Director’s Blog – Lisa Charlotte Davis
GLOW Newcastle Director Bex Mather set the scene by sharing that in 2021, the creative industries contributed £109billion to the UK economy – a small but significant 5.6%!
I think all of us on the panel loved how New Writing North‘s Senior Programme Manager Tess Denman-Cleaver spoke about curiosity and creative problem solving as being one of the key skills needed for a career in the creative sector, with a plea to the teachers present to encourage young people not to give up on their weird hobbies 😆
And in the spirit of making sure to include young people with additional needs in the encouragement to consider a career in the creative sector, this got me thinking about the fab image created by Hope Simpson to highlight the way in which the experience of disability itself can stimulate creative problem solving as people work out how to thrive in spite of the barriers and restrictions placed upon them.
As Hope explained, “If you’re stuck inside the box, you figure out how to make the box beautiful.”
Thanks so much to the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority for inviting us to take part.
