Hidden Talents at the RWA

BBC Get Creative is a celebration of the amazing arts, culture and creativity that happens every day across the UK. In celebration of creativity, and the power and importance of creative activities for many people all around the country, the team at the RWA have shared their own creative passions and explained why being creative means so much to them.

Sophie Bristol, Drawing School Manager

“I love hand stitching because the process matches my preferred pace of life in that it’s quite slow! For me, stitching is like drawing in pure colour and beautiful things can be made from the smallest of scraps!”

Holly McGrane, Marketing Manager

“In my spare time, I love writing stories. I write a lot in my job but writing fiction feels like a total luxury. I prefer to write in a busy café and fill notebooks with ideas, characters, overheard conversations and sometimes sketches. I can lose myself in writing for hours – when I am in the zone, I disappear down a rabbit hole and emerge feeling like my brain has been to a day spa.”

Alison Bevan, Director

“I finally mastered knitting in my late 40s and I’m now seriously addicted. As well as enabling me to create things, I find knitting immensely relaxing, taking up the part of my brain that would normally be fretting about work so that I can switch off: it’s basically a form of meditation, but with an output!”

Suze Eyles, Head of Finance and Administration

“For me photography allows me to study life – it’s like a slice of time.”

Joel Edwards, Learning and Participation Manager

“I learnt to play the piano and guitar when I was young. I ditched the piano (mistake) and focused on mastering just the 6 strings. I became a MASSIVE pop star but then gave it all up to concentrate on playing the humble ruler (as in the thing you measure and draw straight lines with – not a king or prime minister or something.) Twangggg!”

Jess Kirkby, Membership Administrator

“I inherited my love of fabric from my mother, who is an upholsterer, amongst other things. She taught me to sew when I was very young and a few years ago, I started dressmaking. I love the process of it, from cutting out a pattern and transferring markings to fabric, to winding a bobbin and easing a sleeve. To create a wearable, lasting garment, there are no stages which can be skipped, which forces patience and precision from me, neither of which I have naturally. It’s creativity with known boundaries and rules which, once learned, can be mutated in a thousand different ways.”