August 2020 saw Activate and b-side team up to deliver a free online course for people in Dorset aged 16-25. CREATE! Developing Your Idea supported 15 young people from across the county to explore what is involved in shaping creative ideas and learn how to make events a reality.
In this mini-series we invite the course participants to tell us about their experience. Here’s Jasmine’s story.
When I decided to take part in the CREATE! course, I didn’t have a particular event or project in mind. Due to the lockdown, I was furloughed from my job and found myself with a free summer for the first time in my adult life, with no idea how to fill it. I felt excited to learn about creative events because through my university course, I have been able to visit all kinds of art installations and I would love to be able to create one myself one day, but this concept felt like a high, unattainable ambition. My main goal on the course was to expand my knowledge on events and to motivate myself to create more artistic work, and I was surprised by the amount of thought and planning that has to go into even a small event. It was also really motivating to learn about the process of coming up with a concept and then developing it into a final event. The one thing I will remember from this course is how inspiring it is to talk to people who are motivated to create an event, even with the current COVID-19 situation. I feel quite strongly about how important a sense of community is for areas like Dorset, and it was great to speak to other people who really care about the place we live. The course made me feel as though creating my own events and installations is accessible, and that there is nothing stopping me from being able to follow my artistic ideas. Going forward, I am starting my third year at university and I am excited to use the lessons from this course in my future projects.