By Alice Christina-Corrigan
My name is Alice Christina-Corrigan and I am the Community Programme Officer at CRIPtic Arts, producing a year long programme of online creative workshops in partnership with Scope, for all deaf and disabled individuals no matter where they’re at in their creative journey.
As we reach the halfway point of the Connect Through Creativity (CTC) Programme, the team and I begin to reflect on what we have achieved and what the rest of our program will look like.
What is CTC?
Connect Through Creativity is composed of 12 Salons, 12 Community Writing workshops, 12 Creative workshops, 6 of our ‘Connect’ networking events and 6 evenings of bookable chats with our Artistic Director, Jamie Hale. These events are spread all over the course of 1 year.
The project is split into 4 seasons with different creative themes for each. So far, we have covered things such as:
-Writing for stage, screen and radio,
-How to perform online
-Creating art
-Writing for poetry
Additionally, our Salon events in partnership with Spread The Word have covered topics such as how to write for blog posts and writing from personal experience, plus they have provided disabled writers a platform to perform in our open mic events.
What have been some highlights of the programme so far?
In a post-lockdown world, it can be easy to forget the importance in online spaces, the speed in which the world ‘opened up’ again made it increasingly difficult for those who found connection, community and creativity online. For me, seeing our events sell out, people connecting with each other through networking events & finding the confidence to perform for the first time through our open mics has proven how vital online spaces are, and for CRIPtic it is something we feel incredibly passionate about continuing.
One of our key missions with the CTC Programme is to provide creative spaces for those who may not typically engage with art, CRIPtic or the disabled community and thus far, 43% of our attendees had never participated in a CRIPtic event before this programme.
Some of the highlights of the past 6 months are better said by our attendees….
‘This has been my first session and it’s been really interesting and helpful.’
‘This was my first event with you and it was great! look forward to joining the next CRIPtic Arts online event.’
‘I went to the Rachel Gadsden workshop last night as a bit of an escape from all the madness here. Utterly brilliant. Thank you for the amazing programming you have put together!’
What are you excited about in the upcoming season?
Our Autumn season is shaping up to be an incredibly insightful and creative few months!
Coming up, we have:
A Post-Fringe networking event in partnership with Birds of Paradise on Tuesday 19 September: Book here for this CRIPtic Connect Event
‘Discovering and Nurturing Your Story’ Writing Workshops led by Victoria Bennett: Book here the next Workshop Event with Victoria
‘Creating a Movement Toolkit’ led by Dark Horse Theatre Company: Book here for these Workshop Events
Salon & Open Mic events in partnership with Spread The Word: Book here for the next one, with Aarian Mehrabani
What does the CTC Programme mean to you?
Being able to provide the community with creative spaces to build in confidence, make friends and grow their own work is a massive inspiration behind my work. To me, the CTC programme is a chance to be your most authentic self in such welcoming, warm and creative online spaces.
