News

This is the first in a series of posts
where we will shine a spotlight on different members of our staff team in order
to expose ‘the human element’ of Impact Arts.

Beth Farmer joined the Impact Arts team
in August 2019 as the Listening Expert, a project role funded by The Listening
Fund which aims to give a voice to children and young people in Scotland.

Beth first came to Glasgow to study
Photography in 1998 and went on to work as a children’s portrait photographer after
completing her course. In 2006 she went to live in The Netherlands for 10 years
where she worked in logistics customer service for Intel and then on
international projects as a business analyst and project manager.

Since relocating back to Glasgow in
2016, Beth has developed a passion for working with children and young people. She
works for Creative Therapies with children in kinship care as an arts
facilitator and founded social enterprise Print Clan which offers open access textile
printing facilities and works with groups in communities across Glasgow.

Beth says; “I feel like my role as
Listening Expert at Impact Arts combines my experience of working on projects,
with children and young people and sits within a creative environment and I
have absolutely loved being part of the Impact Arts Team so far.”

Beth’s main focus during her post is to
lead a group of Impact Arts Youth Ambassadors named the Sketchy Youths. Beth
says about the group, “I hope to provide them with structure and to empower them
to build their own identity as a group, continue their journey with Impact Arts
and become the voice of the young people who attend the organisation’s
programmes.”

In due course Beth’s hope is that by inspiring
the ‘Sketchy Youth’ members to become active in the group, they can represent
young people in their local area and build an active network across Impact
Arts’ programmes. Ultimately they will develop a strong online presence where
they can share their stories and discuss themes which are important to them
with a wider audience.

Beth’s artistic passion lies in textile
printing and she is currently part of a research project which is in phase two:
Aural Textiles. The initial goal of the project was to use sound as a starting
point for textile design, via the use of spectrograms. Now in phase two, project
members are collaborating with non-textile practitioners to create a body of
experimental work which explores cross-practice collaboration and uses sound as
a starting point for design more loosely. Watch this space for the upcoming exhibition!

If you would like to find out more about The Listening Project you can contact Beth on 0141 575 3001 or beth.farmer@impactarts.co.uk