Anna B. Sexton

Feed Your Creativity mindful colouring in book is a crowdfunded book to inspire more creative play, moments of relaxation and mindfulness.

The 500 books that were made possible through raising over £5,000 were given out via the Big Help Project foodbank in Knowsley, Liverpool UK

The purpose was to add to the packs of food and essentials being given out to local community members to boost mental health and wellbeing by tackling social isolation and loneliness.

Overall partner: The Big Help Project

Creative project management: Grace Belcher

Launch partners: Novotel Paddington Village Liverpool, Sciontec, KQ Women’s Networking

Themes: Creative play, mental health, community, mindful making, lived experience

Tools: Collage, paper crafts, photography, coaching skills, active listening, mental health first aid, mindfulness

Crowdfund Backers include:

Big Help Project

Shaun Lavin - Kall Kwik Liverpool

Rachael Halliwell

Naomi Woddis

Sara Knight

Tim Coleman

Olivia Bellas

Katy Elliot - 5 Star Food Safety

Musa Idris - Vuecomms

Mick Clarke - 2020 Networks

Jess Jones @ Tiny Sunshine Shop

Winsome Duncan @ Peaches Publications

Hannah Meredith

Jed Barr @ We Are Causeway

Jennifer Leach @ Outrider Anthems

Mark Barratt @ Complete Tech Solutions

Robyn Bainbridge

Joanna Oliver @ Chameleon Collaborative CIC

Anna B. Sexton

CRAFT YOUR FUTURE – Make something from the dreams in your head!

Anna B. Sexton runs 2-3 hours workshops for creative well-being using coaching conversations, paper crafting and collaging to craft a personal vision or wish board.

These events are opportunities to open up conversations between like-minded people about what makes us tick, who we are, how we are feeling and what inspires us about life to boost feelings of connection, hope and inspiration.

It is a chance to give yourself some creative playtime and get the dreams in your head down on paper!

It works well if you come solo or book a workshop as a stand alone event or as part of a creative team away day.

These grassroots, socially engaged activities are informal, well-paced and gently creative workshops facilitated by artist, coach & mentor, Anna B. Sexton.

Participants are held in a 'safe space' to 'play' around with creative materials, meet and chat with like-minded people and experience the beautiful creative community spaces.

Past collaborators have been MerseyMade, The Big Help Project and ECHO - Economy of Hours.

You will be supplied with all the creative-making materials to leave with your version of a ‘vision board’.

Open To Create... is all about using creative tools, conversation & connection to reimagine innovation, collective creativity & well-being for creatives, founders and teams in start-up-to-scale social enterprises.

In this co-designed, co-curated creative leadership anthology you can meet nine dynamic pioneering women who are transforming the landscape of the UK creative, health, faith, education, and social business worlds.

The group came together during lockdowns in the UK online to craft the concepts, vision and structure of the book.

Each author has their unique take on leadership in their chapter.

Winsome Duncan; Peaches Publications and Look Like Me Book Challenge led the curation and overall process, given her extensive writing and publishing experiences alongside

- Winsome Duncan

- Joanna Olivier

- Marcia Brisette Bailey

- Shona Kamau

- Linnette James

- Annette Ruth Pearson

- Patricia Bidi

- Melanie Foulkes Williams

- Anna B. Sexton

As authentic, heart-centred females, who fearlessly embrace their leadership positions by enhancing, equipping, and immobilising their communities onto the path to self-development, entrepreneurial pursuits, well-being, and self-care.

Collectively they have provided their expertise in the areas of hiring staff, building resilience, self-confidence, and spirituality and they have produced a generational legacy in literature.

We are not the same, yet we celebrate our differences as culturally diverse women.

You can use the reflection tools in each chapter to further propel you on your path of self-discovery, self leadership and self-mastery.

Hosted by Anna B. Sexton, founder of Open To Create...

I want to inspire your creativity and nurture your talents, regardless of how they show up in the world.

Anna's motto is "You don't have to be an artist to be creative"

Guests come from creative, arts, social enterprise, education & community development backgrounds. Expect some frank discussions about a range of topics including mental health, long term illness; so if you have kids around definitely listen with headphones.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/everyday-creativity

Creative Entrepreneurship Digital / E-learning platform; 12 case studies featuring UK-based creative entrepreneurs.

UAL / British Council / Heva Fund / Made Culture / Belle & Co.            

