What have you been doing today?
I’ve been desk working whilst lightly supervising an 8-year-old and packing boxes during tea breaks. I just finished editing an article about breastfeeding and matrescence, which featured some excellent artworks (past and present) that show the unique brand of exhaustion experienced in early motherhood. I’m also reading up on creative health and trying get my head around the enormous volume of projects and initiatives out there.
Is that a typical day for you?
No! I’m about to move house and my son was supposed to be at summer camp today, so everything is up in the air. I am naturally drawn to multitasking, but this is testing my limits. Packing is the ultimate organisational challenge, both emotional and logistically complex - I can’t wait to be unpacking on the other side!
When did you start working with culture, health and wellbeing, and how?
I started at CHWA two weeks ago. After many years in arts facilitation and leading my own creative projects, I’m ready to make a lateral hop into a culture and wellbeing team. In some ways I’ve been doing creative health work for many years and collaborating with others who work more directly in this way, but I’m only recently learning to frame my practice in these terms, and to see its value beyond the arts.
What was the last project you came across that inspired you?
I participated in the Linacre Institute’s Big Ideas Programme, talking about art history and visual literacy to a bunch of very sharp Year-12s (they totally got it!). The Institute are working hard to level the playing field for education, giving state-school students in the North the confidence and skills to apply to leading universities.
Lara has worked in the arts since moving to the UK in 2004, as a writer, editor, curator, artists, organiser, facilitator, consultant and mentor. She is an art historian by trade, with a PhD from the University of Leeds and a longstanding interest in the study of art across time and between cultures. Between 2017 and 2024 she was managing editor at Corridor8, a platform for art and writing in the North of England, where she collaboratively produced publications on a wide range of topics, from breastfeeding in public to mass extinction. More recently she’s been dabbling in creative memoir and looking after her two children. She is a dedicated advocate for creativity, cooperation and positive change for people and planet, and proud to join the CHWA team in 2025.