Young People’s Hopeful Futures for We The Curious
Why am I interested in this role?
Without hope, we have nothing. I live on hope! I love this project and it feels so necessary, especially for young people who are right now faced with a bleak future. By imagining and creating new possible futures, we have something to live in to, something to hold on to.
This project perfectly combines my two disciplines: facilitating hope and creating art. I’m an illustrator, focusing mainly on projects doing research about and with trans, autistic young people; and a Community Minister, for a radical inclusive (church?) community. In both roles I spend my time listening, building people up, helping them to believe in a better future and believe that they can make it happen.
I also deeply admire We The Curious! You’re the perfect example of what organisations can and should be, so to get to work with you would be an honour and delight.
Relevant experience related to my creative practice
(This is a very old example, my art style has developed a lot since, but I’ve included it anyway!)
My key task on my illustrative projects is taking the complex feelings and nuanced concepts expressed by young people and representing them in clear, easy to understand pictures, so this is my bread and butter! I share your ethos of being as inclusive as possible and ensure to have diverse representation in my work.
My style is very comicy/graphic, and I’ve done graphic note taking for conferences before. While studying I (self-directed) put on a large installation of different pieces in diverse mediums on the theme of guilt. I created gallery booklets and ran workshops for young students to engage with the themes.
For me art always comes alongside social change, they’re inseparable! I also always want to make art that is understandable and accessible to everyone, art that says something clearly, which I feel will translate well to a museum context.
Relevant experience of working with young people
My illustration work involves working with the young people in participatory steering groups, to ensure my representations reflect their wishes and experiences. In my Community Minister role, I support several vulnerable young people in a pastoral capacity, helping them to work out the futures they want for themselves and grapple with complex issues they’re having now.
I’ve also been a Stonewall Person of Faith Rolemodel for 10 years, which has involved supporting many young people grappling with their faith and their queerness.
Through School of Sexuality Education, I received comprehensive training on trauma-informed approaches, and how to embody decolonial pedagogy, ensuring that the opinions and voices of the young people are centered. I know that just because I am the facilitator, it does not mean I am the holder of all knowledge. I still have as much to learn from them as they have from me, often more!
Relevant experience of facilitating workshops
I’ve worked for the School of Sexuality Education facilitating workshops on sex and relationships in schools, and helped develop their LGBTQ+ workshops. The community I run is heavily discussion based, and often includes creative activities like drawing or poetry writing. Each Sunday I introduce nuanced topics and mediate charged discussions on contentious issues.
We’re a diverse group of differing opinions, but I encourage us to have a baseline of mutual respect, a commitment to giving the benefit of the doubt, and a curiosity to ask questions and check we understand someone’s point before kicking off.
There’s lots of neurodivergence and trauma in the room, so it’s been a learning curve working out when to let someone disclose, when to check in with the introverts, and how to summarise and collect everyone's thoughts into a coherent story to feedback. It’s also one of my favourite things to do in the world.
My proposal (in brief!)
Being led by what the young people want is essential, so these are just starting thoughts. But I’d want to focus on representing the hopeful futures almost experientially, in the Ernest Bloch way of anticipatory consciousness: by imagining the utopian future, we are in a small way, making it reality.
I’d include the realistic, small, visual details (that make something feel specific and actual) within the larger landscape and emotional resonance of the imagined contexts. I’d represent the young people themselves too, either as they are, or as they wish to become. Involving them means clarifying details, asking expanding questions, and using the senses to engage non-visual minds, “What would it sound like?”.
Depending on the content of the workshops, I imagine rich colour & texture, visually punchy large scale illustrations of the young people within their hopeful futures, with key quotes from them, layered on different fragment shapes. I want it to feel like we are time travellers who have documented possible future dimensions.
I’d also want to use all the senses, with interactive stations using physical paraphernalia, smells, sounds, textures and (health and safety allowing) tastes, matched to each future to help visitors truly inhabit it.
Can I commit to the time required?
Definitely! I am a freelancer and have fully flexible hours, and currently don't work full time, so I have plenty of room to accomodate this. I work Sunday evenings running services, have a short holiday planned the first week of January and jury service for up to two weeks at the end of January. Other than that I can work around the young people and your team and be available when needed.
Access requirments?
As a neurodivergent person I have some access requirements around communication, but nothing that will affect this application. I'm happy to discuss these in more detail if I'm chosen for the role.
Anything else to share?
Just that this is an amazing project, and I'm really excited that it's happening. I'd love to be part of it, but either way, I can't wait to see it!