ART IS NOT ONLY JOYFUL AND DEEPLY SATISFYING, IT HELPS US ARTICULATE DIFFICULT FEELINGS, PROCESS THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES, AND REDUCES ISOLATION. THESE EFFECTS ARE COMPOUNDED WHEN CREATORS CAN CONNECT AROUND A UNIFIED PURPOSE, PROGRESS THEIR CRAFT, AND BUILD RELATIONSHIPS.
CALM ART CLUB
WHAT IS THE CALM ART CLUB?
The CALM Art Club is a creative space for art lovers and artists of all disciplines and experience to chat, collaborate and inspire each other. It’s about getting many heads and hands around various ideas and provocations to push forward the conversation on mental health and self-expression.
The CALM Art Club is a place to embrace creativity, explore self expression, meet like-minded creators, and, tbh, just have a good time doing something you love.
If you join our Club you get:
- Quarterly newsletter with videos and articles about well-being and art and all things CALM
- An online community of passionate and like-minded mates and mentors through our Facebook Group
- Q&As with artists and experts
- Invites to exclusive events and exhibitions
- Quarterly briefs to challenge and inspire with the opportunity to share your work at The Other Art Fair
Nope, you don’t have to live in London to enjoy the CALM Art Club. If your digs are in Dundee, Derby or Dublin you can still join, create and share.
JOIN A COMMUNITY OF CREATORS...
Join us to connect, converse, collaborate and campaign – for a life less miserable.
MEET GOMMIE: AN ARTIST FROM OUR ART Club
CALM supporter, artist and poet GOMMIE wasn’t always that confident about sharing his pieces. In his twenties he hit some low points, but would always keep diaries – it was his place of solace. But things started to change when he shared his work.
CHECK OUT THE CALM ART Club ONLINE GALLERY!
As the Art Club has grown, CALM decided to regularly challenge this community with some creative briefs. These briefs have ket our community creative and also produced some brilliant and varied pieces of art.
This online gallery showcases the responses of our Art Club to these briefs.
BRIEF 1: THE JOURNEY
In collaboration with CALM ambassadors, the Connor Brothers and The Other Art Fair.
The creative process doesn’t involve just one idea – it’s a journey, the culmination of many different thoughts and changes and shifting perspectives that have to be combined.
The setbacks. The barriers. The hope. The breakthroughs.
In this way it mirrors our journey with mental health. We gain greater understanding of ourselves through going through the process – even though it’s often invisible to the people around us.
BRIEF 2: HOPE IN LOCKDOWN
There was lots of talk about making the most of lockdown and being more creative was at the top of many hypothetical to do lists. Now, here at CALM, we feel just getting through lockdown deserves a lot of credit – never mind having the fortitude to have made anything or finding a regular creative spark.
We wanted people to share something that reflects on that time; something that’s inspired by the things that have offered you hope during these weird times.
BRIEF 3: DEFINITION OF BEAUTY
You may have seen that we have teamed up with the fine folks at Jealous Gallery to launch ‘Art to Save Lives’, where we release a print every month for a year. The Connor Brothers have selected 11 artists to produce a print for us (as well as providing one themselves!) and all proceeds are being donated to CALM.
The latest work was kindly donated by contemporary artist Sara Pope, best known for her bold, seductive paintings of voluptuous lips. She was so great during the process that we asked her to set the new brief and she has!