Welcome to volunteers week 2023! To celebrate the fantastic volunteers we have had since our volunteering programme started (back in 2010!!) we have opened the vaults of our “Meet the Volunteer” feature and asked “where are they now?”
Over the last 13 years we have welcomed a huge variety of volunteer artists, at many different stages within their careers, into our busy Aspire, ReConnect and Create workshops. Our artists have enjoyed learning from them, while they have learned from us. We have documented them along the way and to celebrate this week, we revisit some memorable volunteers from the past and find out what they have been doing since they volunteered with us.
To kick things off we chatted with Kevin Morris:
“The time spent with everyone at Project Ability in 2013 was hugely formative to my work and practice giving me the experience and confidence to work with various groups and projects. While volunteering I was also able to develop and learn new skills, not only in working with groups, but within my ceramic practice in a creative inclusive environment. Having just moved back to Glasgow being part of and contributing to the creative community of Project Ability was very important to me at the time.
Currently based in Aberdeen I am often referred to as a ‘Nomadic Ceramicist’ exhibiting my work nationally and internationally as well as working with a range of artists, institutions and on various public projects. Initially motivated by an investigation of his own family heritage and material culture, my recent work engages with concepts of craft, material, and place. Making narrative work that considers traditional and contemporary practice as well our collective connections to heritage and tradition, through ceramics. Integral to my practice is participation and engagement still greatly valuing opportunities to continue to learn and work alongside others.
Thematically my recent work and practice has been shaped by northern landscapes, exploring themes of identity and place often through local eating and drinking cultures, focusing on these narratives and rituals associated with living within northern places, and how these actions preserve intimate and strong connections towards ‘north’ as itself, a place. I feel by their very nature; ceramics and food forge connection, cohesiveness and symbolise the intrinsically communal and collaborative aspects of both practices.”
You can read Kevin’s first ‘Meet the Volunteer’ post from 2013 here.
