Exploring creativity, wellbeing and human connection
The Place
I joined Community Wellness initially as a Community Connector, spending time with people and the organisation as part of its holistic community-centred approach to wellbeing in Wrexham, supporting people experiencing loneliness, stress and trauma.
The role gradually developed into an artistic residency (having discovered how creativity was already present in its approach to wellbeing), allowing me to explore these responses more deeply.
Beginning with Attention
I found myself responding to the place through making (exploring the people, conversations, values and ideas I encountered through music, poetry, photography, film and sound).
Making
Making became a way of exploring my relationship with the organisation.
Through music, poetry, photography, film and sound, I processed my experience, allowing the people, conversations and values I encountered to shape the work.
Rather than beginning with a fixed artistic outcome, I used different forms of making to explore what I was noticing and to understand the organisation more deeply.
What Emerged
The work revealed creativity as something that could connect people, communicate the values of Community Wellness and open up different ways of thinking about wellbeing.
I became interested in how creative activity can create space for expression, connection and reflection, both individually and collectively.
Capturing
Different moments of the enquiry found their own form:
Original songs • Poems • Photography • Soundscapes • Community Connection Cards • Films • Joint fundraising live sharing evening • Social media marketing elements
Joint fundraising live sharing evening
Gathering to raise funds. Songs, poems, images, thoughts.
Making & Noticing sessions
I also ran facilitation sessions, creating space for people to explore creativity as a way of processing experience and thinking differently.
What I’m taking from this place
This residency deepened my interest in creativity not simply as something we make, but as a way of connecting, communicating and understanding ourselves and one another.
It left me with a continuing curiosity about how creative spaces can support wellbeing, strengthen relationships and help people feel able to express something of themselves.
The Conversation Continues
Although the residency had a defined timeframe, the questions it raised continue to inform my practice. The songs, poems, images and other work remain part of an ongoing exploration of creativity, wellbeing and human connection.