As part of the SoCreative Creative Economy E-Learning Programme - join to start learning for free - HERE

CASE STUDIES

Starting off in the creative industries

What is the creative economy? with Leona Baker, Indie Roller

READ

Bringing your idea to life with Emilie Mendy, Bizzie Bodies

READ

Finding the right people with JiaXUan Hon

READ

Building your business with David Medina Águila

READ

Branding & marketing with Michelle Peterkin-Walker, Akoma Arts

READ

Growing your creative enterprise

Entrepreneurship Strategy with Gita Joshi, The Curator’s Salon

READ

Your growth journey with Naomi Mwasambili - Chanua Health

READ

Protecting my business IP with Anjelo Lesson - Tale Media

READ

Finance for creative businesses with Patrick Grant - Community Clothing

READ

Building and leading teams with Rachel Rogers - Reform Radio

READ

Raising capital for business growth with Phil Barry - Blòkur

READ

Promotion and pitching with Arfah Farooq - Muslamic Makers + Angel Investor

READ

Lockdown Residency was brought to life by Meri Lahti at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in March 2020. The ‘residency’ has evolved through a community of artists using Instagram as their main public sharing platform into a curated exhibition in Oct-Nov 2020.

In 2021 led by Neus Torres Tamarit a new series of Instagram takeaways offers artists across the world the chance to share their work in a 7 day period, before passing the baton onto the next artists.

Visit https://www.instagram.com/lockdown.residency/

to check out each artist’s artwork and commentary during their 7 days takeover

Each artist takes over the Lockdown Residency instagram profile during a whole week, to post at least 1 post and 1 story every day.

• The posts must be related to creating art / your artistic practice in pandemic times. This could be:

• the process of creating artworks, has it changed from your usual way of making?

• have you created new artworks related to the Lockdown or COVID-19

• your experience of the pandemic era.

25/01/2021 - 31/01/2021

Neus Torres Tamari @phenotypica

01/02/2021 - 07/02/2021

Hannah Scott @hannahscott_art

08/02/2021 - 14/02/2021

Lottie Bolster @lottie_bolster

15/02/2021 - 21/02/2021

Anna B Sexton @annabsexton

22/02/2021 - 28/02/2021

Patricia Bidi @patriciabidi

01/03/2021 - 07/03/2021

Bea Haines @beatricehaines

08/03/2021 - 14/03/2021

Mahal de Man @mahaldeman

15/03/2021 - 21/03/2021

Elia Santonastaso @elixefelixe

The alternative art education community, Conway Hall, Artquest and TOMA presents:

*Online* Alternative Art Education (Slow) Marathon

Saturday 25th July @ 12:00 pm - 7:30 pm

BOOK - https://conwayhall.org.uk/event/online-alternative-art-education-slow-marathon/

Join us to celebrate alternative art education and launch the first issue of URgh! a zine on education and precarity. Tune in from 12-7pm to learn and play in a range of events. Produce a zine, find out what peer-led schools are up to and exchange ideas on online education, labour and cooperation. Create a virtual creature in a web application, show work in a crit session and wind down with the DJ set. Meet members of the alternative art education community and participate from the comfort of your living room. Turn on, tune in, get involved, start your own art school!

“The festival continues the tradition of annual gatherings on alternative arts education (1.) with performances, talks, screenings, displays, workshops, walks, installations, stalls & anything artists from this thriving community propose.

It is an opportunity to raise awareness about alternative art education and provide visibility for art schools, peer groups and to access & find out more about their programmes. “

Sophia Kosmaoglou

Member of AltMFA & Radical Pedagogy

** The Alternative Art Education (Slow) Marathon will be held online using the Zoom application (available for PC, Mac, iOS and Android). A link to join the event will be sent to ticketholders on the day of the event. **

Programme

For additional information about the programme and the event please visit: https://videomole.tv/slow-marathon

12:00-12:15 Introduction

12:15-13:00 Zine workshop with TOMA

13:00-13:30 Alternative art school and peer-support group Jamboree

13:30-14:30 Open discussion on online education, labour and cooperation

14:30-14:40 Zine workshop wrap up by TOMA

14:40-15:00 BREAK: Alternative Art School Film Compilation

15:00-17:00 Microworld @HOME workshop with Genetic Moo

15:00-17:00 Art and/or Science Reading Group

This event has limited capacity: please CLICK HERE to book your ticket for this event

17:00-17:15 BREAK: Darshana Vora [2020] Lost & Found

17:15-19:15 Z-Crit with Artquest

This event has limited capacity: please CLICK HERE to register

18:15-19:15 Milky Genes (non) art school disco

MURMURATION, A GROUP SHOW

Celebrating the work of TOMA artists old and new who have been part of the programme since 2016

