Following the amazing Episode One from California here at long last is Episode Two -the next instalment of the sorry saga of love and intrigue. Everyone in London is looking forward to meeting up on Skype and working together on the final transatlantic chapter. Hope this finds all of you atBurbank well. Love and best… Continue reading The Boyfriend: Episode Two
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“Your name is what?” Institutional abuse: same old story
We were once told by a senior care manager in a moment of exasperation that the company did not exist in the ‘real’ world. This week once again we have images of institutional abuse on our TV screens, this time from Winterbourne View the ‘hospital’ for people who have learning disabilities just outside Bristol. Don’t… Continue reading “Your name is what?” Institutional abuse: same old story
Blackbirds and The Bubble
From a distance, in the early evening sunlight you could mistake it for some kind of tribal ritual, this huge circle of people standing under plane trees near a semi derelict church. We are in Southwark Park, Rotherhithe, south of the Thames. This is the London of Dickens, of Oliver Twist. It’s where the Pilgrim… Continue reading Blackbirds and The Bubble
Flocking and a day trip to the sea
Out of curiosity I list from memory everyone who I connect with Entelechy. If we were going out for a day trip to the sea who would we attempt to cram on the coaches? I guess it’s going back to the flocking starlings only its people and not birds we are talking about here: arts… Continue reading Flocking and a day trip to the sea
‘Outreach’ and hope revisited
At the Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange in Maryland last month the company made it very clear that they do not work with the concept of outreach. Members of the main performing company led all of the workshops that I attended in senior centers in Maryland. I love the clarity of the vision. There is art… Continue reading ‘Outreach’ and hope revisited
Cocktails and Kindergartens
South London. The Stephen Laurence Centre. A seminar on intergenerational practice organized by our neighbours Age Exchange. I had been asked to run two breakout workshops sharing something of my American experience. Each of the sessions lasted forty minutes. Felt like I needed forty days. Way back in the 1980’s the older women from our… Continue reading Cocktails and Kindergartens
Sandwiched by Angels
My daughter arrives home from the National Portrait Gallery with the gift of a post card. Tom Phillips lithograph of Samuel Beckett: “NO MATTER. TRY AGAIN. FAIL AGAIN. FAIL BETTER. So many of the people who I met in the US squeezed time for conversations in between the wild rush to meet funding application deadlines.… Continue reading Sandwiched by Angels
Mr. Peet and an Airport Lounge and Love continued…
And so it all comes to an end, my great American Adventure (only joking of course it doesn’t) with a cup of coffee from Mr. Peet’s place in the departure lounge at JFK. Joanna Harris had taken me to the original store in Berkeley and of course she had known him as she had… Continue reading Mr. Peet and an Airport Lounge and Love continued…
“It’s wonderful people can do things like that”
It is towards the beginning my visit to MoMA that I missed the critical companionship of the women I had wandered round the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton Massachusetts with. “Let Art Touch You” is the museum’s strap line. These women knew how. We’re back to driving on the Los Angeles freeways at night in… Continue reading “It’s wonderful people can do things like that”
Love and an awkwardness with words
We’re not good about talking about intimacy, certainly in the UK. Up until now most of my writing energies have been focused on the mostly joyless last of writing funding bids, trying to secrete passion in between the lines of recycled text. Taking this sabbatical has been a delight. Suddenly whole new packages of words… Continue reading Love and an awkwardness with words
Creativity, Arts and Older People 