Creativity Acre: Developing an Idea with our community

On Saturday 26 July, a year on from the first volunteer work and imagining event, over 30 people attended a celebration of progress at Significant Seams’ Creativity Acre. Attendees participated in tours, heard about ideas for the venue, created special plaques to place around the site, taste-tested catering options, and enjoyed a campfire and socialising, whilst also helping further develop ideas and plans.

Significant Seams is actively imagining this woodland acre into a shared space, full of purpose. That purpose is probably best summed up as recovery. It is about developing wellbeing, especially amidst mental health challenges. It is also about creative inspiration, learning from nature, and learning about nature, and craft history, and ourselves.

The space aims to host a range of events, by Significant Seams facilitators as well as private hirers, to support and enable arts for mental health and community building work. Artist and organisation Director, Catherine West, reflected to attendees, “Whilst the pandemic widely increased understanding and acceptance of mental health challenges, the post pandemic period has seen dramatic economic pressures and corresponding changes in funding and operating models of many of our key stakeholders. So this space is about diversifying Significant Seams incomes and giving us more leverage, equity, and control in our ability to deliver creative health support to those who need it, as they need it. Along with the Apple Studio, which will be open to you and the wider public during Devon Open Studios in September, we are leaning hard into an idea that has always been important to Significant Seams: using what we’ve got. It is empowering, connecting, and infuses hope as we face challenging conditions. These three things are also three of the five principles of mental health recovery as taught in mental health nursing. They are directly derived not only from the medical sphere – but also consciously align to the Five Ways to Wellbeing.”

Upcoming and anticipated events include a family friendly eco-colour workshop, fairy house making (led by children!), and nature printing, from items foraged from Creativity Acre. Significant Seams lists and takes bookings for its workshops on its Eventbrite page at http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/significant-seams-3282658880.

Significant Seams welcomes enquiries for tours of the space, from potential hirers, as well as people with interests or specialism in forest learning, ecological conservation, art workshops in the landscape, or broader wellbeing services.