Private view 12th February 2020 5.30pm - 8pm

www.toma-art.com

Lolly Adams - - - www.instagram.com/lollyadams

Fiona Bennett - - - www.fiona-bennett.com/

Emma Edmondson - - - www.emmaedmondson.com

Laurence Harding - - - www.laurencehardingphotography.com

Peter Haugh - - - www.peterhaugh.com/

Ruth Hazel - - - www.instagram.com/fannyvonbeaverhausen/

Mark Hicken - - - www.markhicken.co.uk/

Blandine Martin - - - www.blandinemartin.com

Gabrielle Milanese - - - www.gabriellemilanese.com/

Emma Mills - - - www.emmamillsart.com

Paige Ockendon - - - www.instagram.com/GABRIELLESEYEPATCH/

Grace Price - - - www.gracespractice.com/

John Rust - - - https://johnwinstonrust.myportfolio.com/

Ian Ryan - - - www.ianaryan.co.uk/

Ian Segrave - - - www.iansegrave.com/

Anna B. Sexton - - - www.annabsexton.com/

Gemma Shaw - - - www.gemmalouiseshaw.com/

Victoria Sills - - - www.victoriasills.com/

Bella Street Fenn - - - https://bellastreetfenn.com/

Lu Williams - - - www.luwilliams.com/

This is a group show celebrating three years of working with artists as part of TOMA and the extended group this has formed. Artists from across the years will be showing work and the space will be open to the public from 5.30pm until 8pm with refreshments. This is a free event and all are welcome.

Murmuration, a group show is the tenth in a series of exhibition at the Paul Robinson Solicitors New Bank space on London Road. Paul Robinson Solicitors LLP are investing in emerging artists on TOMA by hosting a changing programme of exhibitions.

* TOMA was set up in partnership with Metal in Southend-on-Sea in 2016, working with them for an incubation period before becoming an independent not for profit. TOMA is artist-run+ we believe in lifelong learning + aim to make the possibility of postgraduate style art education accessible to all.

Tickets will go on sale 19th May 2019 when the full Antiuniversity NOW Festival 2019 programme launches… you can get an reminder to book before then by clicking below;

http://bit.ly/GetLostWalkAntiUniNOW19

Get Lost artist walk

16th June 2019

12noon - 3pm

Getting lost can be just the ticket to discovering new things about ourselves and the communities that we live...

Let your curiosity be your guide and find inspiration in unexpected places.

We will start off this 'un-guided' walk from outside Squash 112-114 Windsor Street L8 8EQ at 12 noon. Where we end is down to how the walk unfolds...

Family friendly and accessible.

Bring your sketch book, camera phone, camera, dictaphone...

Be prepared to lose yourself in a well paced walk, connect with other walkers in conversations & discover new connections & synchronicities whilst out wandering.

Check the weather, bring decent walking attire and water.

This event is part of the Antiuniversity Now Festival 15-22 June 2019See the full programme on www.antiuniversity.org

#AgitateEducateOrganise

By signing up to this event you will be added to the Antiuniversity mailing list.

To opt out please email antiuniversitynow@gmail.com

Processions 2018 March in London on Sunday 10 June. 

Tens of thousands of women and girls came together in celebration of 100 years of female suffrage and we loved being part of it.

I had the chance to be part of this historic day via going on the coach trip with METAL Liverpool with an amazing group of Scouse Women whilst representing Essex Women with my #EssexWomen t-shirt.

And amazingly I got to march with my Mama - artist Penny Stanford, on her first ever march.

She and did we an amazing day to march alongside so many women and girls from all walks of life…

Thanks to Artichoke for co-designing and birthing into reality this and the other marches across the UK.

Antiuniversity NOW in Liverpool

walk, talk & lunch to share

9th June 2018

11am - 4pm

with Anna B. Sexton, Jed Barr, John Byrne

BOOK - http://bit.ly/AntiUniLIverpool9thJune18

11am An un-guided wander tour through Liverpool heading into Toxteth, L8

1.30pm Working Lunch and Discussion @ Squash Nutrition, 112-114 Windsor Street, Liverpool, L8 8EQL

4pm Ends

Meander through Liverpool’s lesser known topography leading towards Toxteth, L8.

Following the successful Time Tunnel 1968-2018 walk, talk & lunch Anna B. Sexton, Jed Barr & John Byrne will carry on the format of a walk starting 11am outside John Lennon Building, Liverpool School of Art and Design, Liverpool John Moores University, 2 Duckinfield St, Liverpool, L3 5RD

Together we will take in sights & sounds depending on where those who join the event want to stop, take in & share stories about leading to Squash Nutrition, 112-114 Windsor Street, Liverpool, L8 8EQL

Over lunch we will discuss ideas brought up at the Time Tunnel 1968 - 2018 working lunch 13th May 2018 to see where ideas for an antiuniversity art school could evolve to...

FAQs

Please bring cash or cards for the cafe - you can check out the selection of locally sourced food http://squashliverpool.co.uk/

Please bring some water, decent walking shoes, sun cream and an openess to share any ideas you have for growing Antiuniversity NOW across Liverpool.

The Antiuniversity is shaped by everyone who takes part, as organiser, host or guest.

Initiated in 2015, Antiuniversity Now was set up to reignite the 1968 Antiuniversity of London with the intention to challenge academic and class hierarchy and the exclusivity of the £9K-a-year-degree by inviting people to organise and share learning events in public spaces all over the country. In Liverpool, this collaborative experiment is being initiated by Time Tunnel in collaboration with Uses of Art Lab, ART Labs LJMU, artist Anna B. Sexton and Jenny Porter from Metal, Liverpool.

