tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80395638005898001242011-08-14T16:45:24.643+01:00Creativity, Education, Art, PeopleJonny Drurynoreply@blogger.comBlogger421100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-57537674607116262012010-11-17T11:48:00.002Z2010-11-17T11:50:02.221Z

Please go to www.enablecreation.com for the latest news about ourCreativity & Empowerment work in Sheffield.Thanks.

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-1638327939029334192010-11-08T16:10:00.000Z2010-11-08T16:11:55.391Z

Jonathan has been invited by Dr. Colin Beard to co-run a community focussed initiative at Sheffield Business School which aims to highlight and develop more sustainable ways of thinking. The project, initially aimed at staff of community organisations, will run from January in conjunction with Sheffield Hallam University will be funded by Humber Learning Consortium. One of our main roles

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-82410173452783142142010-10-21T11:50:00.006+01:002010-10-21T12:21:54.488+01:00

A huge welcome on behalf of myself, Katie and Mick to my good friend Dr.Colin Beard who has agreed to become third director of Enable Creation! Our formidable team is now ready and the main documents are finally in the post to incorporate the company! Colin (pictured), is an experiential learning expert and a Teaching Fellow at Sheffield Business School. He's acclamied with writing the world's

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-14349196729590449732010-10-20T10:40:00.010+01:002010-10-20T11:23:21.939+01:00

Engaging reality co-creatively. That to me is the essence of the aims of a Dialogue technique devised by quantum physicist David Bohm and it's why I've decided to start a group based on it, I’m also implementing it into creative / educational practice.This unique method of group communicating has yielded stunning results internationally across many societies and communities, with far-reaching

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-70207260730251132312010-10-07T12:02:00.006+01:002010-10-07T12:19:37.876+01:00

I had one of those moments today where I saw exactly what it is I want to create and be part of: it is a team of professional people delivering a dynamic range of skills in workshops and training across our communities.Imagine a row of bottles of fantastic herbal tinctures on the shelf of a renowned old clinic. 'Client' (individual representative of a community in need) walks in and is given a

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-86191126233216193032010-09-13T11:27:00.001+01:002010-09-13T11:29:49.420+01:00

Watch this.

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-69790347648318622142010-08-13T10:04:00.008+01:002010-08-16T14:48:58.150+01:00

Some serious work ahead to set up Enable, mostly in the creation of the working business plan with support from Sheffield Co-Operative Development Group, Business Link and SCEDU. Suzy Ball recently outlined again, the difficulty social entrepreneurs face with the classic conflict of interests in setting up a social enterprise, (see post below). So, while I quiver at the thought of launching

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-74453244956582732592010-08-05T09:58:00.013+01:002010-08-13T09:56:43.108+01:00

What a great opening night with seconds to spare before 7pm, after two days of hard preparation! Nearly 40 people came into the gallery and the exhibition looks brilliant as you can see from the photos on the website. During nearly eighty hours of intensive, experiential learning, the artists explored the notion of Creating Identities through a wide variety of artistic practice and

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-7078215950097249312010-07-28T12:07:00.005+01:002010-07-28T12:35:47.153+01:00

The exhibition of work from Creating Identities opens this Friday evening at 7pm. Click on the poster for details. I'm still trying to get the business plan started and just had a great meeting with Suzy Ball from Business Link, who really mercilessly thrashed out the aims and objectives. Basically, I have a classic case of conflict of interest as a social entrepreneur. On one hand my 'social

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-32568941021950405742010-06-23T17:44:00.011+01:002010-07-12T18:23:50.787+01:00

While developing the content for the Creating Identities course I am having some great experiences, especially with the fantastic people that are developing it with me. Particularly I want to mention artist-educators Helen Blejerman, Dr.Colin Beard and Gemma Luz and language support from Phil Mulliner, who are all contributing in their own way to this fantastic journey. Helen and I thrashed out

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-80857994693969936562010-06-10T13:08:00.006+01:002010-06-10T14:00:56.707+01:00

Half-jokingly, I recently referred to myself as having a multiple heritage split personality. Having just got back from an awesome soul-searching two week trip across Turkey, looking at some of the most incredibly beautiful Islamic art in the world, I'm not sure I'm any closer myself to discovering my true identity. But in one small village near Istanbul, mostly populated by Daghestani Sufis, I

