This week we talk to Florence Logan (right, with a member of our Shared Space group left) - a student at RCS who has been on placement with us for the last few months
Tell us a bit about yourself and why you joined the AMP team?
I’m currently in my 3rd year at the Royal Conservatoire Scotland doing a course called Contemporary Performance Practice (CPP) and this year we had the opportunity to do a placement with an artist/company.
I knew I really wanted to find a company that valued long term community engagement, collaboration and considered the creative process as a goal in itself. When I read about AMP and met with Kirstin for the first time, I felt like my priorities as an artist, such as generosity, flexibility, and humility, overlapped with those at AMP.
What was your 'enquiry'?
My enquiry was:
How can we propel feminist academia and ideals into action by establishing a consistent, safe, sustainable, and liberating creative space?
What have you learnt through your time at AMP related to the enquiry?
I feel like this has been an extensive and non-exhaustive learning experience.
I saw how important spaces like Women’s Creative Company and Shared Space are to people’s lives. And therefore how it is essential to constantly check in and remember who all this work is for.
One of my main realisations was that my enquiry was backwards. Feminist theory and academia comes from action, from the personal, from our bodies, from a story and the desire to create space, time and a community to care for that story.
Theory is wonderful before workshops, while planning, and very useful after, when reflecting, but has no use in the room. We create a consistent, sustainable, safe, and liberating creative space by leaving all the feminist theory at the door - by caring and listening.
What are the unexpected outcomes of your time at AMP?
Firstly, AMP has brought me a lot more joy, excitement and hope than I ever thought it would. I have a newfound appreciation for smalltalk as it always ends feeling very big and very crucial. I have heard so many amazing stories and songs that I feel lucky to carry with me today. And I can also make a good cup of tea (as a non-tea drinker, I am very proud of this). My time at AMP reminded me of the importance of art in our lives - which I think I had started to take for granted.
As a facilitator, I feel like I gained confidence and humility at the same time. As a person, I feel like a more honest listener. As a woman, every time I leave an AMP group, I feel prouder and prouder to be one.
Congratulations on being offered a Workshop Assistant role - we are so glad to keep you!
I’m very excited about staying on. I can’t wait to get to know the groups even better, to be surprised by their wit, kindness and vibrancy and find new ways to support them, their stories, and their art. I’m looking forward to the future projects, to meeting more artists and learning from the AMP team.
What are your longer-term work dreams?
After graduating, I hope to continue working with communities in an arts context. Alongside a long-term community-led process, I would like to work as a performer/artist and continue devising shows with dance, text, filmmaking and sound. I feel like the two practices feed into each other. I can’t see the point of my artistic practice or of my feminist views if they only ever live in a performance and/or academic sphere.
Anything else you'd like to add?
I would just like to thank Kirstin and Abbie and everyone who’s part of AMP for this rich, valuable and happy experience. I feel very proud to be a part of the work AMP is doing.
@florence_lolo