ba183/

#co-creation #theatre #leadership #arts #artist #truetoyourself #letscreate #embodied

In this episode, London based theatre maker, Kane Husbands, discusses the leadership skill of inclusive language and its importance when leading co-creative practice.

Naomi Alexander is the CEO and Artistic Director of Brighton People's Theatre . Her AHRC funded research Let's Create: Do we know how to? identified 20 qualities, skills and responsibilities that are important for artists leading co-creative practice. The report and illustrations are available here.
X: https://twitter.com/naomi_ontheatre

IG: https://www.instagram.com/naomi.ontheatre/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomiontheatre/

Kane Husbands is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Pappy Show.

X: https://twitter.com/Kane_Husbands
IG: https://www.instagram.com/kane_husbands/

#co-creation #theatre #leadership #arts #artist #patient #letscreate #embodied