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-28281115202722525042010-06-08T09:02:00.003+01:002010-06-08T09:14:26.836+01:00

Quick update. Just got back from 12 days travelling in Turkey visiting some of the most amazing art and architecture in the world, from Northern Cyprus to Konya to Istanbul. This trip was a fantastic way to redress the balance of the three years spent on the Fine Art degree, during which time I sadly had no room for the awesome wonders of spiritually based art and particularly my favourite,

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-18978629231839231772010-04-01T17:01:00.011+01:002010-04-05T11:03:14.788+01:00

A few key meetings with industry specialists recently has really helped push things along. Today with Yorkshire Art Space again, with education manager Rachael Dodd in a great 1:2:1 advisory session. I'm still on the learning curve and again, humbled by the personal realisation that mainstream education is not a force to be reckoned with which might mean scaling down implementation of schools

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-30126852608163652802010-03-19T15:46:00.007Z2010-03-20T15:53:56.249Z

Take a look at the new website and let me know what you think. After a fantastic closing session on web presence on the Creativity Business course I attended in Chesterfield by David James-Ross I was very inspired to get the site properly up and running. Digging up and applying my old self-taught website building skills took a little longer than usual but I think I have it sussed. David clearly

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-2637525233163242132010-03-05T18:37:00.003Z2010-03-19T15:46:50.926Z

Love the new logo! I've always been into lettering and playing round in Photoshop, also did Signwork and Environmental Graphics at college which ended up running a signmaking business for a while. Anyway... the new name rings well with me and the domain name is registered (not a lot there yet)..ordered the first batch of business cards.. world here we come! I had a great meeting with a couple of

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-60855257784483366392010-03-03T12:41:00.015Z2010-03-03T15:00:34.926Z

Whilst I grapple with the high intellectualism of the theme(s) for this years Art Sheffield I am pleased that there is, among the myriad of thought processes going on among the organisers and artists, one or two small glints of light for me. Maybe the last hour of wading through apparently unrelated audio talks and texts by various thinkers responsible for presenting Sheffield with an exhibition

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-81943234940709270152010-02-26T14:16:00.009Z2010-05-25T20:11:03.162+01:00

We've just been awarded some major funding from Humber Learning Consortium to deliver our Creating Identities project in July. We were all surprised when the news came through this morning as the application was written in less then three weeks, wedged up to the Feb 4th deadline! Credit and thanks must go to Bloc Projects (whom the project will be delivered through), especially Katie who gave

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-20797614435044484452010-01-14T10:46:00.007Z2010-01-14T15:16:52.797Z

A recent meeting with 6 great people sat huddled round the bar fire in my studio felt good. Two of them were South Yorks Police sergeants working with the govt. initiative 'Prevent' (one of which is Deb Leonard who was in the news recently for dressing in a burkha for a day to gain understanding of life as a Muslim woman). Prevent is to support vulnerable individuals in the community and working

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-20738346861198916402010-01-06T14:07:00.007Z2010-01-13T13:30:57.445Z

Just thought I'd post this for general information of what's expected from a Sheffield based fine art undergraduate in the final term. My interim assessment is on Friday then it's the last leg to the degree show at the end of May.Contemporary Art Advanced Practice, Sheffield Hallam UniversityAssessment Guidelines-January 2010GUIDELINES / MARKINGA. Creatively select, test, use and exploit a

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-8094807908199257742009-12-22T16:34:00.002Z2009-12-22T16:38:16.530Z

Imagine you have no head.I’m serious. Imagine you have no head. Right this instant.You can feel your arms, legs, hands, feet, stomach, chest and back. But your bodily sensations stop at the neck. There’s nothing there.At this moment, you can feel, touch, see and hear – but you can’t think.(Don’t worry about how you can see or hear without eyes and ears – worrying requires a head, and right now

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-13840807929297639282009-12-21T17:15:00.007Z2010-05-25T20:12:29.688+01:00

Completed Bloc Education Project, attended final two day-long workshops.Attended a funding conference and got advice from HLC about an adult learning initiative I want to run.Meeting with the Enterprise Centre at University on legalities and technicalities of running Enable.Two hour meeting with Ramon Mohamed who wants to build schools in Afghanistan.Attended Bloc Projects general meeting and set

