A month of creative sabbatical has whizzed by like a whirlwind. 

It is taking a bit of time to adjust to the change. While I am loving it, it is proving very hard to stop, and many of my days have probably looked very similar to ‘working life’, possibly even more so. Sitting at my desk writing ‘to do’ lists, going to things, sending emails, and feeling guilty about not doing enough, seem to be a modus operandi from which it is quite hard to escape (ironically). I suppose the one thing that is different, is actually dedicating some time now to look back and reflect on the month that has passed, although having written all that follows, I feel completely dizzy and bewildered, and am realising this is not quite what I thought a sabbatical might or should look like. Useful lesson being learned. Let’s hope April’s edition is less manic.

It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t missing York Museums Trust, and particularly my colleagues there, so I was really proud that the brilliant team celebrated winning the Visit York Tourism Awards 2025 for Event, Festival or Cultural Experience of the Year, for National Treasures: Monet in York – The Water-Lily Pond – I think the most beautiful exhibition I’ve ever had the pleasure to work on, and I am equally delighted that the Melsonby Hoard excitement has hit the national news and that the fundraising campaign is being so generously supported.

March has serendipitously coincided with the wider launch of Sheffield’s Culture Strategy, and several funded events for creative practitioners across the city, so I’ve made the most of all the city-wide networking opportunities this has afforded (and lovely free lunches). An excellent session led by Create Sheffield (for whom I’m a Trustee) on Activating Sheffield’s Culture for Children and Young People at the Workstation, another on health and wellbeing – Thriving on Creativity in Sheffield at SADACCA (what an amazing space, and an astonishing array of organisations working in this area), a third on Culture and Climate held at Site Gallery, and an online session by Julie’s Bicycle for RivelinCo on Green Freelancing. Although there were overlaps across these sessions, it was lovely to get out and about and reconnect with old colleagues, and meet new ones, now I am based in Sheffield once again. I’ve also been to a very exciting Music in the Round meeting (I sit on their ACE Ambition and Quality Panel). And I thoroughly enjoyed the Derrick Greaves exhibition at the Graves (less so the two John Hoyland shows at the Millennium Gallery).

Beyond Sheffield, I enjoyed a Playful Places Network zoom session: The Art and Benefits of Staying Playful by Katie Rose White, and with my GLAM Cares Board/Co-founder hat on, hosted a superb training session on Trauma-informed Practice by the always brilliant Louise Thompson (which I think should be compulsory for anyone who has anything to do with education in its broadest sense). I’ve also undertaken two Professional Reviews for the Museums Association’s AMA, been to an event about potentially being a Green Party Councillor (and decided it’s most definitely not for me!) and I’ve been to several events connected with the launch of Piers Cross’ important documentary Boarding on Insanity. And I am very fortunate to still be having coaching sessions.

I gave two lectures for my former programme at the University of Sheffield (Creative and Cultural Industries Management). The first was on museum learning, interpretation and exhibitions, and the second was on museum activism – both of which seemed to go down very well with the students, and I certainly relished the opportunity to be teaching again (more of this would be very welcome, although HE is in such dire straits that I suspect this won’t be an option for much longer – and I’m sending solidarity to all colleagues currently dealing with mass redundancies in the sector…) 

This is a creative sabbatical, and although all the above things are creative (or at least, my approach to them is), I will also mention what other things I’ve been tinkering with… I’m enjoying my weekly evening sketchbook class led by Colette Cameron in Dana, a local café: it’s particularly refreshing to be doing something so very hyper-locally, and I am loving experimental mark-making, idea-gathering, and learning new ways to see. I’ve sung in a (very challenging) concert at the Roman Catholic Cathedral with my choir, the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, in which we bravely attempted four world premieres with a sigh of relief when we got to Fauré’s Requiem at the end. I’ve had my Mum to stay for 10 days for her birthday and Mothering Sunday, and we’ve been on lots of expeditions (Wentworth, Elsecar, Sheffield’s Botanical Gardens, Bakewell, Pot House Hamlet, Brodsworth). I’ve walked: my local Bolehills, Damflask, Dale Dike, Ashford in the Water and Monsal Dale.

I’ve been to the Crucible to see A Streetcar Named Desire (impressive as ever, but what a bleak play), to the University Drama Studio to see The Effect and to the Showroom to see the NT Live Dr Strangelove with Steve Coogan (brilliant and so terrifyingly relevant). And I’ve listened to some podcasts, particularly Laura Crossley’s Cultural Peeps interviews, and a fascinating BBC one by Kim Aris, the son of Aung San Suu Kyi (recorded last year, but I listened in the light of the devastating earthquake to learn more about Burma/Myanmar and why the different names given to the country). I also spent a weekend in London, catching the last weekend of the outstanding Medieval Women In Their Own Words exhibition at the British Library, and visiting Queer Britain and Camley Street Natural Park (all handy for Kings Cross/St Pancras).

Looking forward, I am thrilled to have been accepted onto the Art Foundation Course at Chesterfield College from September. I loved sharing my sketchbooks and ideas for projects during my interview there, and realised it was the first time I’ve ever done this. I also had a successful interview for the Sheffield CELTA course, although sadly the in-person course I’d envisaged doing intensively during May isn’t running as not enough people signed up – but I’m investigating other options for that. And I am hoping to be involved in Rotherham’s Children’s Capital of Culture in the coming months. And who knows what other possibilities will emerge.

There is no wonder I haven’t finished reading the book I started weeks ago (Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, which I was loving but might need to start again now). It is taking quite a while to ‘unlearn’ work and stop the busy-ness. Can burnout be a thing now, I wonder? Anyway, I’m hopeful I might get better at letting go and might feel less guilty about doing a bit less rushing, and more slow looking, wandering and wondering in April.