Hope - Catherine and Ben
Hope Comic Strip, 2021 by Catherine and Ben
This word leads us to ponder on some questions; Has the meaning of hope or to be hopeful changed for us and other people? Does it mean something different now to what it did before Covid? Connected to hope, how have priorities and values in our lives and in the world around us changed?
From the beginning of the first lockdown, we have been involved in art sessions online with Heart’n’Soul. From the very beginning, we focused on responding to people’s needs and adapting our usual ways of doing things to being online.
Once people got the hang of technology (some needed more time and support than others) it became a really brilliant, creative space for people to gather and be creative and sociable together.
We started 2021, with hope as the theme in our art sessions on Zoom, and we asked what it means to people. When acknowledging the present moment, we identified things we were grateful for amidst the challenges, small everyday things that were good. A bit like opening a window to let some light and air in, the whole room changes as a consequence of this prompt.
It felt important to accept the truth that things are tough, and to use that as a place to discover where hope might emerge out of hopelessness or despair. Ben collaborated with Heart’n’Soul artists every month on a creative pack, which were posted out to people and also available to download online.
As we write this, it is spring in London and we see flowers growing, and notice how the light changes. Magnolias, the first-ever flowers on the earth, are in bloom.
This enriches a deep sense of hope: our lives, like all more-than-humans, are cyclical and interconnected.
Heart n Soul is an award-winning creative arts company and charity. We believe in the power and talents of people with learning disabilities, providing opportunities for people to discover, develop and share this power and talent as widely as possible.
Over the past year we have explored a range of ways to stay connected to our community during this exceptional time. This has included creative pack, which can be found and downloaded here:
https://www.heartnsoul.co.uk/projects/creative-packs
https://twitter.com/HeartnSoulArt
https://twitter.com/HeartnSoulEye