Blog Action Day 2008: The Domino Effect

Yesterday, while Johnny and I were having a quick break from decorating, I came across this post from Octwelve, a design blog written by MaryLuc Melgar. Luc has written an article as a contribution for 'Blog Action Day 2008.' What's that then I hear you cry? Well...

"Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. " http://blogactionday.org/

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

This year's topic is poverty and bloggers everywhere are encouraged to write about this subject, giving it their own unique spin.

Today, I was reading through an email from Just Creative Design, a fantastic design blog written by Jacob Cass. Jacob has a weekly feature called 'Designer in the Spotlight' and this weeks focussed on a really talented designer called Doug Cloud. I took a look at Doug's blog and found another post, similar to the one on Octwelves called Poverty of the Heart. It's strange I thought that I hadn't heard about this before so I looked at JCD and sure enough Jacob's written about it too, here.

BAD:08 was on 15th October, so although we're a little late here is our contribution to this year's Blog Action Day.

Just over a year ago we both got involved in an International Volunteering project called 'Leeds Met Poland 2007.' With only a couple of weeks to prepare for the trip we were able to secure sponsorship from many companies including Dean Clough Art Gallery in Halifax, The New Technology Institute in Leeds and Yorkshire Forward. We travelled to the city of Lublin on the East side of Poland (one of the poorer areas) to work within two arts therapy centres: Matki Teresy z Kalcutty (Mother Teresa of Calcutta) and Fundacja Miedzy Nami (The Among Us Foundation). For two weeks, along with a team of volunteers and staff, we worked with adults who have physical and learning disabilities.

During our stay we took part in various indoor and outdoor workshops including ceramics and painting. We even had the opportunity to help put an exhibition together to celebrate the work of ‘Stash’ one of the artists from MTK.

This is our diary from the Leeds Met Community, Partnerships and Volunteering webpage. Here’s what I wrote about our experiences after we returned last March:

Nine months have passed since our first visit to the arts therapy centres. The experiences we had and the friendships we made during our time in Poland were extraordinary. The artists are so talented and the people running the centres, so visionary that when we were asked for our help in promoting their creative endeavours we both eagerly accepted.

Working with disabled artists was at first a daunting prospect but after seeing for ourselves the warmth and kindness that they have to offer the nervousness just melted away. Our first visit was incredible but returning to visit our friends for a second time was a real honour and a joy. We entered the centres believing we were there to teach them something when in fact the opposite was closer to the truth. They taught us more about ourselves, how fortunate we are and what we have to offer the world than any amount of teaching we could offer them.

Me, with my new friend Agnieszka who's sporting a Fundacja T-Shirt. We had these made to hand out as gifts.

When the opportunity arose to give them something back, to help them in their creative endeavours and to raise an awareness of their pioneering work we both leapt at the chance. We felt that this could be best accomplished by integrating this project with the final year of my BSc and in parallel through our branding and promotions company, Kooji Creative. The end of the degree is now within sight and it has been a hugely rewarding project but it doesn’t end here.

I wrote several reflections after this trip as I felt I needed to let everyone know how eye opening it had been. Here are some relevant snippets from the ones that were published:

It's amazing how one decision in your life can affect so many others. The experience was so fulfilling and really opened our eyes to new possibilities. It made us realise how fortunate we are and how important it is to make the most of what we have. This single opportunity began to branch out and when we were asked to help them by promoting the centres and their artwork we were very keen to do whatever we could. By integrating this with the final year group project on the BSc and also through our business, Kooji Creative, we were able to involve so many more people.

However impossible something may appear it is important to reach out and grasp opportunities, to make the most of every day and to see how in turn, you can make a difference to the world around you.

International Reflection – 26th March 2008

Community Reflection - 21st April 2008

It was an incredibly rewarding experience and our involvement is ongoing. Most importantly we learned to appreciate what we have and to remember that there are always others less fortunate than ourselves.

How Creative is Yorkshire?

