CreativeMorningsSheffield

After nearly two years at the helm of CreativeMornings/Sheffield, Leanne Mallinshaw has decided to step down as host. So, we're on the look out for someone new to take over and shine a light on the wonderful creative talent and people in Sheffield.

Could this be you?

If you are:

- passionate about your local creative community in Sheffield - psyched to lead a small volunteer team to put your own spin on CreativeMornings - excited to participate in the global conversation among our 180 chapters and growing - one to use the words humble, driven, resourceful, generous and connected to describe yourself

We’d love to hear from you! If you're interested or have any questions please email [email protected].

There will be follow up interviews for the top candidates.

February’s theme is #CMdivergent 

January is Promise

November with Craig Oldham AKA Office of Craig

Craig Oldham AKA Office of Craig is a is a designer, educator, writer, publisher, campaigner, website-up-putter, and Yorkshireman.

November is Radical

October with Dame Sarah Storey AKA Active Travel Commissioner

“How can we make space for new ideas and creative energy while staying in place?”

That was the question put to Sheffield’s creatives ahead of #CMTransit with Dame Sarah Storey AKA Active Travel Commissioner. Dame Sarah has spent the last 18 months working with Mayor of the Sheffield City Region Dan Jarvis to make South Yorkshire a place where people can cycle and walk more, to benefit the health of both people and the planet.

Britain’s most successful female Paralympian, with 38 world titles, 14 Paralympic Gold medals and 76 world records to her name, Sarah started her career in the pool in her early teens, before competing in her first Paralympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 and picking up her first medals aged just 14. After switching to cycling she’s had more than two decades of success on the roads and in the velodrome.

Sarah was due to compete at Tokyo 2020 before the Games were cancelled amidst the pandemic. Whilst training continues for the postponed Games in 2021, she’s been keeping herself busy training in her pain cave (the garage), competing in elite para-cycling races (when coronavirus restrictions allowed it!) and developing young female riders in her very own cycling team, Storey Racing.

Along with the Games, coronavirus shut down the shops, offices, schools and gyms. We were told to stay home, but one thing we were still allowed to do was leave the house for exercise.

People across the country began exploring their local area more than they ever had done before. Sometimes on foot, discovering ginnels (or snickets, jitties or alleys, depending on where you call home) they’d never been down that led to green spaces they hadn’t realised were just a few minutes walk from the front door. Or on their bike, enjoying the freedom and safety of roads abandoned by commuters and vehicles on the school run.

This, says Sarah, turned most neighbourhoods into a low-traffic neighbourhood. And people experienced how pleasant the place they live was without car congestion, exhaust fumes and dangerous parking. It was easier for people in wheelchairs to get around, safer for children to play out on their street and the air became cleaner.

Something Sarah wants to see more of in the future, and something she hopes more people will fight for in their own neighbourhood, now they’ve experience the benefits during lockdown. In the midst of the UK’s lockdown, Sarah and Mayor Jarvis published their 20-year plan for walking and cycling in South Yorkshire. Their ambitions include safe, segregated cycle routes that families would feel safe traveling on and that are wide enough for adapted bikes and trikes, residential streets which prioritise people over cars, and neighbourhoods where everything you need is no more than 20 mins walk or cycle away, taking away the need for a car for those short, everyday journeys.

For Sarah it’s about the next generation and she is determined to overcome the media criticism that all too often hinders active travel schemes, to make our neighbourhoods healthier and more pleasant places to be.

Children born today are the first generation who have a life expectancy lower than their parents. A reliance on the car for short journeys like the school run mean children are more inactive than they’ve ever been, the sheer amount of cars on the roads cause pollution that damages young lungs, and from the confines of a car seat, children miss out of engaging with nature and the wellbeing benefits that brings.

Coronavirus has touched every part of our lives in 2020. It’s changed how we socialise, educate and work in the short-term and Sarah hopes it’ll change how we travel in the long term, helping us become happier, healthier people, living in more pleasant, less polluted places.

In September we were joined by Zoyander Street, an artist and researcher. They have been working in indie video games for more than a decade but their practice also involves other forms of media art and (mis)uses of technology.

