September 2022

Our first year! & what to expect next...

Our first year in Bristol has absolutely sped by, and we are so grateful to be where we are now thanks to all the support from our wonderful students and their families!

When I arrived in Bristol this time last year, I had never been to the city before and knew very little about the area having moved from York in North Yorkshire. Because of this, I didn't want to commit to one area and so spend the first several months after my move with a very sore back lugging my heavy boxes all over the city! On a Monday I was in Design West in the central harbourside, mid week I was in the In Bristol Studio to the east, and by Friday I was all the way up north in Southmead!

After much deliberation, I decided that I needed to find a space we could settle into and make our own. Somewhere central made sense to me, as it meant that we were more easily accessible to most people and we found a lovely little space at Pithay Studios in BS1 with bike storage and cheap car parking for our students along with lots of nearby buses.

 Although we have now outgrown our little studio, we remain in Pithay Studios and have simply moved upstairs into a larger space! It's perfect for our creative enterprise and gives us all the room we need to support our students and continue to learn, grow and develop.

I started OCC as a way to help make creative classes accessible by recognising the barriers of entry and progression that still make art and architecture in the UK feel noninclusive. We want to support everyone - whether you're a hobbyist or are looking to develop skills to enter the industry, we want to support your journey. 

However, I am particularity passionate about opening up the study of architecture, and other creative subjects, to our young adults to allow them insight into a 'hidden' professions. After graduating with my degree in architecture, I worked for a while and became overtly aware of the exclusive feel architecture still supports and the lack of diversity still present in the industry.

My hope is that our classes can bring the world of design closer to our students so that it becomes as ordinary as a Maths or English class - we are able to offer Bristol's only weekly architecture classes! Those who design the fabric of our world dictate the way we interact and behave within it.

Therefore, I believe that by helping to open up the conversation to more people, we can help to build a more inclusive environment for everyone.

Again, thank you so much to everyone who has come to our classes or has been a brilliant 'taxi service' - we couldn't do what we do without you.

Thank you, too, to all the wonderful spaces in Bristol who have believed in our mission and supported us through offering free or discounted spaces/materials so we can continue to try and make our classes as affordable as possible. Those wondeful companies include: The Royal Photographic Society, Design West, Hidden Galleries and HOURS.

To finish off, I would like to end this post with some bullet points of the fantastic things we have all achieved together this year, as well as some of our plans for the coming month.

See you on Monday to start off the next brilliant year of OCC!

October 2022

Decolonise Architecture

We had a wonderful time this month visiting the first in person Decolonise Architecture festival at Bath University. It was a great talking point to introduce our students to the discussion around how architecture (and architects) should be responding to social issues. We even had one student who joined Kate in attending the event in Bath.

Architecture, the arts, and other spatial practices have never been neutral in social struggles as they have the capacity to reproduce values and to either create divergence and change, or to affirm existing values.

Architecture is still defined by a masculine paradigm and the dissemination of the traditional image of the architect as white aggressive and egocentric middle-class and the industry must work hard to address the balance.

Until there is more diversity across the sector, the profession will continue to contribute to upholding the privilege that exists in our built environment.

This is an issue as architects draw from their own lived experiences to decide what is important in a building/ the built environment.

Cities and our build environment create opportunity; for work, education and social and cultural connectedness and community. However, not all people experience a city in the same way. Further research is needed on the intersectional nature of our built environment that affects a person’s ‘right to the city’. Studies have shown that race, class, age, LGBTQ+ sexual orientation and physical ability all have effects on an unequal experience of safety in the city.

Those who design the fabric of our world dictate the way we interact and behave within it. Therefore, we believe in DA's ideology that by helping to open up the conversation to more people, we can help to build a more inclusive environment for everyone.

November 2022

Our Creative Workshops!

We are so pleased to run a monthly Body Positive Life Drawing Class for Teens, which we created especially for younger creatives to provide them with a healthy & alternative view to the many edited images of bodies seen every day in the media. Our sessions can help teens appreciate their own wonderful uniqueness while involving them in a fun and expressive side of art not normally available to younger creatives!

We had a wonderful first workshop back in July, which we created as a one off, to see how many  local young people would want to be involved in life drawing. It was a brilliant success, and we are now introducing a new series of workshops which will take place on the last Sunday of the month from 2023.

We take great care in making sure our safeguarding is bullet proof and that we are creating a safe and inspiring environment for our young artists. All models are DBS checked and consent forms are required from parents/carers, who are welcome to join the session if they wish.

You can view the workshops here.

We will also be taking our teen friendly life drawing workshops to local schools, starting with Badminton School this month. During this session, the group will get to enjoy a full day of life drawing in a safe, supportive and creative environment. We will be uploading images from the day in next month's blog post!

If any other schools or community groups wish to run a similar workshop, please get in touch with us here and we can have a chat about your needs.

On a different note, we were very pleased to have a photographer from YUUP come by our adult's art workshop at the Royal Photographic Society on the 30th October! Take a look here at some of the brilliant pictures... many of our group are beginners and we take great care in making sure everyone is happy and relaxed during the class!

We run our adult classes in blocks which carry a similar theme across the sessions, while still allowing flexibility to pick and choose dates that work for our attendees. This means that if you can come to all the classes - great, we can help you continue to build your skills! But if not, you won't have to catch up on anything you may have missed in previous sessions. It's so wonderful seeing the group engage in mindful activities and have a great morning getting creative!

