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| Creative Debuts credit |
Hello lovely peopleeeee! What a crazy couple of weeks it has been. This year has been (so far) the busiest, craziest learning curve of my life but it hasn't come without it's perks. At the start of this month I was invited to travel down to to Shoreditch, London to meet up with a bunch of other young artists as part of an event with Instagram and Creative Debuts.
Creative Debuts provide a free platform for young artists to exhibit their work, and they also hold awesome events weekly to join together creative minds. Honestly the whole thing made me want to move to Shoreditch, it was all so ALIVE!
Mike Krieger (the co-founder of Instagram) attended too and we had a nice chat about how he'd caught our skies on a good day (what's more British than talking about the weather?) before he headed to give a small welcome speech to the rest of the creatives and I.
There were free cocktails, which were super yummy, and a DJ to keep the chill vibes going. They even had a table full of fresh pizza for us alongside about a million pens to draw with. Amazingly, mini canvases lined the tables with our Instagram handles painted on, ready for us to make some 'mini-masterpieces' in lieu of #FreeArtFriday!
The energy in the room was unbelievable as everyone got stuck into making tiny creations. I work in a studio space but with everyone on tight deadlines, high energy isn't always our forté. This was the opposite.
Give a group of artists free reign over a bunch of mess-making materials and you end up with beautiful artwork, drawings on tables, new friends and incredible energy!
It was so lovely to be surrounded by people who feel as passionately about creating as I do. Talking to them about how long they'd been drawing and why made me realise even more that creativity, as an outlet, is so close to the hearts of everyone who uses it. The talent in the room definitely made me question myself, haha!
During his talk, Mike humbly touched on how Instagram came about, why, and his role in the making of the app which has really revolutionised how we share our work in the modern world. I am admittedly, slightly obsessed with it...
It's hard to believe that such a massive platform came from an idea in someone's head- imagine waking up and having an idea that would change so much about the creative industry, let alone your own life. Having the idea is one thing but putting it in place, bringing it to fruition while turning it into something everyone can enjoy is something I truly admire.
In fact, it has inspired me two write down every idea I get no matter how small or 'bad' I believe them to be at the time.
And no, I did not ask him to switch the app's feed to chronological order (cough, wink), although it was nice to share ideas and feedback about the platform such as being able to:
- preview your feed before you post (they just added an archive option which I will be using ALL THE TIME THANK YOU INSTAGRAM)
- move your grid around
- etc, etc.
Heading home was sad as I could've stayed all night! My fingers are crossed that some places up North will spot this post and choose to hold events similar to this, especially you Manchester! The music scene is so prominent in most cities I've visited, but why not the art scene?
You don't have to be a professional artist to make art. It starts with the most simple of steps!
Thank you so much Creative Debuts and Instagram for the invite and I'm sure I will be seeing you next time in London! I'll be heading down there again this month for the Blogosphere Blog Awards (STOKED) where I'm nominated for Lifestyle Blog of the Year alongside some of my favourite bloggers. Literally blown away, haha. Thank you to anybody who has voted for me or nominated me, my heeeeeart.
What do you use Instagram for? Do you think they could make it better? Also let me know if you know of any other events like this, I'd love to go!
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