Free and open to all regardless of experience, background, age or qualification. Whether you have a passion, a hobby or enthusiasm for a certain topic we want to hear your ideas for talks, workshops, seminars, screenings and any other form of collective learning.

Antiuniversity operates with no budget – all events are free to attend and all organising is done on a voluntary basis.http://www.antiuniversity.org

Please book a place through Event Brite.

For more information about Antiuniversity NOW http://www.antiuniversity.org/

For more about the history of the original Antiuniversity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbi_KgBA7-c

Back of da block woodblock letterpress print has been selected to be in the neo:ProofPrint group show.

The exhibition intends to raise awareness of new trends and directions in contemporary printmaking, from the traditional to the digital, by showcasing excellence and innovation.

100+ contemporary visual artists will be selected to take part in the exhibition. 30 artists will be further selected for the ultimate Proof Print Exchange 2018.

The exhibition opens 26th May 2018 until 8th July 2018 at neo:studios; an artist led, not-for-profit organisation, founded to aid the development of creative practitioners.

http://www.neoartists.co.uk/

As part of Time Tunnel May 1968 - 2018 International Festival of art, music and performance John Byrne & I will take a meander from John Lennon Art School towards to the Fabric District.

13th May 2018 11am - 2.30pm

Imagine an Antiuniversity NOW in Liverpool with John Byrne Anna B. Sexton

Through this artist led walk and ‘working lunch’ once we arrive at The Tapestry Building, in the Fashion District, Liverpool.

BOOK HERE - http://bit.ly/13thMayLiverpoolWalkLunch

The walk aims to be a catalyst for discussions about the Antiuniversity movement and ways we could plan some events in Liverpool between 9th - 15th June 2018.

Please bring some food to share and any ideas you have for an Antiuniversity event. The Antiuniversity is shaped by everyone who takes part, as organiser, host or guest.

Initiated in 2015, Antiuniversity Now was set up to reignite the 1968 Antiuniversity of London with the intention to challenge academic and class hierarchy and the exclusivity of the £9K-a-year-degree by inviting people to organise and share learning events in public spaces all over the country. In Liverpool, this collaborative experiment is being initiated by Time Tunnel in collaboration with Uses of Art Lab, ART Labs LJMU and artist Anna B. Sexton.

Free and open to all regardless of experience, background, age or qualification. Whether you have a passion, a hobby or enthusiasm for a certain topic we want to hear your ideas for talks, workshops, seminars, screenings and any other form of collective learning.

Antiuniversity operates with no budget – all events are free to attend and all organising is done on a voluntary basis.
http://www.antiuniversity.org

The ticket can be for the walk and/or the working lunch.

Move your body through a speculative walk, open your mind through new conversations, see new sight lines of Liverpool and self organise ways to take alternative models of teaching, making and learning forward over lunch.

We are also calling out for local artists and creatives who are interested in documenting the processes of the talks, walk and shared food to start an Antiuniversity NOW Liverpool library at this, our first event.

For the whole May 1968 / May 2018 Time Tunnel Liverpool programme visit http://timetunnel.johnhyatt.co.uk/

For more information about Antiuniversity NOW http://www.antiuniversity.org/

For more about the history of the original Antiuniversity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbi_KgBA7-c

On 25 April 2018, Hospital Rooms hosted an exhibition to celebrate the completion of our project at Eileen Skellern 1, a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit for women at Maudsley Hospital. Taking place at Griffin Gallery in London, the exhibition showcased the work that our artists, Julian Opie, Aimee Mullins, Harold Offeh, Nengi Omuku, Tamsin Relly, Paresha Amin and Tim A Shaw, had created for the unit in collaboration with patients and staff. 

During the exhibition, over 100 artists donated artworks that were 20x20cm to be sold anonymously for £50 each to raise money for our most urgent upcoming projects. We are so grateful to all of the artists as well as everyone who bought a piece. The initiative raised £8,000 and will enable us to continue our work. 

https://hospital-rooms.com/20x20-fundraiser/

The early stage artist proof of a wood cut print project working with Ken Burnley @ Juniper Press @ The Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool.

Using a set of vintage wood block plates flipped around to explore the hidden wood grain, marks made over the course of time of use to bring in more abstract, fine art elements in the letterpress studio.

The idea is to work up a series of 10 sets of backs and flip side fronts with the plates.

TOMA has a *NEW* project space opening.

TOMA artists will be making work there + the space will be open to the public.

To kick off the new development for the growing The Other MA / TOMA community of artists Emma Edmondson is curarting a drawing show with TOMA artists from the current year 1 and year 2 groups and TOMA Alumni.

ALL WELCOME from 11am - 6pm on the opening Sat 3rd March.

