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An interview with Nicky Goulder, Founding Chief Executive of Create

For Spectacle Makers, Cubitts worked with nine renowned creatives from a broad spectrum of disciplines, to design one-off spectacles bridging art and functional object. Each frame will be auctioned on behalf of Create, the UK's leading creative arts charity promoting community, skill building and wellbeing. We spoke to Create’s Founding CEO, Nicky Goulder, to find out more about the charity’s work.

Interview by

Henry Whaley

#Interviews

C Tell me about the objectives of Create.

N Create Is the UK's leading charity using the creative arts to empower lives, reduce isolation, and enhance wellbeing. We passionately believe that everybody should have the chance to be creative.

We design and deliver creative arts projects across the UK with groups of disadvantaged and vulnerable children and adults. Arguably, they have the most to gain from these opportunities but the least ability to access them, due to cost and location.

C What is the link between having a creative output and your mental wellbeing?

N There's this misunderstanding that some people are creative, and then there's the rest of us. But everybody is creative, and our vision at Create is that everybody has access to the educational, social and life-enriching benefits of the creative arts. 

There are thousands of studies that demonstrate the benefits of creativity. One shows that taking part in just one creative activity a week can reduce depression by 73%. We did our own study last year, and 93% of those who responded said that creativity was important to their wellbeing, but—shockingly—27% of people said they can't afford to be creative.

That's where Create comes in: our programmes are designed for the most disadvantaged, and vulnerable children and adults across the UK, and they're free for our participants.

C Who is most in need of access to a creative output?

N At Create our vision is that everyone should have access to creativity, because it's fundamental to who we are, to being connected to other people, to building skills, to wellbeing. Our focus is on working with the most marginalised children and adults across the UK. These include older people, people in prison -helping to connect them with their children, children in care, disabled children and adults, young and adult carers and many other groups of isolated and vulnerable people.

We fundamentally believe everybody should have that access. But our focus is on those who often, through economic circumstances or other circumstances, aren't able to access the creative arts. So the simple answer is everyone should have access, but at Create our focus is on the people who have the least access.

C Can you tell me about some of the initiatives you’ve run recently?

N We’re just coming to the end of the summer holidays, and we've been doing lots of projects with young carers, including a circus making project for three days. We've been working in adolescent psychiatric hospital units, giving them a chance to express themselves through making ceramics and making music. We’ve just finished a music project in the north west with a group of children looked after (in the care system).

C And how do those different groups require a different approach?

N Every project is individually designed. We always partner with another organisation. It might be a young carers’ charity, it might be a prison, it might be a psychiatric hospital, it might be a day centre for older people. And we consult with the participants to find out which artform(s) and theme(s) they're interested in exploring.

All of our programmes are run by professional, practising artists, whether that’s a professional musician, a dancer, a filmmaker, or a sculptor. And each project is individually designed to meet the objectives of the partner organisation and the needs of the participants who we're working with. So that's the starting point.

C And how have you observed the impact of the workshops that you've run on those communities? 

N One of the wonders of Create is that every single project we run has a unique impact on the group of people involved.

Across the board they're building skills, confidence and new relationships. I visited a day centre for older people and one of the participants told me that when she leaves the centre on a Thursday, she doesn't see anybody until she comes back in on the Monday. Our project brings her together with other people and gives her the chance to be creative.

We work a lot with young carers, children aged five up to eighteen who care for a loved one. There's a young carer called Abi — we've worked with her since she was seven years old — and she told me that she had to get up at four in the morning to do her homework because when she gets home from school she's caring for her older brother who has autism, for her little sister, and for her mum. 

When we bring these carers together for a three day project, it gives them a chance to meet other children who are carers, who understand the kind of home lives they have. They have a chance to have fun, to do something they haven't done before, to build new skills, to build new relationships. I always love it at the end of projects when you see young people swapping contact details so they can keep in touch.

C Can you tell us about the range of different creative practices that Create offers? 

N Create’s workshops are all delivered by professional practising artists. We have around twenty-two different art forms. From the performing arts: dance, drama, music, circus;  

creative writing; and lots of different visual arts: film making, animation, sculpture, printmaking, jewellery costume design. This really wide spectrum means that for each project we're able to find out what the participants are interested in exploring.

It means we can really carefully pick the art form that's going to meet the specific objectives and the interests of the participants.

C What will the proceeds from the charity auction be going towards? 

N Well, this charity auction is just an incredible thing for Create. There are so many projects that we deliver and so many projects that we're fundraising for.

I'd like to use some of the funds raised towards our work with young carers and some towards the work that we're doing with older adults. Both will reduce their isolation and enhance wellbeing. 

Thank you to Cubitts for picking Create as the charity for this incredible creative opportunity.