Contract of Self Care: Luminara Florescu

Luminara Florescu is an artist, curator and creative wellbeing practitioner. She works with a range of media and processes embracing a playful, humorous, and often subversive attitude to art making. Her inspiration comes from many sources including the Fluxus Art Movement. She enjoys research projects while embracing working more spontaneously and initiating collective experiences in collaboration with artists from across artforms and the public.

"In 2020, I co-founded and became Creative Director of HEARTHSTONE Ways CIC, a Somerset based art organisation working with local and national professional artists to demystify contemporary art and present creativity as a form of wellbeing.  Over the past two years, I have led a number of online projects based on creative wellbeing using techniques such as soundscapes, dream journeying and mindfulness activities as tools to connect participants to their creativity on a deeper level and gain a sense of wellbeing.  As the projects developed, issues around self care presented themselves organically for artists and community members taking part. 

My own practice examines creativity as a powerful force for the transformation and healing of people and communities. I am constantly witnessing its positive impact on those who often feel disenfranchised from society and the mainstream education system. When making artwork I’m inspired by ideas of demystifying and democratising contemporary art, embracing the ethos behind such movements as Fluxus and the Punk scene: that art is accessible to everyone and everyone is an artist. 

In 2021, I received the a-n Artist Bursary, Time, Space, Money, to create a 'Contract of Self Care' to support a best practice model for artists who have a social practice as well as the participating members of the public involved in their projects. The project was motivated by my own experience of burnout during the pandemic and hearing from other artists who were experiencing the same. The upside of the pandemic was a greater general awareness of the value artists and their creative skills can offer in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of the communities they work with.  It, therefore, seemed essential to explore ways of working that were sustainable for artists, especially socially engaged artists who may also experience physical and mental health disabilities. My aim was to develop a ‘Contract of Self Care' as a free resource to support artists in avoiding Burnout. 

In creating the Contract of Self Care PDF presentation, I wanted to offer a resource that was both visually pleasing, gentle on the eye and mind as well as accessible. The resource is by no means a definitive guide to self care, but rather a selection of prompts and questions that may be useful to consider.  Artists may wish to expand on and develop their own Contracts of Self Care – something I wholeheartedly encourage – using this resource merely as a springboard to supporting their own self care."

Contract of Self Care is one of the first resources available on our new resources page. If you have, or know of, any useful resources for artists, please get in touch at louise@curatorspace.com. Contracts of Self Care is available in full here.

 

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