Flow Observatorium: Report of 2021 -2022
Flow went into 2021 with Covid still casting its shadow across everyday life, lockdown restrictions only gradually being lifted as the year rolled on and forcing the continued development and implementation of innovative ways of working. The Kongress project that had started the previous year, commissioned and funded by Arts Council England to look at ‘barriers to engagement in the arts for Neurodivergent people’, was brought to a successful conclusion. We worked closely with Dan Thompson, who fulfilled a vital management role, commissioning him and 5 other Neurodivergent artists to join us in creating work that illustrated some of the key barriers described by survey respondents.
After we presented our results at Mozilla Festival to an international audience early in 2021, the finished report was submitted to ACE in June 2021; we understand it was well received. A website was created for Kongress as well as a blog for Flow Observatorium through which we could share our activities. We have continued to strengthen our relationships locally as well as internationally including supporting and working with PACF (Portsmouth Autism Community Forum) on arts and policy, AH (Autism Hampshire), PCOS (Portsmouth City of Sanctuary) with whom officially we are the lead for PCOS for Autistic People. For PCOD we held a mornings training on Autism/Neurodiversity as part of a series of equality workshops they ran for organisations in the city.
We partnered with PACF and were part of a successful Portsmouth bid alongside Portsmouth Creates and others with ‘YouTrust’ leading the ‘Thriving Communities’ to gain some funding to run creative sessions on prescription for Autistic people in Portsmouth which has developed into an ‘ongoing program’ of arts and peer support both face to face and online nationally. We believe that appropriate mental health support for autistic people is difficult to find and know the value of engendering belonging and using innate creativity to support our wellbeing. We will be running this group, renamed ‘KoCreate’ whether we are funded to do so or not as it has proved very valuable to the participants.
For 22/23 we are concentrating on diversifying our funding streams and increasing participation along with awareness of who we are and what we wish to do. We are keen to open the charity to additional trustees, with equality knowledge and the representation of wider cultural and social narratives and experiences.
Jon, our artistic director, continued to suffer from PTSD throughout 21/22 but started intensive treatment late autumn lasting through till the end of spring 22 which impacted on his work time/capacity but liberated him from the trauma. As CEV Jon was still isolating and being unable to safely travel to deliver his usual talks/ create artwork was working ‘online’ potentially reaching a wider audience and learning digital skill sets. He continued to work on his personal practice online and also advising and advocating drawn from his personal expertises of being an autistic and Neurodivergent person.
He was commissioned to create an artwork for a Portsmouth community arts Festival called ‘We shine 21’. His idea drew on his lockdown experiences and curiosity walking each day in the local cemetery as one of the only large nature filled spaces in the city. His artwork ‘a walk in the narrows’ was an interactive map and narrative sound narration consisting of 13 stops through out the cemetery which people could follow, experience and discover. Due to this Jon was asked to contribute to ‘We shine 22’ but chose to ask the producers for this to be a ‘Flow KoCreate’ commission to create a video, sound and light installation with both groups contributing (more about this successful project in the 22/23 report). He’s continued to advise and advocate for others mental health despite his situation and has been awarded an ‘Autism Hero Award’ from Autism Hampshire. His short story ‘A konversation of sparrows’ was published in 2021.
Flow Observatorium
Portsmouth Guildhall Guildhall Square Portsmouth PO1 2AB Registered Charity Number: 1177328
Images top to bottom:
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An image used on the Kongress report website commissioned for the project. Alt: abstract creatures twisted to form a circular blue design
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An image of the homepage of the Flow Observatorium website showing menus and the choice of pages Alt: A screenshot of the home page which includes a list of blog posts each introduced with an image of a cat which we use to introduce each new blog post.
https://flowobsad.wixsite.com/flow-observatorium
- An image of the resource page of the Flow Observatorium website showing the ‘resources’ page where the report for arts Council can be downloaded Alt: A screenshot of the resources page which includes three sections each with an abstract image of a tone where you can download a neurodivergent manifesto, the Kongress report and a ND language guide.
https://flowobsad.wixsite.com/flow-observatorium/resources
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The Design for flows KoCreate group used to advertise the sessions - Alt: Four coloured pencils resting on a green background with the writing ‘creativity sessions for autistic people by autistic creatives’
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Map of Kingston Cemetery made by our artistic director as a commission for ‘We shine 2021’ (which led to the KoCreate autistic creatives group commission for 2022.) - Alt: A grey coloured map of Kingston Cemetery Portsmouth almost looking like a head in profile with a route for users to follow marked in white with many stops, the text for each positioned around the edges
| EXPENDITURE | FLOW OSERVATORIUM INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT 2021/2022 |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DATE | PAYEE | ITEM | KONGRESS | KOCREATE | OTHER | TOTALS | |
| 08/07/2021 | Ben Parker | Artists fee | 600.00 | 600.00 | |||
| 08/07/2021 | Dan Thompson | Artists fee | 1000.00 | 1000.00 | |||
| 08/07/2021 | E M Weston | Admin fee | 350.00 | 350.00 | |||
| 08/07/2021 | Jon Adams | Fee(Artistic Director) | 1,000.00 | 1,000.00 | |||
| 08/07/2021 | Jon Adams | Equipment | 459.00 | 459.00 | |||
| 08/07/2021 | Jon Adams | Fee(Artistic Director) | 1,300.00 | 1,300.00 | |||
| 08/07.2021 | Jon Adams | Fee(Project Manager) | 2,750.00 | 2,750.00 | |||
| 01/10/2021 | E M Weston | Online resources(Zoom Subscription) | 143.88 | 143.88 | |||
| Total expenditure | 7,109 | 143.88 | 350.00 | £7,602.88 | |||
| INCOME | |||||||
| Carried Forward | 11,222.12 | ||||||
| Arts Councilgrant(Kongress)finalpayment | 1,500 | ||||||
| Total income | 12,722.12 | ||||||
| Less expenditure | 7,602.88 | ||||||
| To be carried forward | £5,119.24 | ||||||
Elizabeth Weston Chair 31.01.23