It's been a busy few weeks at Let's Shape Our Creativity CIC, so I thought I'd share a little update on what's been happening.
We've been out delivering sessions across Wigan, welcoming lots of new faces as well as plenty of familiar ones. We've hosted our first session at The Copper Vines, been busy hosting our weekly craft sessions at Fur Clemt, after school craft club, and have been busy creating new workshops, including our Italian trays, air-dry clay Highland cows and plenty more.
One of my favourite things about these sessions is seeing people come in convinced they're "not creative" and leave surprised by what they've made.
We also hosted our Women's Summer Soirée, which was such a lovely afternoon.It was simply about bringing women together to chat, get creative, enjoy some live music and take a bit of time for themselves. Those relaxed community events are becoming some of my favourites because they remind me that creativity is often just the excuse people need to connect. Huge thank you to Gin on the Lane andAndy Mack for supporting the event.
Away from the workshops, I've been working on some really exciting projects.
I'm currently pulling together our findings from the Women's Health Community Project, which I'll be presenting to the Sexual Health Board. It's been brilliant to show how creativity can help people open up and share experiences in a way that a questionnaire never could.
I'm also really pleased that we've been accepted to deliver a homelessness research project. We'll be speaking to people with lived experience to better understand the barriers they face. As someone who's experienced homelessness myself, this project is one I'm really passionate about, and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to be involved.
I've even managed to spend a bit of time on my own artwork again. It doesn't happen often, but I've been working on pieces for our exhibition in September, which has been nice. Running a CIC means my own art usually ends up at the bottom of the list, so it's good to be making time for it again.
At home, we've been getting everything ready for Maisie & Aurora's Picnic, Paint & Play. The girls have thrown themselves into fundraising and it's been lovely seeing local businesses and the community getting behind them. It's shaping up to be a really lovely day, and we're all looking forward to it.
If I'm honest, it's also been a tough year.
Funding has been much harder than I'd hoped. We've had some brilliant opportunities, but we've also had plenty of rejections. Those are the bits people don't often see. You put hours into applications knowing there's every chance they won't go anywhere.
There have definitely been moments where I've wondered if it's worth carrying on.
Then something comes along like the homelessness project, or someone tells me how much a session has helped them, and it reminds me why I started Let's Shape Our Creativity in the first place.
I'm also really honoured to have been invited to be part of the Mannequins Project, and I'm looking forward to sharing more about that over the next few months.
As always, thank you to everyone who's booked onto a session, shared a post, recommended us or simply supported us along the way. It genuinely makes a difference.
If you'd like to support Maisie & Aurora's Picnic, Paint & Play, we'd really appreciate it. Every donation helps us make the day as accessible and enjoyable as possible for local families.
💛 https://www.gofundme.com/f/picnic-paint-play-at-ashfield-park