The habits of creativity, identified in their work, were applied to their organisation during lockdown. They completely transformed their delivery, moving out of a studio setting, finding new markets and adapting for their existing customers.

In this session, they will share how they have grown dramatically in this period, expanding their offer with digital delivery, collaborating with new artists and physical resourcing. They repositioned to continue work with schools throughout lockdown as well as delivery of fully funded CPDL to primary school teachers.

They continue to consider diverse needs and made provision for groups thought to be most adversely affected, targeting further marginalised groups - families with young children who have been displaced during lockdown, pupils with auditory impairment and children who are from the BAME community in the Tees Valley.

Session facilitators

Sara Calgie is art school trained and worked in creative industries. Her background experience translated from footwear and interior design to a gallerist of art, ceramic and glass. Having retrained as a primary teacher as a second career, Sara has brought these two roles together. Sara’s vision to have a space in the community for families and schools to use for recreation. She founded 'The Start Studio' to raise the perceived value of arts in schools and in the community.

Sue Loughlin is an artist and teacher who has been delivering family learning sessions for the Start Studio. A visual artist and freelance creative, she's been involved with the arts for 24 years, spending 15 years in secondary education teaching and leading within schools across the North East and abroad.

Claire Blake is a primary teacher with a specialism in both art as well as BSL interpreter who has been signing for Start Studio's art classes that are delivered to children who have are auditory impaired or deaf.

Julian Lawrence is an award-winning cartoonist and educator specializing in comic books. Born in England and raised bilingual English-French in Québec, his work has been published and displayed internationally. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Comics and Graphic Novels at Teesside University in Middlesbrough.

Jilly Keast Johnson is an arts educator and artist. As a qualified teacher, with a background in Early Education and is passionate about encouraging everyone to enjoy being creative and having a child-like approach to making art. She studied at Glasgow School of Art and after an early career as an artist she gained her PGCE before teaching at primary level (mainly Early Years) for 4 years.

Creative Habits- how we applied what we teach to our org. during lockdown