Press Play is a 4-week program to build a mentally healthy culture, practice, and life in the arts industry funded by Inner West Council.

The Press Play participation fee is normally $400. This program has been funded by the Inner West Council to make the workshop more accessible and affordable to the Creative Trails community. The subsidised workshop fee is just $55 (inc GST) including four 90-minute workshops with talented creative facilitators and a creative kit shipped to your door.

Today's working world in the creative industry poses a unique set of challenges to maintaining our mental wellbeing; more than ever when we experience isolation, restriction and loss of community life in lockdown, and with uncertainties in our current times.

In this 4-part series, we will explore the challenges we face, tools that can be used to support us through them, and how to foster our mental wellbeing on a day-to-day basis, as well as get playful with a different creative practice, led by an artist facilitator as part of each session.

Each workshop is 90 minutes and delivered online. Each participant receives a materials pack before the program with a writing notebook, collage papers, journal and pens, poscas, pencils.

"This program was so fantastic. I felt really safe and it was pretty amazing to play and get creative for fun, not for work"

"I loved this course and it has given me so many tools and skills to get out of the rut I have been stuck in for nearly 20 years."

"...fantastic facilitator! Interesting, playful exercises that I now have in my tool kit. Group sharing was brilliant and normalised what we often all feel."

Workshops are hosted Fridays 12pm-1.30pm (AEDT):

Session 1: Helena Fox, Creative Writing / Micro Practices for Wellbeing [Fri 5 Nov]
Session 2: Marcelo Baez, Cartoon Drawing / The Inner Critic [Fri 12 Nov]
Session 3: Sally Ann Conwell, Illustrator and Painter / Creative Safety [Fri 19 Nov]
Session 4: Mel Young, Creative Journaling / Radical Self Care [Fri 26 Nov]

Each participant receives a materials pack before the program with a writing notebook, collage papers, journal and pens, poscas, coloured pencils and more.

Workshop 1: Micro Practices for Mental Wellbeing

We explore a tool that can help us to notice when we’re moving outside of our normal state of wellbeing and develop a plan for noticing and looking after ourselves when we’re not feeling as mentally-well as usual that can help to facilitate us back to feeling our regular selves. We’ll also explore playful, creative writing techniques that we can use as a way to ground us each day with the Australian gem and award-winning author Helena Fox.

Workshop 2: Fostering a Curious Mindset

Accepting that we need to look after our mind as well as body can be immensely challenging as we grapple with expectations and the Inner Critic. We can learn to quieten that inner critic through curiosity. In this session, we get curious and get to know our Inner Critic, giving it - literally- a face and name with MARVEL-published comic illustrator Marcelo Baez. We will also explore how to foster a daily composition practice that gives space for failure and innovation

Workshop 3: Cultivating Good Culture

Psychological Safety is known to be the most important ingredient for a functioning team, and it turns out that building this safety takes the same kind of skills as the creative process. In this session we will explore how to ‘hack’ a group to be able to work together more effectively in this way. We take a trip around our house and space on a creative excursions, and share with others, with visual artist Sally Ann Conwell.

Workshop 4: Radical Self Care in Action

Just like brushing our teeth, looking after our mental wellbeing is something that needs to happen each day for us to feel at our best. In this session we learn why self care is definitely NOT bubble baths, and why it IS vital to have non-negotiable moments of each and every day, essential for all humans. Radical, huh? We will also break out an inspiring journal, writing and drawing tools, to try out creative journaling with artist and jeweller Mel Young.

The program has a limited capacity. Please book a ticket to secure your place.

Bookings close Monday 25 October at 9am

MakeShift is an education and support agency committed to creativity and mental health. In the past 7 years, over 10,000 people have taken part in over 300 workshops. MakeShift has worked with organisations like AAM, AMP, Hub Australia, Employsure, Support Act, Atlassian, Quickbooks and now Australian Design Centre.

Living Arts Inner West Council invests in local creatives and fuels creativity and cultural resilience.

Got a question? Give MakeShift a shout on hello@makeshift.org.au