Usual opening times thereafter every Thursday + Saturday 10am - 4pm.

Playing House suite, 2017

made for Ten 2 One show

Much time, energy and labour is needed to juggle the day to day of working, studying, travelling and all the life admin that goes with the ‘juggling’.

Lived experience of precarious living situations and this year a previous flat lived in being demolished this made me deepen existing themes in my work about home, belonging and belongings collected along the way, often kept as keepsakes, nostalgia or for legal reasons

“You are only free when you realise you belong no place, you belong everyplace, no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great.”

Maya Angelou

Ten 2 One
||| TOMA end of year exhibition |||

Beecroft Art Gallery, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, SS2 6EX
25 November 2017 - 3 February 2018

Private view: Saturday 25 Nov 3pm - 5pm
Afterparty: 25 Nov 5pm - 9pm @ Twenty One, Unit 21, Pier Approach, SS1 2EH

TOMA* artists bring the first twelve months of this alternative art education programme to a close with their end of year show. The first TOMA cohort of ten have spent twelve months on the artist participant shaped unaccredited art MA and this exhibition is a reflection on and the culmination of making, learning and discourse outside the traditional art school institution. Join us for drinks, interventions and performances for the opening event and afterparty.

TOMA 2016 artists are:

Michaela Bannon
Richard Baxter
Matthew Curtis-Knight
Emma Edmondson
Laurence Harding
Emma Mills
Tricia North
Ian A. Ryan
Anna B. Sexton
Imogen Welch

*The Other MA (TOMA) is an alternative art education model set up in 2015 by practicing artist, Emma Edmondson, working in partnership with Metal Southend. Designed to fit the everyday lives of contemporary artists TOMA is a response to the barriers that some face in accessing many traditional art MA models (work & family commitments, cost, geography).

Ten students are selected each year by a panel of tutor mentors, previous artist participants and representatives from Metal. Once selected, TOMA artists directly steer the study programme (working with administrative support from Metal) choosing those who come to teach on it and the topics explored. TOMA artists also host public facing projects and exhibitions as part of their time on the course. TOMA is currently based at Metal in Southend.

Twitter: @theotherma_TOMA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/theotherma 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theotherma/
More information: Contact toma@metalculture.com

What role does creativity have to play in the ongoing and increasingly urgent set of debates around sustainability and what it really means to co-create an inheritable world for future generations?

I am leading the development of a group of artists, makers, writers, consultants and fellow RSA Fellows to uncover different ways of celebrating what has already taken place, is currently being created and where these paths could lead us to in the future...

"The creativity & sustainability sub-group will develop conversations, ideas and actions to take forward around the themes of creative responses to sustainability, specifically looking across creative making and arts practices linked to sustainability. The first outcome of the sub-group will be to research previous work done by the RSA, for example, the Arts & Ecology programme 2005-2010, and write blog post/article about this for the RSA website/magazine indicating how the sub-group can build on this. The sub-group actively invites innovators within the fields to get involved."

https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/SustainabilityNetwork/rsa-sustainability-network-sub-group

Sensory Essex is a socially engaged arts research project seeking to find out more about the county of Essex in United Kingdom, the county I was born and raised in until 9 years old.

SURVEY - HERE

The basis of the project is that in my experience Essex, UK is a vibrant, colourful and inspiring place full of amazing histories, current cultural inspirations and the place in my bones I feel is 'home'.

As I place I most identify with coming from I have long been curious about what makes Essex tick.

From April 2017 I will be sharing a series of questions online seeking to to discover more about what it means to come from the county of Essex, UK by people who come* from Essex, UK.

TAKE PART - HERE

I will then collect, collate and make a series of responses to the responses linked to being part of the 1st TOMA/The Other MA programme.

* Either born in Essex and / or live there now.
 

A group show by artists Laurence Harding, Emma Mills + Anna B. Sexton.

Each artist identifies as an Essex woman. Either through being born and raised in Essex, or via making Essex their home and raising their family here.

Their collaboration began through using Laurence’s collection of archive studio photography from the 1800s as a starting point.  All three women wanted to question, uncover and celebrate the differing stories and opinions about what it means to be an Essex woman.    

Through a series of conversations, gallery visits and shared meals, the concept of running a pop up photo studio in Southend high street was agreed upon. Emma instigated a series of conversations with local people about what the label ‘Essex girl’ means to them, with Anna asking her Sensory Essex / Brand Essex survey questions http://bit.ly/BrandEssexSurvey whilst Laurence took modern day photographic portraits of the women involved.

Thrown into the mix to inspire randomness books on women’s art, the sex lives of English women, outsider art, Law of Attraction and love were ripped up and split three ways to inspire further ways of looking at labelling and supposed ‘expert’ points of view of women.

Each artist has played with the resulting images, text and survey results to produce the work shown together. The aim is for each piece to work in conversation with those they are hung with.

