Mummascribbles – Mummascribbles meets…Phillipa Ellis from Arts Aloud – Mummascribbles
Today we meet Phillipa from Arts Aloud, a blog dedicated to bringing together mums, children and their love of the arts. Thanks so much for taking part Phillipa
Tell me a little bit about yourself and your family
I am a Londoner born and bred, with most of my family coming from a long line of Eastenders. I grew up in North East London with my mum and my older sister (my parents divorced when I was 5). I have always had a passion for the arts, studying art and design at GCSE and A Level, but had no intention of being an artist or teacher, so didn’t take my studies any further. I did, however, continue to visit the exhibitions as well as developing an interest in alternative / fringe theatre and performance arts. I also continued my passion for art in weekly life-drawing classes pretty much until I had my first child.
I moved to South London when I met my husband, living in Blackheath before moving to my beloved Brockley where we now live and have done for about 10 years. My husband runs a creative and content marketing agency, so we have always shared a passion for the arts and creativity. I have two children, Evie who is 4 and started school in September and Sophia who is 2.
What do you like doing to be you, when you are not parenting, working (if you do), or blogging?
I get so little time to myself as I work 3 days a week, and when I am not working I am looking after the two girls. Within this and alongside my blog, I also write features for popular London blog Londonist – specialising in families and arts content, but I also do a few London interest pieces, theatre reviews.
If i was allowed to just be me and had unlimited time I would take up life-drawing again and also join a local drama group. Any free time I get I tend to visit exhibitions or arts related events, but I also really love swimming, it frees my mind and enables me to be creative. Some of my best moments of inspiration have been either in a gallery or in a swimming pool! I just have to make a mad dash to write everything down as soon as I get out the pool as it isn’t conducive to note taking!
What is your biggest achievement to date?
I’ve had quite a few in the last year from setting up my own blog to becoming an official contributor to Londonist. However my biggest achievement would have to be becoming a founding member of the first ever Brockley Street Art Festival (see brockleystreetart.com ) which ran in May/June this year. I worked out of my skin, completely voluntarily and unpaid, leading on the events, marketing and PR of this fledgling festival and am so very proud of what was achieved. Aside from achieving widespread public support and media coverage around the festival, I feel that I have been part of something really special. I have helped to leave an artistic legacy within the area that I live, and feel that is something to be very proud of. My girls are hugely inspired by street art now and I loved meeting so many incredible artists and being part of such an amazing week.
I look back and can’t quite believe how I managed to pull it off, working 3 days a week and looking after the kids. It was a lot of late nights, but it was real testament to what working mums can achieve when they put their mind to it. Multi-tasking at its most extreme.
From your own experiences, what do you find the hardest part of parenting and what is the easiest/most rewarding part?
By far the hardest part of being a parent is the lack of time for yourself and the sheer relentlessness of it. Every single minute of the day is usually full, your brain never rests, and that’s before you’ve even added work into the mix!
The easiest and most rewarding is the joy of being a family unit. Me and my husband have so much fun spending time with our kids and doing so many of the things that we used to enjoy as a couple, all over again with the kids in tow. As my children grow, I love seeing their personalities develop, along with all their interests and passions and I feel so rewarded knowing that everything sticks; what we show them, what we do with them, what we talk to them about. That makes me very proud.
Parenting in itself is no mean feat; how do you juggle everything you need to in order to get everything done on a daily basis? If you are a stay at home mum, how do you juggle the daily things involved in your day. If you are a working mum, how do you juggle childcare, parenting and general housey things?! Whatever is specific to you I’d love to hear.
I’m extremely lucky that I changed jobs about 18 months ago, and now work just 3 days for a fantastic small business start up media agency called December 19 which are genuinely family friendly and enable me to have flexibility in my working hours. I’m also fortunate that my husband runs his own business and my work is based a very short commute from where I live which also helps in terms of school/nursery drops offs and pick ups.
I would still argue that being a working parent and wanting to pursue your dreams remains very much a balancing act that I haven’t yet mastered. My love of writing and blogging about the arts is so great, I have to really work hard and late to make time for it, but the effort is always worth it.
