What have you been doing today? Is that a typical day for you?
Today started with a team meeting to bring our core staff together to update on progress across our programmes. After this, project specific meetings, some follow-up tasks, and emails with our partners.
In the afternoon I supported a team of artists in the office to gather art materials for their workshops, and this evening I’ll be out visiting our participatory work in action.
There’s no such thing as a typical day at Kazzum and we work responsively to the needs of our community as they arise. Sometimes ’ll spend the day delivering our Trauma Awareness Training to organisations or individuals, other times I will be strategising, conducting supervisions or attending events to learn and share with the sector.
When did you start working with culture, health and wellbeing, and how?
I started interacting with CHWA at their first conference in 2019 in Newcastle. I really loved the scope of the organisations present and the creativity in the room. It felt like we were mobilised by shared values, which was so supportive and empowering. I’m a big fan of interdisciplinary approaches which is at the heart of CHWA.
What has the impact of winning the CHWA Awards been for you or your organisation, and how has your work developed since then?
Winning the CHWA awards has given a huge boost to the way we approach the ‘Professional Practice’ arm of our organisation. We have reflected on what it means to be trauma-informed with regards to supporting our core team and the freelancers we work with and embedded more ways to achieve this aim within both our organisational structure and working culture.
As a small organisation it can feel difficult to gain the visibility for your work. The Award offered us the opportunity to claim best practice and be nationally recognised for it. We are 35 years old this year and it’s the only award we have ever won (so far!)
I was lucky enough to join the selection panel for the 2022 Awards which was a fascinating process and humbling experience. Truly there were so many examples of pioneering, heartfelt responses to the challenges many creative health practitioners face. Selecting a winner was a very difficult task, however The Clod Ensemble’s ‘Performing Medicine’ was certainly a deserving winner.
In 2023 my colleague and I returned to the CHWA conference in Barnsley to present our work on building a trauma-informed organisation. Our session included a host of ambitions, learnings, pitfalls and milestones along the way. Our 2021 ‘practicing well’ award certainly featured. It was a bit of a full circle moment for me and chance to reflect on the 5 years of interacting with CHWA and the impact they have made upon the sector, and the life of our organisation in particular.
What advice would you give to someone considering applying for the awards?
I would use it as a chance to recognise the work you have done, the changes you have enacted and the direction you are travelling in. A great thing about the awards is that they really reflect the diversity of practice and support offers across the cultural sector, and acknowledge that people really are doing their best to respond to the support needs of their practitioners, never mind the scale of organisation, or modality of support put into place. So have confidence and faith that no matter the outcome, right now you are doing the best you can with the tools you have.
What’s most exciting you in creative health right now?
For our organisation the focus continues to be on trauma-informed practice. Over the past few years it’s been amazing to see how other organisations in the sector have also begun to explore this way of working. Through our Trauma Awareness training and consultancy we have been able to work with over 2000 professionals, from large NPO’s to smaller, grass roots organisations, and witness how this approach can benefit trauma-impacted individuals and practitioners alike.
Alex Evans is a visual artist, director and creative facilitator living and working in London. He has been Artistic Director of Kazzum Arts since 2017.
He has collaborated with numerous cultural organisations across the UK including MK Gallery, Southbank Centre, London Bubble and the Victoria and Albert Museum. International residencies include projects in Australia, Japan, the Maldives and extensively throughout Europe. His complex architectural drawings have been exhibited in group and solo shows across the UK.
Alex has trained at The University of Hull, Wimbledon School of Art and at the Institute of Arts and Therapy in Education (IATE).