My ‘The Arts Society’ Story

I came across the Arts society quite unexpectedly!

I brought a ceramic pot from a car boot sale because I liked the glazing on it. After some research I found it to be Fat Lava So, I tried to find out more about it. I found Mark Hill had a wonderful book but sadly it was out of print and only to found on a well-known book selling website at an extortionate price! It was soon to be reprinted so I watched his website with eagerness to see when it would be published. In doing this I found out Mark was doing a taster talk for a new branch of The Arts Society.

It was all very out of my comfort zone, but I braved it thinking I would go and see what it was all about. When I got there, I was welcomed and asked if I would consider joining the committee. I thought ‘what could I possibly offer?’ I had never done anything like that before and thought ‘who would want to listen to me and my ideas?’.

Again, hesitantly I thought I would try and see. I love the Arts and work in Design but relentlessly working to pressurised commercial deadlines means I often feel like my creativity has been stamped out of me. Also, I had a very busy full-time job for which I travelled quite far, so I wasn’t sure it was something I had time to take on. The new committee was keen to attract those working as it was setting up an evening Society in order to make it more accessible to all.

I worked hard with the committee to get our new society up and running for about a year before it started its first programme in April 2018. We are now finalising the plans to our fourth programme year. Our society has come so far since then and me with it! I’m not a confident person at all but to be able to be part of a new vibrant flourishing branch of The Arts Society that wants to encourage Art for All, to move forward, grow and push the limits is so inspiring. Giving a lot can mean you get so much back and can be extremely rewarding.

Modern life can knock your confidence; push you back and make you keep safe in your box. Sometimes it seems too hard to try new things and the risk of failure is too great so why even try? But if you can be brave and let yourself be open to new opportunities you never know what might happen!