Why did you decide to start blogging?
The inspiration for Artsaloud came to me quite soon after having my first child, however the original intention wasn’t to publish a blog.
When I became a mum in 2010 (and again in 2013), I relished the idea of being on maternity leave and having time to dedicate to developing my interest in the arts. Instead of going around major exhibition with the crowds at the weekend, I looked forward to donning my sling, heading into town and seeing as much as I could at quieter times of the week. Sadly, however, my experience in some of London’s most prestigious galleries wasn’t great, regular patrons frowned upon having to share the space with a squawking baby and quite often I felt I had to leave half way through, just because of the fear of her crying or making a noise, rather than her actually doing so. It also surprised me how unhelpful some gallery staff were.
The original idea behind Arts Aloud was to work with arts institutions to make their space more family friendly, something I am still keen to do, but as my little one grew and we continued to frequent exhibitions against the odds, the easier option was to at least start a blog to capture our experiences with the hope of inspiring others. Especially as Evie got older and started showing real interest in what we were seeing. We had some great adventures! And even more since having Sophia!
Tell me a bit about your blog?
The blog is an inspirational activity guide for families capturing my experiences and recommendations as I enjoy the arts with my children in tow.
The idea behind it is to uncover the best of what is going on in the arts (primarily exhibitions, but events, theatre, performance arts/experiential, poetry) that is family friendly even if it isn’t family orientated. It’s not about the kiddie workshops, events and activities, it’s about finding grown up things to do, that kids will also enjoy, and get a lot out of.
What do you want your blog to achieve and where do you hope to see it go as it grows?
I’ve met so many many mums and dads out there who either aren’t sure how to introduce arts based activities to their kids in an unintimidating way, or simply feel excluded from continuing their interest in that area now, particularly if they have very young children who perhaps aren’t old enough to know how to behave within the limitations of a gallery (for example).
I want my blog to be the inside knowledge, the inspirational friend who goes along and tries things out for you, so that apart from the unpredictability of kids behaviour, you can get the information and encouragement to have a different kind of day out. Something that isn’t deliberately laid on for kids, but something that all the family will enjoy.
Institutions like Southbank Centre (including Hayward Gallery) and Tate are fantastic at making exhibitions family-friendly. By this I mean not just putting on all the kids workshops and play sessions, but genuinely curating family-friendly exhibitions without compromising the integrity of artists, the message or their space. Royal Academy’s Sensing Spaces exhibition was a great example. Carsten Holler’s Decision is another more recent one.
So many of our major institutions as well as local community arts spaces are falling short. I would love to eventually fulfil my mission in making Artsaloud an organisation that works with these institutions to get it right. To sense check exhibitions curated and create more ways for families to enjoy these together, without impacting on the enjoyment of other regular patrons.
What advice would you give someone who is thinking about starting a blog?
Like having kids, there is no ideal time! There are always going to be other things that can get in the way, so (as with parenting) you have to just have a vision, close your eyes, take the plunge! Once you’ve got one or two posts under your belt, you’ll start to find your voice and you’ll soon wish you had time to blog every minute of the day. However, like parenting (again) you have to remember to be proud and happy with what you do have time to write/achieve, not what you don’t.
If you could have dinner with three people (dead or alive), who would it be and why?
1. Jay Rayner – I saw him talk at Edinburgh last year and he’s a thoroughly charming and entertaining guy. I know if I was having dinner with him we’d probably be a in a great restaurant (or at least get great service!)
2. Artist Bob & Roberta Smith as we share a passion for growing and improving the relationship between children and the arts
3. My husband. Because I don’t get to have a lovely grown up dinner with him often enough.
Tell me three random facts about you
1. I have travelled around the world twice but i’m petrified of flying
2. I went to school with comedian Simon Amstell and University with members of Coldplay
3. I have an incredible audio-memory for song intros and the ability to ‘name that tune’ in seconds
You can find Phillipa over at www.artsaloud.com and also on Twitter