The past couple of months I've been taking part in the Sheffield Covid-19 Community Memorial Project. The programme has been co-ordinated by Compassionate Sheffield to bring people together to reflect and respond to their pandemic experiences as a community.
I worked in partnership with Sheffield Museums, using artworks from the Graves Gallery as a way for people to connect with their pandemic memories and with each other. I love the idea of the city art gallery providing connection between people in our community - I look at an artwork one day and you look at it the next - we've shared something whether we know it or not.
I had a fun and challenging time putting up the display from the project in the display cases on the landing in the Sheffield Central Library. It brought a whole new meaning to spending time in the gallery (see picture) and the process of suspending printed facemasks brought me into close relationship with my understanding of the power of gravity.
If you're in town and can face two flights of stairs or a short ride in a small lift, then please do visit and have a read of participant contributions. If you'd like to add your reflections into the mix, please get in touch. All contributions will be included in an online exhibition and saved in the city archive.
Looking ahead, I'll be partnering with Compassionate Sheffield again, to provide two philosophical enquiry events for Dying Matters week in May.
I visited the Millennium Gallery for the Museum Late: Blue Science from Sea to Sky event. There were loads of different activities exploring ideas about water, earth, nature and our relationship with the planet. See picture, I made a wildflower bomb from clay, soil and wildflower seeds.
I recommend joining a Museum Late event if you can, and we've got very early stage plans for a Philosophy Late, so watch this space.
Was it ironic that the Blue Science from Sea to Sky event was postponed by snow?
Briefly, during March, there was a lot of snow in my life. I got caught out by an unexpected long walk home when the buses were cancelled and we had to move the date of Sharing the View: philosophy in the gallery, but it was very beautiful.
I'm hoping that by mid April, this month's Sharing the View will be safe from the white stuff. The Graves Gallery has got new exhibitions up - it's very exciting and it's free. Come and take a look.
I've been doing lots of writing this month - for projects and my own interest, as well as enjoying the fruits of facilitation from the memorial project (see picture). Writing can be hard! At points I have had a full-on creative struggle with myself this month, it's like that sometimes.
These days, I'm regularly co-facilitating Writing Workouts at the Writers Workshop with Lorna Partington. We've got taster sessions coming up - online and in person - which might be of interest to you if you'd like to spend some time writing in community, with fiction prompts and provocations. Workouts are open to new or more experienced writers and they are fun as well as stretching your creative muscles.
It's a great joy to connect with others to think and talk and write together.