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-59487839520648548562009-12-10T13:19:00.005Z2009-12-10T13:53:17.717Z

A close friend of mine recently said to me "There's just so much I want to learn!". I just found this: "Other characteristics of this theory include: a belief that human beings have a natural eagerness to learn" - from Carl Rogers' Facilitation Theory on Theories of Learning Alongside 'creative'and 'active' learning, I've recently been researching 'experiential learning' and it's very

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-3810714268700252882009-12-07T16:37:00.007Z2009-12-07T17:21:55.741Z

Sitting here in my humble studio, sardine sandwiches and black earl grey for lunch, I'm made aware of the importance of our deep, hidden processes.... With a bit of video editing work for someone on the go and one of our workshops taking place in the gallery next door, the other part of my working life, the Fine Art degree, has provided me with some wisdom in the form of a short presentation

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-22472307490443159812009-12-04T12:58:00.007Z2009-12-04T13:26:02.426Z

Attended a small conference at All Saints School, Sheffield, led by Ted Kennedy who's been delivering a project called Artist Carousel in Leeds and will probably be working on a similar one with me here in Sheffield. I really like the name as it visually describes the movement of the contemporary artists through a number of schools, delivering their own created workshops after shadowing an art

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-17905516548628926582009-11-24T10:16:00.005Z2009-11-24T10:29:29.651Z

The experimental space; a practice-based workshop for the visual arts and academic sectors to galvanize the Learning Ecology in Yorkshire and the Humber. Turning Points is Arts Council England's 10 year strategy for strengthening the visual arts in England. Report and draft strategy to be released in Spring 2010. Keynote Speaker, Venu Dhupa, Creative Consultant, Venu will be sharing her views

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-21683632484212021762009-11-23T16:59:00.006Z2009-11-24T09:38:23.792Z

"Many people demand perfection of themselves and others. But we exist in an imperfect reality in which, ironically, the only perfection that can be found is in it's imperfection." - Robert FritzJust finished one of the best books I've ever read, Robert Fritz's 'The Path of Least Resistance'. In the last few pages the creative process is summed up in four steps:1. See the reality of what you have

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-11766530999850964002009-11-12T13:31:00.015Z2009-11-19T11:21:41.838Z

"Postmodernism is allergic to the idea of certainty, and makes a great deal of theoretical fuss over this rather modest everyday notion. As such, it is in some ways the flip side of fundamentalism . . . Some postmodern thought suspects that all certainty is authoritarian. It is nervous of people who sound passionately committed to what they say. In this, it represents among other things an

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-50739024010336843262009-11-04T09:30:00.011Z2009-11-04T10:52:58.201Z

"The word tradition has its root in the sacred or the Divine and traditional art is an extension of that presence into a unified world where the sacred and the profane, science, fine arts and crafts all merge. Beauty of form, pattern and colour as manifested in the various branches of the great traditional arts are not simply aesthetically pleasing or demonstrations of good design but are

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-23102016015343616542009-11-03T10:22:00.012Z2009-11-03T15:39:44.560Z

Here are some pictures from the first pilot education project at Bloc which I am managing.Sarah Jane-Palmer was the lead artist and they took place on Oct 18th & 19th. Sarah is a specialist of the Regio Emilia approach to creative learning. Pictured is co-director of the project, Lesley Guy with some of the children in the gallery, talking about the current exhibition by Michal Tkachecnko. You

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-61077895755489236142009-09-22T09:39:00.011+01:002009-09-22T16:04:28.580+01:00

"It is best to allow processes to form organically within the vision of the result. It is unwise to limit the way a result can happen by any given process. At the time you conceive the result you want, the actual way you will bring it about is always unknown to you, even if you have a hunch about it." -Robert Fritz in The Path of Least ResistanceEnable is still in the embryonic stages and the

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-65215887705776178492009-09-18T13:05:00.008+01:002009-09-18T15:49:37.925+01:00

In Matt Segal’s great article ‘Evolution and the Within of Things’ he makes at least one small but important error.“It was not until the 20th century that our species began to gain the level of self-reflection necessary to truly begin a study of the psyche.” Hmm. This demonstrates the limitations of modern empiricism and positivism which I want to look at a bit here, as well as the outer reaches