Through the exhibition you are invited to explore your connection with each woman, imagine your own and possible shared histories whilst asking yourself what being from or working in Essex means to you...

www.laurencehardingphotography.co.uk

www.em-art-therapy.co.uk

Imagine delving deeply into your creative map of the world during time spent together over 3 days and 2 nights during the blooming of the early summer months...

You will be fueled by the creative company of only 9 other guests, nurtured by home cooked, locally sourced food and kept toasty warm by a well stoked wood burner.

Anna B. Sexton - artist, coach & nature lover is hosting this creativity retreat in a cosy, exclusive and rarely visited National Trust property with a twist. Northey Island is a secret treasure and just over an 1 hour out of London. You are in safe hands with over 25 years experience of working with people using the outdoors and creativity to inspire transformation.

Hannah-Kate Meredith - vegan chef, passionate about wellness & drawing will be our Chief Food Creator for our 3 days way... the sister of the Hackney based Meredith Siblings who formed W_H_O_L_E to bring the very best of vegan and veggie food to your plate whilst being totally doable on all wallets!

Penny Stanford - book binder, print maker and artist educator (+ Anna's amazing Mama) will be guiding us to hand make our very own personal treasure book that will act as the living sketch book during our days together.

The Island boasts unrivaled unspoilt and hardly seen natural landscape, brisk sea wall walks and stunning views across the Blackwash in Essex. If you are a bird lover this is an absolute must see!

We are planning a walk to the Petrified Oak Forest at Mundon - a rare natural beauty of a forest literally frozen in time.

During your retreat there are choices to work with the range of group creative making and growing sessions and more creative tools from one to one coaching sessions and walking meditations. We are here to serve you and shape the best possible retreat for you...

FIND OUT MORE & BOOK http://bit.ly/creativityretreat17

As part of Wandsworth Fringe Festival 2017

A two-and-a-half hour loosely guided creative walk with your hosts, Anna B. Sexton and Fanny Martin.

6th May or 20th May 2017 1pm - 3.30pm

Expect to be inspired and surprised by the surroundings of Nine Elms using creative conversations and thinking tools whilst walking.

We will meet outside Brunswick House and set off at 1pm, so make sure to allow plenty of time to get there.

The pace is nice and slow, suitable for all ages. Dress for the weather, wear comfy shoes and feel free to bring your camera, sketch book or audio recorder.

“The beauty is in the walking – we are betrayed by destinations.” - Gwyn Thomas

Meeting point - 30 Wandsworth Road, Vauxhall, London SW8 2LG
30 Wandsworth Road
Vauxhall
SW8 2LG

Buy tickets HERE

Following the annual Celtic year from November through to October each year The Circle of Trees is a bi-monthly eco-arts therapy group I attend to support myself, my practice and deepen my ability to connect to my own nature and the natural worlds.

Gary Nash & Vanessa Jones, arts therapists, use the book Environmental arts therapy and the Tree of Life; a monthly guide to your Soul's Journey on this Beautiful Earth by Ian Siddons Heginworth (Spirits Rest 2008) as the core tool to lead our journey of creative exploration...

Disrupting The Archives

A group show by The Other MA (TOMA) artists at The Beecroft Gallery, Southend, Essex

25th February - April 2017

I will be making a mix media based piece/response to the painting -  Proximity by Norman Charles Blamey.

The image shown on this blog comes via Art UK website

http://artuk.org/discover/artworks/proximity-2842#

This creative supper club with a twist came about as a practical & creative response to Remeberance Day for Lost Species 30th November 2016.

Read more about the day and the different artists & activists who are making events happen across the globe in Jeremy Hance's recent article - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2016/nov/19/extinction-remembrance-day-theatre-ritual-thylacine-grief?CMP=twt_a-world_b-gdnworld

Did you know about the demise of the Dodo?

30th November 2016

6.45pm - 9.45pm

We thought we did but actually it's a bit of an urban myth that when we read more into it we were compelled to do the decent thing and hold memoral dinner dedicated to perhaps what used to be the world's most well know extinction.

I am using my creativity to highlight
Remembrance Day For Lost Species in a light hearted, fun & community spirited way.

I trust you will dress accordingly for the nature of the dedication! Dress code - blues, feathers, flamboyance!

Book your place

http://bit.ly/DodoDinnerNov16

I am pleased to be part of the 1st ever The Other MA (TOMA) starting in September 2016.

The Other MA (TOMA) is a 12-month alternative art education model, set up by practicing artists and based at Metal Art School in Southend-on-Sea.

I will be working alongside the following artists;

Michaela Bannon

Richard Baxter

Matthew Curtis-Knight

Emma Edmondson

Laurence Harding

Emma Mills

Tricia North

Ian Ryan

Imogen Welch

More about each artist's work via

http://www.metalculture.com/introducing-the-exciting-toma-artists/

My online scrapbook/pins of personal inspiration, guest artists & tangents can be viewed

https://uk.pinterest.com/annabesexton/anna-b-sexton-toma/

I have begun to seek out more physical/performative actions in public/private spaces of parks, pavements and waterways.

