My Services

According to health.harvard.edu (2017), 'Creative activities can relieve stress, aid communication, and help arrest cognitive decline.' While mentalhealth.org.uk (2019) states, ‘[..] engaging in arts, social activities and interaction within our communities can help with major challenges such as ageing and loneliness. It can help to boost confidence and make us feel more engaged and resilient. Besides these benefits, art engagement also alleviates anxiety, depression and stress.' So, I offer fun, creative activities with many benefits for your organisation’s staff.

In my approach to teaching creative thinking skills, I focus on three key areas: problem-solving, idea production, and visual or written narratives. I work with each client to write and deliver creative thinking training and activities by adjusting to individual and organisational needs, such as problem-solving in the workplace or creating unique ideas and solutions to industry challenges.

Barclay’s Life Skills (2021) provides problem-solving in six steps: First, we identify the problem. Second, we need to break down the problem. Now that we’ve broken down the problem and found causes and solutions backed by evidence and research, we observe the problem we experience against our research to see what options or methods are available for us to use or apply. Next, we need to think freely, which means looking for associations across your work and life outside of your job for inspiration to solve complex problems. We arrive at a testable idea or argument backed by evidence as we continue problem-solving. We then need to apply our vision to our situation and evaluate the results. What attempts did you make to solve the problem, and how often did you succeed or fail? Did you reach a solution, or do you have advice on what not to do?

I teach visual and written narrative strategies using text and visual media, which give participants the skills to identify communities' values and concerns, illuminate significant topics, and tell stories important to different social groups. Included in this creative thinking skill is learning how to tell stories through problem-posing narratives, using written text or visual images. For example, I have written sessions on using visual and written narratives to highlight real-world challenges of gender quality, racial equity, and climate change. However, the sessions also provide practical advice for presenting narratives online and through digital formats.

For nearly a decade, I have researched and written about participatory art and design, critical and feminist pedagogies, and institutional critique after the educational turn. In 2013, I began practice-led research into institutional critique and Art's educational turn, supported by a fully-funded scholarship from the Team LEWIS Foundation. I have advanced my scholarly work by publishing my ideas in the peer-reviewed journal Art and the Public Sphere (2020). In May 2022, I unconditionally passed my PhD Thesis titled, Chelsea Salon: Institutional Critique, Critical Pedagogies, and the London Art School after the Educational Turn in Art. I continue to apply the fundamental critical thinking and writing skills required n PhD research to engage the audience through teaching, art-making and curation.

Throughout my professional career, I have curated exhibitions and exhibited my own work in publicly-funded and commercial galleries and academic institutions. My curatorial practise began within the museum settings of Texas State Galleries in 2003, which led to gallery work as an installation and PR assistant for commercial galleries in Los Angeles from 2006 to 2008. In 2008, I moved to London for an MA Fine Art Course at Chelsea College of Art. Between 2009 and 2016, I designed and delivered a series of salons for MA fine art students at Chelsea. The salons provided opportunities to work in real-life situations outside of the college, such as within galleries and museums. Since 2016, I have curated exhibitions with recent Chelsea BA graduates for the Team LEWIS Foundation (TLF). Additionally, I support TLF's objectives to research connections between communication and the arts.