Studying history and foreign languages, they became frustrated with the idea of linear text and putting one idea after another. During an internship in Japan, Zoyander found interest in objects and the story behind them. Often there was much more interest to the individual object, beyond the general history that surrounded the time it was from. From this, they realised the limitations of the linear. They wanted to allow messy things to stay messy and began to research interactive and tactile forms of expression to surface ambiguity.

“There are millions of ways to be a person.”

Zoyander used interviews with trans people to create media which showed the need for society to be flexible. Through inviting trans people across the world to share their experiences, from those struggling to access the proper healthcare they need to British trans people who are still unable to self-define their gender Zoyander used art to show the spectrums that exist in society, and that goes way beyond gender.

During their masters at the V&A, Zoyander started to develop custom hardware for festivals, galleries, and museums. And with that came an interest in creating lo-fi glitchy games, led by Zoyander’s ethnographic and historical research.

“Anybody can make a video game.” In 2017, Zoyander made Skeleton in a Beret, a film about indie games and the people who make them. The documentary moved away from the mainstream to tell different stories and experiences of gaming.

In Skeleton in a Beret, two trans people talk about how they have actively used videogames as part of how they explore not just their gender, but their skills, self-confidence, and self-expression.

Jon Rhodes AKA legup.social has spent the last three years helping hundreds of small businesses, charities and social enterprises with digital, for free.

Established in 2019, legup.social brings together digital experts to support those who need help with the digital side of their business. By pairing the challenges of their mentees with skills of mentors Jon has helped people from all walks of life learn the skills they need to progress their business.

After noticing the digital industry was becoming less inclusive and more expensive, Jon wanted to remove barriers for people and help them learn new skills. He begin to sign up digital mentors and now more than 50 people are signed up to help those who need it.

And mentees aren’t the only ones learning. In the last three years Jon has been adapting and developing events each time to make sure they’re as accessible and inclusive to all. Evening out the gender split and making sure venues didn’t exclude people who didn’t drink – the pub was quickly swapped for co-working spaces and libraries – are just a few of the small changes made along the way to make sure legup can give everyone the legup they need.

Established in Sheffield with a second event in Manchester, legup’s most recent challenge has been navigating through the coronavirus pandemic. In-person events were out and the atmosphere and relationships that build in those face-to-face sessions is hard to replicate, but Jon is determined to re-imagine legup to suit the strange times we find ourselves living in.

July is Underdog 

“An underdog questions and expands what’s considered possible.”

“Think like a belonger, not an imposter”.

Lauren Kelly is a psychologist and designer. In 2014 she started BehaviourStudio, a behavioural design studio, working with and training teams at Microsoft, Coop Digital, The British Government, The Estonian Government, Hyper Island and more. Lauren is trained to recognise countless syndromes and conditions. But there’s a difference between studying something and living it. 70% of us experience imposter syndrome. Maya Angelou and Einstein to name two. And Lauren is part of that 70%. She’s one of millions of people who doubt their accomplishments and have a persistent, often internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. People have Zoomed in to Lauren’s talk from across the world. People who live thousands of miles apart have come together, many admitting to experiencing imposter syndrome themselves. Lauren works in behavioural design and uses behavioural science and design for positive behaviour change. By looking at imposter syndrome as a behavioural challenge, she can apply behavioural design tools. “Your imposter syndrome means you overestimate people’s ability and underestimate your own. They are no better. You are at the table. You deserve to be there.” Negative thoughts are the driving force behind imposter syndrome. If left unseen to, they can turn from a cloud of doubt into a dark, damaging shadow. “Instead of an imposter. You need to think like a belonger.” To think like a belonger. You need a belong statement. Something everyone can write and keep to hand for next time imposter syndrome creeps in.

A) ‘I’m great at…’ List three things you are great at.

B) ‘I feel imposter syndrome when…’ Pinpoint when you feel imposter syndrome,  not your triggers.

C) ‘It makes me feel...’ Note how your triggers make you feel. To be aware is the first step towards change.

Then bring the three together to create you belong statement:

The next time (B)…. And I feel (C)... I will say to myself, I belong because (A).

June is INSECURE

May is NATURE

“What can nature teach us about living with strength, vulnerability, and grace during these challenging times?”