I run Get Lost Artist Walks as part of Changemakers Festival, Antiuniversity, Festival of Human Organising, London Creativity and Wellbeing week and Find Your London Festival. Recent walks have been for Open School East - Open Ended weekend December 2016.

Through these walks you are invited to creatively play with randomness, open questions and conversations with strangers to open up to new ways of thinking and being.

Email me for more information about hosting or commissioning a walk - anna@opentocreate.com

Enrol in a mini Antiuniversity for one day only.

Visit the Library to write your own story and make your own book to take home.

Have fun in the Games Room playing The Journey Home Game. Explore home, family, shelter, community, the world around you, and your own inner peace. Compete or collaborate, the choice is yours.

In the Common Room, join deep:black and their Birds Crossing Borders project - a safe space for dialogue and connection, where people can get in touch with each other, be touched by each others stories, bear witness and spread hope.

Suitable for human beings who are curious, creative and open minded.

Family friendly and accessible.

Curated by Anna B. Sexton, artist and founder of Open To Create
www.opentocreate.wordpress.com

Penny Stanford, book binding and print maker
www.cargocollective.com/pennystanford

Jennifer Kavanagh, originator of the Journey Home Game
www.ourneyhomegame.com

deep:black and Birds Crossing Borders
www.birdscrossingborders.wordpress.com

www.hackney.gov.uk
www.facebook.com/HackneyMuseum

The Mental Health Foundationcommissioned the Anxiety Arts Festival London 2014. It featured over 50 events, including new commissions and UK premieres.

Anxiety 2014 was a new ground breaking London-wide arts festival, curated by the Mental Health Foundation and taking place throughout June 2024.

The festival explored anxiety, looking at its causes, how it affects all of our lives, and how it can act as a creative force.

It brought together leading and emerging artists to address anxiety from different angles: from medical, social and historical perspectives to individual, collective and contemporary viewpoints.

Anxiety 2014 presented a dynamic programme of visual art, film, performance, music, dance, theatre and talks spanning venues across London, including leading arts organisations, universities, health care institutions and community centres.

The London wide festival continued the Mental Health Foundation’s tradition of bringing together mental health and the arts, which began in 2007 with the highly successful annual Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival HERE

READ - Anxiety Arts Festival London 2024 programme

HERE

Festival Director: Errol Francis

Film Curator: Jonathan Keane

Learning and Communities Curator: Anna B Sexton

Visual Arts Curator: Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz

Marketing Officer: Natoya Raymond

Communications Consultant: Penny Sychrava

Digital Advisor: Marie James

Performing Arts Programmers: Nike Jonah and Isobel Hawson

Festival Projects Assistant: Scarlett Spiro-Beazley

Graphic Design: Praline

“Documenting little details of your everyday life becomes a celebration of who you are.”
― Carolyn V. Hamilton, Art Improv 101: How to Create a Personal Art Journal

My creative supper clubs are curated to celebrate creative making in the company of like-minded people with yummy home cooked food, gentle & playful creative play and great conversation.

Each year the RCA run an open call to artists to take part in their RCA Secret group show... each card then sold at a 'blind' auction raises funds to create bursary places for the RCA BA & MA courses...

Say hello, wave goodbye - 100 images capturing 2 years as a live/work artist in Poplar & Bow, East London.  Exhibited at Mile End Pavillion Gallery space, Summer 2011.

BAT Pack II was an exhibition initiated by the Art Forum, Mile End Art Pavilion. All artists were part of the live/work scheme in Bow, set up by Bow Arts Trust and Poplar HARCA.

Exhibiting artists
Tamsyn Adams, Said Adrus, David Angus, Zsolt Balogh, Tim Bowditch, Anika Carpenter, Louisa Chambers, Jessica Charleston, Marcus Cope, Chloe Cooper, Robert Crosse, Shane Davey, Matt Deely, Chloe Edwards, Lee Edwards, Magda Fabianczyk, Julie Fagan, Corinne Felgate, David Fletcher, Tilly Fowler, Uschi Gatward, Greg Genestine-Charlton, Paul Good, Joe Graham, Kata Halasz, Rab Harling, Ollie Harrop, Olof Helgadottir, Megan Hindley, Siân Hislop, Ellie Howitt, Victoria Hume, Bhajan Hunjan, Lisa Jahovic, Matthew Krishanu, Lise Marker, Lisa McKendrick, Riz Maslen, Gary Meynell, Stephanie Moran, Kimie Nakano, Sandrine Nicoletta, Theo Niderost, Alex Noble, Samuel Overington, Alice Peillon, Sybella Perry, Alison Raimes, Chloë Roach, Emma Robertson, Colin Rose, Rebecca Savage, Anna B. Sexton, Ruth Solomons, Simon Terrill, Evan Thomas, Ben Walker, John Walter, Stuart Ward and Bryony Hewetson, Jeremy Willett, Kirsty Wood

During London Architecture Festival 2011 I created a pop up library to share  range of random books taken from my personal book shelf, labelled up with an ex-libris card and left for the public to take, as they wished.

