Expressing and Receiving
Two vital skills explored through "The Things We Share In Our Hands" Participatory Project
Last week we introduced you to two of the core values behind our new participatory project “The Things We Hold In Our Hands”: Purpose and Connection.
This week we’d like to tempt you to join in with two more core values: Having a Safe Place to Express and Learning to Receive
Our new participatory project, delivered via The Everyday School of Art on Substack in 2024, will give you an opportunity to help you explore your creativity, commit to your intention to do so, and connect with others. Find out more here.
Reason Number 3 to take part in The Things We Hold In Our Hands:
Having a Safe Place to Express
Art is always about expression. Often, we do not know what it is we are trying to express, but there can be no action of making (building, drawing, voicing) which doesn’t start from an intention to do so. The way we make, as well as what we make, and the spirit in which we make, will be different each and every time, and the combination of those things, coupled with them coming from our unique self, forms our expression. A gesture made tangible and put out into the world.
But this is a brave and scary thing to do. And in a sense, the smaller the starting point, the more uncertain the outcome, the braver the ask. We are all human and we all suffer from the same insecurities (no, it’s not just you being screwed up), and to feel safe to make, to put ourselves on the line with something we put out into the world is BIG, even when it is small.
The Things We Hold In Our Hands Participatory Project will provide a space to help you feel safe enough, encouraged enough and understood enough to explore how you can express yourself, through making.
Reason Number 4 to take part in The Things We Hold In Our Hands:
Learning to Receive
Some of us are better than others at receiving. Some of us are in perpetual “give” mode - not to position ourselves as angels, but rather to acknowledge an unused ability to recognise and receive what the world has to offer, where we might find it, and how it might benefit us. If we don’t use this ability, it becomes rusty, and we become resentful (too pressured by life, too busy, too consumed by other people).
Art can teach us that it is ok, necessary and beneficial to receive. Receiving is a sense of understanding, a sense of being understood and of being therefore connected to something bigger than ourselves. “Receiving” as an act, feeds us.
When we make our own work, we practice our ability to express in a safe place, and when we experience art made by others, we practice our ability to receive.
We will soon be sharing how you can join in with The Things We Hold In Our Hands Participatory Project, and the project itself will run during the early months of 2024. If our values resonate with you, pls make sure you are registered so that we can keep you updated.
Wishing you a peaceful Christmas for 2023.