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-90053965603783267972009-09-08T17:28:00.007+01:002009-09-11T14:21:58.620+01:00

"What’s a system? I think my idea is this: not so much structure that it’s inhibiting or that there’s no wiggle room, but not so loose that it could be anything. It’s like a corral around your idea, a corral that you can move—but not too much. And it’s that limited movement that promotes creativity. Did I just say something profound?" - John Baldessari on Art 21I don't know why I put this quote

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-30671830405017368122009-09-02T12:02:00.023+01:002009-09-02T22:00:41.371+01:00

"...it is proposed that a form of free dialogue may well be one of the most effective ways of investigating the crisis which faces society, and indeed the whole of human nature and consciousness today. Moreover, it may turn out that such a form of free exchange of ideas and information is of fundamental relevance for transforming culture and freeing it of destructive misinformation, so that

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-32536822515732622382009-09-01T16:00:00.015+01:002009-09-01T17:59:29.949+01:00

I'm happy to have made a huge leap forward in getting my increasingly complicated work plans down on paper in the shape of a mind map; the release of which seems to relate, at least superficially, to the slightly liberating (if a little disturbing) effect of last night when I had my second experience at 'shamanic journeying'. I'm very interested in the speed that the mind seems to be able to

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-16743925203860020882009-08-28T12:12:00.012+01:002009-08-28T14:20:28.615+01:00

Elaine Aron's paperback The Highly Sensitive Person - How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You (Element Books) has been a revelation. 'One in five people is born with a heightened sensitivity; they are often gifted with great intelligence, intuition and imagination, but there are also drawbacks. Frequently they come across as shy, aloof or moody and suffer from low self-esteem because they

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-7092378220002795762009-08-27T16:31:00.013+01:002009-08-27T17:30:47.970+01:00

OK that's my application to the School of Social Entrepreneurs in the post. As I was finalising it my 10 yr old son was waiting patiently (if a little bored) behind me. It was on my mind that a huge part of my plan is about young people and here I am, in an art studio and my own son is being ignored by me! I'd been writing about workshops on the mysterious relationships between different artistic

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-26007945214514890632009-08-24T22:15:00.003+01:002009-08-27T13:14:31.806+01:00

Creative Learning is, or should be, integral with our education and creative learning is something that we never stop doing. To understand the importance of this eternal aspect to human nature, we must go back to our education, to understand what happens to the Western student.“If you want to be competent at what you do, there's a curriculum you need to learn, and the best way to do that is for

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-87696944544558275422009-08-12T15:56:00.002+01:002009-08-26T09:48:03.011+01:00

Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies, far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity, are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. It's a message

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-69706607557935863042009-08-11T16:51:00.001+01:002009-08-26T09:48:42.764+01:00

(Email extract sent to CAPE - Creative Partnerships in Sheffield. I am now on their register.)My background has been in the creative industry for some years including running creativity workshops in music and sound, storytelling and painting. I am currently working towards my BA Contemporary Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam. I am also an improvising musician and work with a number of improvisers in

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-49605740838681167882009-07-28T14:52:00.002+01:002009-08-27T16:21:55.700+01:00

The buzzword from SHU is 'Employability Skills'. Sadly, as I've suspected for two years the zealous over-bureaucracy of the university, while trying to provide what are simply 'life skills', has resulted in more alienation of not only students but lecturers as well. A Principal Lecturer and established fine artist I spoke to (off the record), is 'not happy' with the professional skills that SHU

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-34724497279623302712009-07-28T11:52:00.001+01:002009-08-26T09:51:24.186+01:00

To deal with a tricky problem of incorporating musical expression with contemporary art, I think Freenoise could be developed into the workshops programme by having emphasis on visiting artists; leading the workshop with support from me regarding structure and content. A programme of six / ten sessions in improvising with a different artist leading each one. I thought that Freenoise nights could

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039563800589800124.post-53256942435660206652009-07-23T14:52:00.001+01:002009-08-26T09:56:19.445+01:00

Seems we are both already doing the work and feel strongly we could really formalise into a business. Not a rival to existing ones but a new agency on the ground working at grass roots level, not detracting from the professionalism - the aim of business is to earn a living. ENABLE is a great name, for now, so we can see how it fits. Promotion for artists is crucial; time and time again we hear (

Jonny Drurynoreply@blogger.com0