This random act of art formed part of a wider series of interventions made by a group of architecture students visiting from Austria in Stroudley Walk, Bow, East London.

Their events included a full seated meal in the open air, pop up barbeque, games and painting a blue line through the main public walk way in the shopping arcade.

Taxing - a mixed media installation as part of the group show - Bank of Knowledge, at the Parlour Gallery and Project Space, London.

The piece evolved out of being aware that every year I carry of freelancing I gain a huge amount of paperwork that needs to be kept for HMRC/tax records. This starts to be a real burden when needing to move around... so I shred the year furthest away I no longer needed. Put the shredded pieces of paper into 100 plastic sealed bags.

Visitors to the gallery could take one or more, a handful even from the Taxing piece... 

14th Floor is a documentary film by Shane Davey about the history of social housing in Tower Hamlets. Using rarely seen imagery from the archive collections and interviews with former and current residents, architects, artists and historians, the film charts the development of social housing in the East End.

Davey who lived in Poplar explained: “The unique context provided by the extreme deprivation and slum clearances of the 19th century and the postwar reconstruction of the Blitz-damaged borough provided fertile ground for experimentation in addressing key issues of poverty and regeneration. But how did this affect the lives of local people and families, whose homes were lost, made and re-made?”

14th Floor had its premiere at Rochelle School (the former school which served the first Old Nichol slum and later the Boundary Estate and is now a converted gallery) October 2010.

As part of an ongoing programme matching up artists from different disciplines I was super fortunate to be matched with poet Miriam Nash between November 2010 - May 2011.

During this period we worked with what we found in the street and shared our musings, images & sketches via a blog called

https://collaborarting.wordpress.com

https://pistolsandpollinators.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/interview-with-artist-anna-sexton-and-poet-miriam-nash-previous-participants-in-2010s-pistols-pollinators/

The work we created became a book of poems called 'All Around Our Houses' and an installation piece using plates to represent each poem within a room set using found and personal objects.

Pistols & Pollinators is run by Accident & Emergence (A&E), an interdisciplinary arts project founded by Ellie Howitt and Anika Carpenter in 2007. Participants in Pistols & Pollinators (P&P) are paired with someone from a different discipline, to work in a collaborative partnership, giving them the opportunity to take risks with their own creative practice, and explore the process of others. P&P allows the freedom to experiment without the pressure to produce something ‘finished’.

https://pistolsandpollinators.wordpress.com/

Greening Brownfield community garden and food growing space first came to life as the one idea a wide range of residents living on the Brownfield estate, Poplar, East London could all agree was the most needed at a time of upheaval due to major regeneration works. 

Initially, a 'temporary' garden was formed on a disused tennis court outside Carradale House, next to Balfron Tower - both designed by architect Erno Goldfinger.

Slowly over the time all the different inputs from residents and other community stakeholders the garden has become more and more of a permanent feature...

Anna's role with fellow artist Anna Bauer was to work together with Brownfield local residents, resident's committees, Poplar HARCA, Tower Hamlets Council and English Heritage to craft funding proposals, work with groups to be the muscle when tonnes of soil was delivered and once funding was secured support the growth of the garden.

http://greeningbrownfield.blogspot.co.uk/

The garden has gone on to be included in the re-master planning of the Grade 2 listed overall redevelopment of the Brownfield Estate.

The garden and our approach has been highlighted as an example of best practice in high-rise living via The Green Alliance.

http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/resources/A%20better%20place%20to%20live%20-%20a%20toolkit%20for%20high%20rise%20green%20living.pdf

The record of the evolution of an artist living/working/creating in a live/workspace as part of the artist 'experiment' 'colony' created by Bow Arts and Poplar HARCA between April 2009 - June 2011... 

The apartment was on the 3rd floor of Carradale House, designed by Erno Goldfinger as part of  The Brownfield Estate, Poplar, East London.

http://ilove32carradalehouse.blogspot.co.uk/

A community of people living and working in Enford, Wiltshire came together facilitated by Anna B. Sexton & James Aldridge to mark the end of the village hall as was, before it's demolision. The project aimed to capture ideas and commitments to what the new programme of activities could be in the new village hall and sports centre.

A group show of 6 artists who graduated from Liverpool John Moores University, returning to the city after 5 years...

Sally Byers

Trudi Kemp

Benn Linnell

Joh Morris

Anna B. Sexton

Ellen Stewart

Curated by Felicity Wren, curator / founder of Domino Gallery, Liverpool.