What have you been doing today?
A fabulously varied day today. We had our board meeting for Liz Clarke & Company where we welcomed new members and talked about exciting projects in the pipeline. We were also joined by our youngest member- who is just over one year old! This was followed by a fabrication session for The CAIR salon which I cannot wait to bring to the CHWA conference next month. The day was topped off with buying some new stationery, because every project needs new pens!
Is this a typical day for you? Perhaps tell us how your day can vary across your practice.
I feel very lucky to have forged a freelance path in recent years that gives me space and flexibility. As a carer, I have to be prepared for anything so I am used to unpredictability. I think it's so important to talk about/show different modes of making a career in the arts, and the messiness and interconnectedness of work/life can often be overlooked. A typical day will often contain more admin than today , sadly!!
How have you made space for your own wellbeing today?
Great question! I have been loving the September mornings so far, and have been joining in Sangha Live sittings before everyone else in the house gets up. This bring community together from all over the world to meditate, sit with each other and hear teachings. But who knows, tomorrow, my self care might be having an extra long lie-in and sleeping through that alarm!
The CAIR salon addresses the issue of self care in the arts and creative health, especially the disparity between collective responsibility and the pressure placed on the individual, so this question is really pertinent. We can’t wait to hold a playful, collaborative and CAIRing space for delegates at the conference!
When and how did you start working with culture, health and wellbeing? How does this compare to today?
After studying theatre and visual performance at Dartington I went off and had a whole other career! I worked for 10yrs in advocacy for people facing homelessness, mental health issues and domestic violence. I loved working with people and supporting wider change.
Alongside this I was coming back to my work as a live artist, having devised and toured my own work, ran cabarets (ask me about my alterego- Betty Bruiser! ) and supporting women to make autobiographical work in these and other genres.
Slowly, the two areas merged, as I found confidence in my own unique social practice and I slowly found myself working in the arts full time. I became interested in policy and how organisations work with and support communities, the mechanisms of this and where they excel and fail. I worked for a time in development and consultant roles for city councils, museum services and other organisations. These days, I am happy straddling roles that advise and support other organisations, allowing me to strengthen my own practice and others’.
What was the last project you came across that inspired you and how?
I am slightly biased, but I am going to say JoyRide by LC&C’s sister company LIGHTS! LIGHTS! LIGHTS! It celebrates the ways we find light, joy & connection during the darker time of the year. Different every time, it is written in collaboration with each neighbourhood it works with and culminates in a performative tour featuring neighbours’ stories- on an eco friendly bus! It is truly Joyous! Check it out if it tours anywhere near you this year.
Liz Clarke is an artist working across performance, participation and creative health strategy. Liz Clarke & Company create playful, provocative spaces where humour, care and collective imagination become tools for asking difficult questions and imagining different futures.
Alongside her artistic practice, Liz has held senior leadership roles across the arts, health and cultural sectors, working with artists, policymakers, funding bodies, health services and community organisations to develop creative health programmes, partnerships and more inclusive ways of working. She has toured her solo performance work internationally, and her writing on queer maternal performance, risk and embedding genuinely socially engaged practice within systems, has been widely published.
As a carer and access advocate, Liz embraces the messy, interdependent realities of creative practice — where work, life and care are not separate but entangled, illuminated and celebrated.
The latest programme of work, Glitter Heart, reimagines practice-led sector support, inviting artists into creative, supportive spaces to reconnect with and sustain their practice. Whether creating policy and programmes, writing and devising work, or supporting other artists, LC&C creates playful, carefully held spaces where artists, practitioners and institutions can think differently together.
Current projects by LC&C are Glitter Heart Labs - a 2 year practice led sector support programme for older FLINTA artists to enable them to sustain their careers. The programme includes masterclasses with international artists, weekend residency style skills workshops,supported open studios, mentorships and a resource library. We will invite practitioners in creative health to share their work and experience on different themes according to need. You can see a documentary of the pilot here
Other work includes a large scale heritage project working with intangible heritage and women in the arts, and Liz is a critical friend/outside eye for some exciting live artists embarking on making work.
We are also working with universities in the South West on practice as research projects into how larger institutions can support artists and communities in a ways that are reciprocal and non extractive.