About Me

Hi all,

My name is Kate, and I'm an inclusive arts practitioner. For those of you who don't work in this field, it basically means that I facilitate workshops, co-run and lead on arts projects working with groups of people who do not necessarily have easy access to arts provision, or are often excluded from mainstream arts work.

I have been thinking for some time now that I would like to start a blog, to document and comment on my own work, to muse, and also to potentially create a space for debate and discussion, though I mustn't get ahead of myself! So this is my first post, definitely sparked by the response to the rioting in London. It is a desire to discuss difficult issues and create an active response to what is happening in the society around me. It is all very well, and necessary, to discuss events over a cup of tea with housemates in your own kitchen, or exchange bewilderment on a park bench with a friend, but I have been grateful to read people's online comment and join a wider debate, to help me make sense of things. So it is an understanding that I would like to contribute and discuss things in a public context.

I have called my blog Long Time No See for a reason. It is the name that I am hoping to give to my own arts company. I have been considering for some time setting up my own arts company, but currently I am still learning about myself as an artist who flies solo, and I don't feel quite ready to set up shop and go limited just yet. But it is a name that I like because it expresses something about how I feel about inclusion. I think the phrase long time no see, for most people, conjures images of meeting up with an old friend that you haven't seen for years and your pleasure at this reconnection. For me, this is the experience I hope to create through my arts work. I want people to watch a show with a cast entirely of people aged over 65 and suddenly see people that they have been walking past on the street, queuing behind on the bus, brushing shoulders with in the market, and realise, "Wow, I never noticed them before", and to feel some connection, to feel a sense of pleasure and excitement at making this connection. Long time no see.

I think my work is about making people visible who are often invisible, about establishing everyone's equal right to a stake in our society, to be heard and valued in the same way. And I would like to believe that, perhaps, all it takes is a bit of eye opening - it isn't that we don't or have never seen marginalised and isolated community groups, because they are physically there, and we needs must have contact with them because they live in the world with us. It is just about having lost touch with them - we need an opportunity to reconnect and to say, "Long time no see".

And also, importantly, the name sprung out of humour. I do a lot of work with visually impaired people, and in response to the threat of a group I work with having to close, I decided to investigate starting my own organisation so that the work could continue. And the name Long Time No See sprung into my head. I think that a sense of fun and vitality is vital in inclusive work. It doesn't always have to be issue-based, political and heavy. Sometimes simply working with a particular demographic and putting them on stage or giving them an opportunity to have a voice is a political act in and of itself.

Thanks for reading and welcome to my blog.