December 2022

Our Day at Badminton

We spent the most remarkable day at Badminton School this month. Kate, our founder, led a full day of life drawing for the school's talented sixth formers who produced some extraordinary work!

Kate arrived at the school at 9 with Tashi - a local Bristol University student and keen life model. We started the day with an introduction to life modeling and spoke to the girls about why we felt it was so exciting and important that they were doing the session.

Of course, life modeling is brilliant from an artistic point of view - the human body is a great subject to draw and gives artists the opportunity to practice drawing from life: to study the values, textures and lines in front of them. Kate started life drawing at university for this very reason - it is important for architects to be able to sketch and make visual notes on their experience of a space.

It is also a great segue into bringing up the important topic of body positivity. Edited, filtered and doctored body images are everywhere, and getting to see someone comfortable in their own skin is refreshing and inspiring. It is also great for the students to see a nude woman in a completely desexualised setting away from the male gaze. Life models often speak of how empowering it is to take back the ownership of their nakedness and that joy is definitely felt by the artists - you can see the bright and joyful colours in the students' work!

The Badminton group started with 2 minute sketches, before working up to 5... then 10... and then 20. After a lunch break and a quick warm up, the group then moved on to 40 minute drawings to complete the day.

Thank you so much to Badminton's Head of Art, Jacqui, and to your girls for all being so welcoming. Thank you, too, to Tashi for your stillness and brilliant poses!

December 2022

Bristol Teen Art Collective

We are particularly passionate about these sessions as art does not get enough emphasis at many schools. In these classes the students will develop an understanding of different artistic techniques; the use of equipment, materials and principles, and the opportunity to develop their own style.

Whether or not the students go on to pursue artistic endeavours, it is so important for the teens to place importance on their artistic learning, as it promotes independent and creative thinking as well as building on their self expression, confidence and sense of individual identity.

Art is also very relevant to our architectural design sessions as visual communication is key, as is the way in which students look at and observe their environment. 

We are also supporting several students in the group to help them grow their own creative enterprises. We are so lucky and proud to have such talented individuals in our sessions and cannot wait to see where their creativity takes them.

This work and effort culminated in several members of the group running their first market stall at the end of the year. It was a great experience and the group managed to take home nearly £60 between them.

We will continue to assist those interested in running stalls in the New Year to develop their ideas and test their market within our safety net.

Elena and I are so proud of all the members of the group, as they are so enthusiastic and supportive of one another.

January 2023

Our Winter Architectural Showcase

What a brilliant start to 2023! We kicked off the New Year by hosting our brilliant architecture groups as they showcased their newest project for friends and family at Bristol's Royal Photographic Society.

For this project, our students worked to create a design outcome that considers the meaning of light and shadow beyond the widely discussed economic and performance factors like efficiency or visibility. Their brief was to create an experiential space with a focus on designing dynamic shadow patterns to compliment it's use, which the groups also chose for themselves. The outcomes ranged from exhibition spaces to DJ sets and were all so brilliantly individual and inventive in their responses.

We are particularity passionate about opening up the study of architecture to our students to allow them insight into a 'hidden' profession.

Our hope is that our classes can bring the world of building/spacial design closer to our students so that it becomes as ordinary as a maths or english class; our build environment creates the fabric of our world and should be a reflection of all the voices, cultures and communities that make up our society.

We wanted to create an inclusive and accessible space for students to come and engage with our built environment, whether they are wanting to pursue a creative profession or are simply looking for a new experience to get involved with. Architecture can still feel like a very exclusive club, which is something I have definitely experienced, and something I feel very passionately about combating with OCC.

Thank you so much to our wonderful hosts, The Royal Photographic Society, for letting us enjoy your brilliant space for the afternoon.

Photography: Jon Rowley jonrowleyphotography.com

February 2023

Our Turkey/Syria fundraiser goes live - with help from local creatives!

This February we are hosting an Online Art Fair to raise money for Choose Love's appeal for emergency funds to support those affected by the Syria/Turkey earthquake.

As of Monday 20th Feb, more than 46,000 people have lost their lives and are missing or trapped beneath buildings. The number goes up every minute. Almost 26 million people are affected as thousands of buildings have collapsed.

Choose Love's partners need urgent funds to pull people and babies out of destroyed buildings and provide emergency medical care, food, and shelter.

We have had some very generous creatives donate brilliant work to the fair and we are hopeful that, together, we can help Choose Love to reach their fundraising target.

These talented artists and creatives have donated many wonderful pieces to the fundraiser, from original artworks, to custom pet portraits, to jewellery and ceramics.

If you wish to take part, the details on how to do so are below:

1. Choose your piece from our page of donated works.
2. Visit Choose Love's fundraising page and donate the amount given stated on your desired piece - we will keep this webpage up to date with the artwork's availability.
3. Email a screenshot or photograph of the donation confirmation to ourcreativecommunity@outlook.com with the name of your artwork and we will send you a confirmation.
4. We will put you in touch with your artist to arrange delivery! If an additional cost is required to cover this it will be stated in the description of the artwork. This will be paid directly to the artist.

Thank you to all our kind creatives and to all who take part in our fundraiser.