Reflective practice has always been a key tenant of Rising Arts Agency’s work, but this was solidified so tangibly in BE IT that the cycle of doing and reflecting has become even more essential to the pacing, direction and development of our work.
Daisy Hunter, Cohort 2
Being an iterative ‘pilot’ programme made reflection essential for how the programme responded to the live experience of the cohort (see Transparency) and adapted to their needs (see Radical Care).
Amber-Ruth Watson, Cohort 1
Giving time to reflection directly combats the unhealthy practice of overwork that’s particularly prevalent in the cultural sector. We recognise that rather than taking away time from productivity, creating space for reflection means that the work you do is more intentional and learns from past experiences more fully.
Daisy Hunter, Cohort 2
Before I would be having conversations. In here it has made me realize that I can document those things within my practice, like my experiences and like my identity in a way. It’s those things I can now reflect on with my work and create something authentically about myself.
cohort 2 interview
The fact that we have had a space that has felt really open and that everyone has been able to share honestly… That creates and opens up feedback loops internally I think for reflection to happen more naturally and regularly.
cohort 1 interview
Ella Trudgeon, Cohort 1
Yes, definitely. It’s been a good space for learning about tools for reflection and using the tools I had already been using to do that, and learning from people in the group. It’s a shared experience with everyone. It’s been really insightful. Even those moments where people have talked about voice recording themselves or having conversations, they have been really useful to add to my own processes.
cohort 1 interview
So yeah definitely help me with my reflection I think yeah, being in a cohort working with people your inevitably reflecting because we are sharing experiences together, sharing so many learning experiences and there is naturally, a lot of reflection in terms of what we want to get out of things even the whole course, the whole programme. From the beginning we were asked to reflect on what we wanted to achieve, what we expected from other people, like our needs and any ground rules.
cohort 2 interview