Welcome & our Mission

Our Editorial Committee welcomes you to theCafé and theCafé Society!

theCafé is a project about nurturing the links between the joy and challenge of creativity and the well-being it brings to our minds, bodies and spirits – for both individuals and communities and, also, between individuals and communities.  Both theCafé and theCafé Society are social enterprises that we set up to best serve our aims through a philosophy of respect and creative activities that are non-predatory in nature and that genuinely nurture people whilst aiming for sustainability.

We invite you think of theCafé as a welcoming place for creative people and visitors to gather, somewhat like Montmartre and such places with a café atmosphere: to enjoy showing or appreciating work, seeking inspiration or acquiring work, joining in lively discussions or exchanging constructive criticism – whilst metaphorically ‘throwing olives and bread at each other’, all in an amiable atmosphere.

Our Editor and contributing Authors write thought-provoking, lively articles on a range of topics and invite visitors to share their thoughts.

We hope that you will come to enjoy theCafé Society as a creative community serving individuals and groups whose members will enjoy benefits, and we invite participation also of people who share our interests and goals, in other organisations such as government, business, academia, charities and the charitable sectors, be they local, regional, national, or beyond.  People who will join with us on our mission to inspire and facilitate creativity and wellbeing.

Our Mission

With the support of our partner, Talking Health SEN, our guiding principle at theCafé is ‘KISS’ and our approach is based upon a few simple aims:

  • engaging with creative people and sharing talent, and seeking more ways of expressing ourselves; and then …
  • bringing us all into contact with a wider, even more diverse group of people with more interests of their own, including a desire to possess or own examples of creative work in all its forms; and …
  • reaching out to better help people seeking to engage in creative activities to bring positive transform their own lives, and/ or that of communities, groups or individuals; so that …
  • all participants might explore more interactions of potential interest to them from: being creative, promoting the joy of creativity, and enjoying the fruits thereof – all to nurture well-being.

We look forward to involving individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds and, as mentioned, those who share our interests in organisations such as government, business, academia, charities and the charitable sectors – whether locally, regionally, nationally, and perhaps beyond.

Of course, you know that being creative brings both benefits and challenges, whether dealing with materials, or technology, earning a crust or whose voice one listens to!

Michael Taylor takes a thoughtful yet humorous look at ….

Naturellement, it goes without saying (but let’s say it anyway!), we accept the premiss  that no creative person, ever, can be shown to have been narcissistic!  That said, no one doubts that all creative people are constantly striving for ‘visibility’. In many cases  it’s not just about recognition but also about having ‘something to say’ and being heard.  Alongside this, of course, is the ambition or need to ‘sell stuff’ and/or ‘make a living’.  Tales of starving in a garret for your art may be romantic, but it is sure-as-heck that such dreams do not help feed the kids or pay the mortgage! It is true also that some avenues of creativity can be a tad expensive to follow in terms of kit and equipment.

In some ways, the marketing of the products of creativity is a ‘number’s game’; which makes it important to know,  both, how work reaches ‘the market’ and, conversely, how ‘the market’ can be attracted to visit the products of creativity and on what terms, creating a ‘middle ground’ that works for both parties; indeed, for all parties.

At its simplest in today’s hi-tech world, it is frankly not hard to help ‘creatives’ gain ever more visibility in terms of greater coverage and exposure across more websites and physical outlets. IT can even now help individuals to keep their intended audience appraised of progress. But one asks the key questions: how many people actually listen/look or visit? And how do we establish what was their purpose was for visiting in the first place?

What is more interesting, and much more challenging, is attracting visitors with a wider range of diverse interests – and doing so in meaningful ways. For instance, perhaps by

  • reaching out in ways that of themselves might, perhaps, be interesting to new and wider groups of people;
  • extending the range of interest;
  • widening the numbers and kinds of people taking an interest in creativity at, both, the individual level and in communities; also,
  • understanding why, how, and on what basis creative works might be acquired in more ways and in differing forms.

This latter aim has been made more challenging, frankly, at a time when many people are ‘feeling the pinch’ – especially amongst the most vulnerable; which might translate to rethinking how creative work is undertaken, presented and/or displayed, and acquired.

But there is more. These are troubled times when ‘cohesion’ and trust are tested daily at almost every level – in and across communities and within communities themselves; that is why the desire to help, albeit in some small way, to bring people and communities together is one of our key motivators.

