Our volunteers are important in creating a supported studio environment at ActionSpace. For the volunteer blog, we hear from our current volunteers about their experience of supporting our studio and exhibition programme. For this post, we hear from Aisha Farr, who volunteers at our Cockpit Tuesday studio, about what it’s like to be a volunteer at ActionSpace.
Aisha’s Blog
I’d heard about ActionSpace a while ago and then had some time in my week to get involved. I’ve worked in adult learning for a while but wanted to try working in a longer-term and more open-ended way. I think it’s quite a rare thing to find projects that are set up for that.
In my artistic practice I’m trying to stay focused on weaving and painting at the moment. I make slow weavings and then small paintings which come together more quickly. Sometimes the two get layered over/under each other. I often get distracted by new materials or by learning about new processes. I’m also collaborating on a film project about an escaped flamingo in Middlesbrough.
There have been many highlights and many moments, fleeting and ongoing at ActionSpace! There is a lot of mystery and magic involved in watching work as it happens, in the way each artist’s work finds its forms. Special mentions go to supporting Declan Leslie‘s current sculptural dragon project, which has involved so many ideas and possibilities, and to being part of the Thursday Emerging Artists group’s progression.
I get to be involved in a shared creative space, and to think together with others about the frustrations/joys of making things. To me it’s an infinitely complicated and interesting thing – I’ve learnt a lot about it from being a part of the artist groups.
If you are at all interested in people, art, and what’s possible between them then you should consider getting involved as a volunteer!
Find out more about how you can volunteer with ActionSpace
Image:Declan Leslie and Aisha working in the studio
