Welcome to Optimism

Forever Curious – My Creative Story

We are very pleased to say that Forever Curious is back for its second year!

Forever Curious is an agency initiative, where we work with young people in our local community to nurture their creativity. To us, it is just as important to learn from others during the activities as sharing our skills.

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Last year, we focused on a project called My Creative Spark. Our creative spark cards helped capture and share the moment when people feel most creative and when inspiration strikes.

This year, we’ve evolved the idea with our new project, My Creative Story. Stories are at the heart of creativity. By reading stories aloud or bringing them to life, we can create images and ideas in the minds of the listeners too. Stories allow us to be seen and heard creatively. Stories encourage people to unite and share. Stories are universal. Stories transcend age, race, religion and position.

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So last Friday, volunteers from the agency were reunited with the schoolchildren from Milllfields Community School and Newport Primary School they worked with last year. We also welcomed some new helpers from W+K.

First, we warmed up our brains with some unusual and exciting icebreaker games. We played quick-fire story telling rounds and had a great time pretending to be characters from our favourite stories.

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Once our brains were feeling pumped and ready for some creativity we were each given a specially designed creative story card, pre-loaded with prompts and space to get creative. We all had a great time filling in the boxes with writing, pictures and doodles as we built our stories. It was inspiring to hear everyone’s creative stories and the titles they chose, as both children and adults read aloud to the whole group.

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We have a lot more planned for My Creative Story, with two more interactive workshops coming up, and an exhibition filled with all the wonderful work that builds up from My Creative Story.

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VNA in LA

On the side, after hours, when his two adorable kids are asleep, W+K designer Greg art directs, designs, art works and pretty much completely produces an art culture magazine called VNA (Very Nearly Almost).
 
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[Greg with Shepard Fairey, Cleon Peterson and VNA's Roly]
 
Last Saturday, Greg and another member of the VNA team hopped over to sunny LA to launch the latest issue at Subliminal Projects on Sunset Boulevard, the gallery owned by artist Shepard Fairey. 
 
The cover artist for the new issue is Cleon Peterson, the lead designer for Shepard/Obey, who is blowing up in his own right these days with art fans and collectors alike. Cleon, Shepard and a handful of LA artists made the trip to the launch and helped make it a memorable event. 
 
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Sound like fun? You’re in luck – the VNA team will be launching the issue in London at Number Six Dray Walk (in our 'hood, just off Brick Lane) next Thursday evening, 26th February. All are welcome… come on down!
 
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