This month's Creative Networks was a little different than usual and was in the form of a debate chaired by Yorkshire Forward, about the "state of the regions’ Creative, Cultural and Digital economies." We were both curious to hear what everyone had to say about this and apparently the debate would help inform a response to Central Government so we went along. The panel of experts (made up of people from Screen Yorkshire, Yorkshire Forward, Creative Industries Development Agency (CIDA), The Arts Council and the Leeds Initiative) each in turn made a presentation, then the discussion was opened up to the audience.

(image taken from http://www.creativenetworkswestyorkshire.co.uk/newsletters/cn_sep08_high.pdf)

The most notable points raised were that there needs to be more 'specialist' advice made available to creative businesses in yorkshire, that many excellent graduates are produced in this region but that there is a difficulty in retaining them, and that the cost of office space in Leeds City Centre is particularly high for those who have both creative and entrepreneurial tendancies.

The last point was made by an academic from Leeds College of Art and Design. He made several valuable comments such as difficulties posed to start-ups, their reluctance in using incubator space (and prefering to strike out on their own), but the lack of affordable office space in Leeds causing problems. Unfortunately one of the organisers interrupted and told him to let someone else speak!

Chris Bailey, the Dean of the Arts and Society Faculty at Leeds Met, made a good suggestion whilst the subject of apprenticeships was raised: course fees being 50% subsidised to reduce barriers to entry. This ties in with the pitch made by Rebekka Kill, Senior Lecturer from Leeds Met, earlier for the Creative Enterprise degree.

One member of the audience asked the panel if they could give three incentives why students should stay in Leeds after graduating. Emma Cheshire Head of Industry Development from Screen Yorkshire gave her suggestions: (1) The Art galleries in the city centre (e.g. Henry Moore Institute), Leeds Art Gallery) (2) Numerous creative companies to approach for employment (3) Many events held throughout the year. However, she also made a point about people being tempted to hop on the GNER and travel to London, earlier in the discussion so it could said theres a case for both?

The debate ran over time by 30 minutes and not surprisingly people began leaving (to be honest several people got up and walked out throughout the whole talk) but we hung on until the very end in the hopes that someone would shed some light on the topic, or provide some insightful information. We did gleem some useful tidbits in the form of these two weblinks from Emma's presentation:

Melt provides Research and Development funding to South Yorkshire based creative or digital companies or individual practitioners. Check it out: http://www.lovemelt.com/

"Creative Choices° is the first online service to provide the tools, knowledge and networks to support every individual and business to get in, and get on, in the creative industries and cultural sector...It’s for everyone who already is, and wants develop their career or business further."
http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/

Overall it was an interesting debate, but we had expected less presentations and more interaction with those who attended.

BarCamp Leeds 2008

We had such a fantastic time at the last BarCamp Leeds and this one was no exception. We've been eagerly awaiting news about this year's BarCamp so when the news came through from Imran Ali, one of the organisers, we got ourselves signed up straight away. BarCampers were treated to a free Orange goody-bag containing Orange USB pen drives, badges, balloons, pencils and groovy Yorkshire Forward USB mice.

This time round, rather than manning the reception throughout the day, we attended more of the talks, discussions and workshops. There was an unmistakeable design flavour seeping through at this year's event with one of the highlights being Dean Vipond's talk on Design Vs Usability. Dean is a designer from Orange and his talk focussed upon the relationship between and balance of these two fundamental areas. During the discussion he presented a diagram illustrating the project lifecycle of his design projects at work. This was a very interesting subject to discuss as it is a consideration every designer has to keep in mind: the constraints that usability can place upon the design process and at the same time the importance of the end user's requirements.

All the BarCampers were really well catered for with some tasty sushi nibbles at lunchtime followed by a hearty helping of pizza for dinner. The Space Invaders and lollies went down well, with Imran kindly letting us run away with the remainding lollies at the end of the day. The evening was rounded off with a few drinks in the Fenton across the road from Old Broadcasting House.

Inspiring Yorkshire's Young Minds

We were invited to pay Yorkshire Forward a visit to share some of our experiences and help inspire young future entrepreneurs from local primary schools. Young Enterprise Forum and their campaign, "Enterprising Yorkshire - Inspiring Young Minds", is an exciting initiative which aims to "make Yorkshire and Humber the leading region in the UK for Enterprise Education."