In this, the first edition of theCafe, visitors have access to an amazing amount of research and authoritative and ‘scholarly articles’, from our other Contributing Writers. Each one has been looking closely at the conundrums that are, today, at the core of our existence, and why and how creativity can, and should, be made accessible as safely as possible to better serve and help an individual, the family and the community.

theCafé is conceived to be a written and pictorial version of what used to happen amongst creative communities in places such as in Montmartre; i.e. a village where creative people would gather to share their work and ideas.  But the abiding influence of the such places was that they attracted people – creative folk, tourists, visitors, friends, family, and so on – who wanted to share and participate in the atmosphere of creativity with which the space was redolent; to ‘be around’ artists.

Although many of us might deny it, most of us ‘creative folk’ have a deeply held desire to be appreciated. What, was that old joke; “no, I have spoken enough about me, now let’s change the subject; what do you think about me?” (a topic explored by authors   Dr Jean M. Twenge  and Dr W. Keith Campbell.

Equally, many of us harbour a sense that we have inner talents that are untapped and that could, and maybe should, be nurtured to make us more creative in some manner – or have a greater sense of participation in creativity in our lives. Thus, in ‘creative villages’ writers, artists, sculptors, potters and performing artists displayed artwork, music, dance and song, and in so doing they created an experience that others wanted to share in. Perhaps, those sharing that experience might then even have gone on to try new things for themselves, or purchased something or paid/ contributed to be a part of an experience, taking away precious memories.

That is our raison d’être; our mission is to ask if members of the wider community, inspired by what they have seen in others, might also take up creativity. To see if we could help to engage, inspire and support people on their journey with the help of our budding a newspaper-magazine.

theCafe Society, meanwhile, will be based on membership – individual and ‘collectives’ or groups. Membership will, over time, give access to a platform for creative  individuals – artists, writers, sculptors, performing artists and so forth. Each member will have their own space to tell us who they are and what inspires their creative art(s)/ interests.  Each member will have their gallery, bookshop, etc and ‘venues’ in which to discuss how a piece of work is progressing, to show and perhaps sell their ideas and work in new ways.

The facilities will be designed iteratively to support creative processes and make manifest individual creative inspirations and ideas. It is, to us, an important element of our perspectives and beliefs, based on MA and PhD research as well as the long lives  and, the sometimes dubious, experiences of ‘the team’ (!!) – that, the more that people appreciate the benefits of creative companionship, then perhaps one can also improve access to, and the take-up of, creativity to promote a greater participation and sense of well-being.

This is important at a time when many of us feel that, in some ways, society is more divided and less cohesive than it has been for a long while. Many fear that ‘it is’ or ‘we are’ falling apart and many of us worry about the old fears and stresses of keeping a roof over our heads and food on our table. As a result, although many love art in their lives,  it is hard for some to take the time to create and/or,  acquire work that will help ‘calm the savage breast’ – the hunger of creative expression – either their own or of someone they love.

As ever, just behind that curve lays a sense of who, and what are we, and what we might be for. That some of us should feel that way is perhaps somewhat contradictory, at a time when technology offers a myriad ways for us to better express ourselves as individuals, and groups, than at any time in humankind’s history; when we can, in seconds, reach, literally, millions of our fellow citizens across the world!?

For instance, we see TV gardening programmes working with dementia patients to help them live richer, happier lives. Elsewhere, we see people using music and old movies to the same effect. Such experiences inspire more people to participate on both sides; those who give and those who take; a two-way giving and taking.

An example is how in ‘Pipelines’ Michael Taylor cast a character based upon an amazing lady – a real-life lady who is effectively without arms – who inspires us in gardening programmes. In turn that encouraged Michael, to create a character, similarly challenged, who works in a village where the reflooding of Lake Chad is changing lives [for the better?]; and there you have it!

We wish to help spread the understanding of/ the need for, the benefits and value of creativity. It is also our mission, to help that process along, by broadening access and increasing participation.

Many creative folk are already quite well served in terms of marketing support – not all of which, to be frank, might be terribly effective.  Or, in reality, their actual outreach is limited and well-defined by, what you might call, ‘social factors’. It is true also that, despite ailing public finances, some elements of ‘local and regional democracy’ work to support local art and artists offering venues for exhibitions and “events on a county or regional scale” and or at the national level(s) and via academia.

Some creatively skilled people and groups – the more ‘successful’ ones (perhaps) – are served by well-established commercial and semi-commercial entities; libraries (now fewer in the public sector) and high street bookshops, galleries and art shops, websites and exhibitions.  This commercial network provides outlets and promotes sales for some artists and is, often, well-developed and mature.

