Remember when you were a kid how the summer lasted forever and the school term dragged on interminably?
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It appears the opposite now. Time is flying. The winter solstice has just passed - we are already halfway through the year. There's so much going on - no time to see everything. Who are these young whipper snappers doing all this new creative stuff? How did I become the oldest person in the room? What's going on? Who's in charge?
For the past few fleeting months I have been teaching a new course on entrepreneurship for third year Creative Industry students at the university. (That explains the "oldest person in the room" conundrum). It's been a blast. The level of creative talent in this city is extraordinary. It never ceases to amaze me.
A focus of this course has been to instil in young minds the will and wherewithal to make Newcastle their work place when they graduate. Being based in NewSpace with its cutting edge technology has helped significantly to sell this concept. To look down from the "classroom" onto refurbished Hunter Street with its new rails. And while the students are still bemoaning the lack of parking (get a bicycle people) the idea is catching on.
There is talk of joining The Roost Creative to be part of a collaborative co-working space, or renting a studio at the Creator Incubator where they could make all manner of things alongside like-minded artists.
This is encouraging. For many years, graduates would hightail it out of town in search of creative opportunities. No longer necessary. 21st century technology enables many creatives to base themselves wherever they want and still be able to interact with the rest of the world. Well that's the theory.
For theatre makers it is not quite the same. To get new work seen and recognised, it has to go on the road. How refreshing to see that Bearfoot Theatre is doing just this - touring original work, I Hope it's Not Raining in London, to the Central Coast, Sydney and Melbourne before returning to wow us in July. This dynamic young company must be applauded for putting themselves out there. No doubt opportunities will develop for everyone involved.
So while time may appear to be whizzing by, leaving us befuddled, perhaps it's because we are all so busy making things happen that we haven't noticed.