Queens Park Arts Centre in Aylesbury has launched a new campaign encouraging people to ‘Live Creatively’ whilst the organisation’s building is temporarily closed to the public.

The Centre aims to inspire local residents to let their creativity flourish even in the most uncertain times by establishing its social media accounts (and a new blog)  as a hub which shares and celebrates the many ways people are still engaging with the visual and creative arts during self-isolation.

The Centre’s Artistic Director Sarah Lewis explains: “The ethos of Queens Park has always meant more than the building itself, and whilst we’re needing to temporarily close our doors we’re working hard to ensure the Centre remains a true creative and cultural hub by celebrating people’s innate creativity.”

“This new campaign aims to bring together as many artistic endeavours as possible – anyone is welcome to send us photos of their craft projects, paintings, drawings and pottery or videos of their music and dance performances for us to share online.”

The Centre’s Theatre & Marketing Manager Dario Knight emphasised that anyone could take part in the new campaign: “It’s not just about established artists or students of the Centre continuing their creativity at home – we want to hear from everyone! There’s never been a better time to discover why art is so vital to our emotional wellbeing: doodle on a notepad and see where it takes you, write down your thoughts and create new stories with them, put on some music and sing or dance; it’s all part of the ‘Live Creatively’ mind-set!”

Response to the campaign has already been positive, with all manner of photos and videos being shared covering pottery, patchwork, woodcarving, drama and mixed crafts. The Centre has been sending out weekly ‘Creative Challenges’; simple craft ideas for anyone to have a go at and share their creations online.

The Centre’s production company, Unbound Theatre, are also keeping active with a slate of brand new audio and video content as part of their ‘Keep Telling Stories’ project. As well as brand new free audiobook performed by actress Erika Sanderson, Unbound are also working on a ‘Sonnet A Day’ initiative, working alongside professional voice actors and the best local talent to record all of Shakespeare’s famous poems.

Furthermore, any artistic groups or organisations are invited to keep people updated on their activities and projects by ending the Centre information to repost online, helping grow a community of creativity in light of venue closures and event cancellations.

Anyone wishing to join the campaign can send their content to info@qpc.org or post online and tag in Queens Park Arts Centre’s social media accounts; most importantly, thought, they need to use the #LiveCreativelyQPAC hashtag.

To see the campaign in action head over to www.qpc.org, follow @queensparkarts on Twitter and Instagram, or like /queensparkartscentre on Facebook.