We know from personal experience, for artists and writers, that a couple of innocent enquiries (or searches) on the world wide web, in response to offers of support can trigger an avalanche of responses, ‘offers’ to help! In our limited collective experience, we also know that there exists a somewhat predatory network of people and businesses offering help, advice and to otherwise guide and serve in terms of everything from the supply of materials to editing, language and formatting, and oft times some form of marketing assistance. Many such offers are initially free but conditional thereafter. Frequently with persistent marketing.

Because reading and editing (in any form) takes time, creative writers are harder to help than some other creative folk and harder to weld into groups, locally, that are effective creatively. Groups do exist locally, although at present it is quite hard for a new writer to be read and/or to be offered meaningful advice on any work exceeding a few paragraphs. Oft times, groups decline to give places to new people because they are ‘full’.

Put candidly and speaking strictly personally, when I am writing a book and in full flow, I might come up with 2500 words a day (some of them might, even, be readable!).  Meeting once a month in a pub to review a 1000-word passage, welcome though it may be, is not exactly what I need. The company of other writers is always highly valued, certainly by me, yet the reality is that ‘the web’ helps transcend time and distance and is a great facility for the exchange of perceptions, ideas and comments on a trusting and reciprocal basis. Equally, on t’other side, if the truth sets us free, it is true also that it is, often, easier to be ‘Frank and Ernest’ from a distance! And perhaps, plagiarism, the worst of all creative sins, might be more easily contained and isolated if committed people can see it and warn about it.

That, said, whilst there are over 1000 ‘agents’ in the US and over 400 in the UK, just two English-speaking countries, it is still difficult for a new writer to get a foot on this, the ‘first rung’. Only a very small percentage manage to engage at that level in actuality.  We hope to create patterns to help with that shortfall and support creative writing in those early days by creating a safe space in which to share ‘work in progress’ and invite comments from fellow writers.  We aim to provide ways to use that feedback to help a writer show to an agent, or publisher, just how much response their work is generating. There is no doubt that the best way to get the attention of the commercial support network on any artistic topic is to show that your work is attracting attention.

In 2024, the fact is that, across many ‘providers’ or ‘professions’ claiming to serve creativity, there exists a growing existential fear that their skills and business models are threatened by technology; AI and the rest.  Think in terms of ‘high street’ versus ‘online’ shopping, and one asks: what might be the implication for many professions – agents, publishers, printers, lawyers, accountants or designers and the like? Business is business and it is without a doubt that such uncertainties affect investment, performance and effectiveness and change ‘the market’. We can, perhaps, help there too.

Having other creative folks talking to people ‘like us’ is nice, great even, but it would be even better if those who are not yet in touch with their own creativity but who are seeking for themselves some sort of peace or harmony, might be brought into the conversation to join our creative orbits and ‘the market’ thereof.  What is exciting for us is that the same technologies that serve as a threat to existing structures and methods can be adapted to allow the technology to improve access to and for all.

Such conversations and exchanges also serve to promote a better understanding of the benefits – societal and individual – of creativity and thus facilitate growth;  i.e. more people, from an ever-widening group of participants doing more creative activites more often.

Examples of good practice are not hard to find daily. In fact, as I write, this came up: e.g. How to get kids into classical music? As a CBeebies conductor, I can tell you: it’s the wow factor ….  Equally, we are surely blest to have an almost endless list of excellence by way of local and national charities serving different communities in terms of everything from ‘integration’ to mental health. Such organisations often help access ‘education’ and support across different social, age, gender, ethnic and faith groups.

At a time when multiculturalism is ‘under fire’,  there is much interest in the ideas of acculturation as a means of bringing communities – existing and incoming – together. Thus, in our thinking, given how, creativity is a worldwide thing, impacting now and then, like mercy upon both of the places beneath.

For clarity and the elimination of doubt, none of the links or quotes offered/cited above implies in any way that the people, or publications, mentioned have any knowledge of that which we are saying or that they, in any way, approve or support any of the foregoing, not at all; i.e. we seek merely to do right by whoever said it and give them due credit for the inspiration!

To us, at theCafe, it seems that if we can be, even, a tiny part of the movement helping improve access to, and the better understanding of, the wider benefits of creativity, then we might also serve to widen interest in, and engagement with, creativity in all its forms by an ever-widening group of people.

Who knows theCafe might help, in some small way, to facilitate a greater involvement of how creativity can serve to widen and increase the level of knowledge of its value to society and, as a result, the more enriched and ‘healthy’ our society might become –  in every sense.

Thus in our view: “taking art to the masses” has evolved to become “taking the masses to art” and vice versa, as the song told us: “round like a circle in a circle, a wheel within a wheel ……”