Font test
As a skilled facilitator, quick-fire live sketcher, and willing wordsmith,
I might be a good fit for you if your issue looks like one of the following:
My Project Needs Powerful Words
“I’ve got information and ideas to get across and need to make some impact. I am working towards a deadline and need to focus on getting everything else ready for that.
I would love to collaborate with an experienced writer who will understand what I’m trying to achieve and come up with some relevant, creative, beautiful text that will speak powerfully to my audience.”
Recent writing projects have included:
My Event Needs Pictures
"We’re hosting an event with a number of speakers/presenters/performers. The information being presented is quite complex and we’re worried that a) it will take a while to send out a digest of it all or b) people won’t engage with lots of text afterwards or c) it will end up in the memory as just another one of those events.
We would love to offer those attending a visual summary with sketches of the people and ideas that encapsulates the essence of the event and acts as a reminder for years to come."
I have done live sketching for Sky, ITAC, ISBA, Beyond Creativity, Policy Hack, Puppet State Theatre Company, Skye Reynolds. I have created animations for Queen Margaret University and the Queens Nursing Institute Scotland. Graduates of CGO’s Diploma in Creative Producing hold certificates that I designed.
My Team Needs Purpose
"This diverse team/organisation/group really needs to address a multifaceted project but there doesn’t seem to be energy, commitment or decisive action where we need it.
We have the opportunity to come together and would love to come away armed with workable approaches, fresh perspectives and a renewed sense of purpose to take things forward."
My favourite way of facilitating an event in a situation like this is through Open Space. It’s a powerful way for people to take responsibility for things that they feel passionate about, whatever the issue at hand. I first learned about this way of working in 2006 while writer-in-residence at the IIMHL conference.
I am on the board of Improbable who are exemplary in their use of this methodology through their Devoted & Disgruntled gatherings that galvanise the theatre and performing arts community in the UK. I have facilitated Open Space events for Creative Scotland, Sound Sense, Aberdeen University and the Edinburgh Youth Music Forum.
My Project Needs Feedback
"My creative team is working on a project and have reached a stage in our development where we hope we’re heading in the right direction and would like to take stock of where we’re at. We are not ready to share with the public yet and are worried that if we showing it to others who don’t get what we’re doing, they might criticise us or disrupt our process with put-downs, ego/expertise, or opinions that aren’t relevant to what we’re doing.
We would love to know which parts of our work are going well, understand how it comes across and discover whether people are seeing things in it that we hadn’t planned to highlight. We’d love the benefit of some outside eyes and to go into the next stage of the project really motivated to take it towards completion with some fresh perspectives and a renewed sense of the vision that has driven the project from the outset."
Giving and receiving feedback is a delicate art form. As well as delivering feedback training feedback on Whole Person Leadership and to the Chartered Institute of Fundraisers, I have facilitated creator-focused feedback for many theatre pieces including: Terrapin Puppet Theatre, When Mountains Meet, Vision Mechanics, Mairi Campbell, Tortoise in a Nutshell, Annie George, Kath Bruce, Maria MacDonell and Faux Theatre Collective. My training in Critical Response Process was with US choreographer Liz Lerman who pioneered this approach through FST and Puppet Animation Scotland.
Links to some to be matched
"https://www.summerhall.co.uk/event/obvious-unrest/"
https://www.gleneskfolkmuseum.org/about-1
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/what-fine-things-we-are
"https://www.scottishtheatre.org/about/annual_plan/"
NB If what you want fundamentally requires the following, I’m probably NOT your gal (and that's OK):
Somebody who does this activity - facilitation, sketching, wordsmithing - as their one-and-only dedicated passion.
Somebody with a PhD in the theoretical fandangoness of a thing or who is a Master of Fine Art or who is accredited to the Guild of Distinguished Wordwranglers.