Click on the arrow next to each performers’ name to watch their individual set from The STARTS Award Showcase 2024.
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Ru is a writer, spoken word performer & poet who distils vast ideas and explores them with sincerity, empathy & simplicity.
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Claire Hughes is a writer and spoken word artist living in Staffordshire.
Her writing largely centres on motherhood and mental health and often combines the two. She has been published in several anthologies including 'My Teeth Don't Chew on Shrapnel' (Oxford Brookes University Press). Claire's debut pamphlet ‘Oblivion’, was published by Clayhanger Press in 2021.
She is currently working on a play about postpartum psychosis.
‘Oblivion’ is available to buy here.
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Through her work, Kim examines social issues without judgement - she asks questions that are important to us all and invites the audience to consider “what more could I be doing today”?
Her performance style is heartfelt and clear.
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Jamie is a comedian who draws on his experiences of navigating the world as a visually impaired person. His witty observations of day-to-day life give the audience an insight into his life while also warning us all of Jamie’s love of pranks! His guide dog Freddie completes the double act!
Instagram: @jamie_blind_wizard @freddie_guidedog
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Matt is a performer whose sincerity and vibrancy on stage allows him to explore distressing themes or memories without putting feelings of suffering onto his audience. His work goes to the depths of emotion while also maintaining a sense of hope.
Matt hopes to create pictures in people's minds when he performs his words. “I think an audience of open minds makes for a great canvas.”
Matt’s showcase performance carries a trigger warning: suicide.
Click on the arrow underneath each artist’s name to find out more about them, and about their artwork.
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Title : A Moment
Sue Arnold is a retired RAF Logistics Officer who lives in Cambridgeshire. Using watercolour, acrylic and pastels; she allows her art to externalise a personal response to the natural world.
Her pieces can be viewed on Instagram sue_arnold_artist but rarely come to market.
Instagram: @sue_arnold_artist
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TItle: Wrong Impressions
Darren left the Army in 1982 after completing tours of Northern Island, Cyprus (as UN), and The Falklands.
When at his lowest point in life he met Tracey who was a old school friend. She put him in touch with Veterans Arts (the charity where Darren now volunteers) and set up an art group teaching veterans and members of the blue light services how to paint. Darren shared his experience of recovery through art and the benefits he had seen in his own life.
“I now see hope, a purpose to live and have found art to be more beneficial to me than any medication.”
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Title: Through War's Lens, Home Shines
To Andrea, art is a way to unlock and express emotions that feel stuck. Over time and practice of craft, creating art became a means of processing difficult emotions, which emerged through abstract forms and expressions.
For this piece, Andrea contrasted the war-torn streets of Sarajevo with vivid glimpses of the peaceful Scottish countryside. Inspired by personal experiences, it expresses the juxtaposition of the destruction of war and the longing for the tranquillity of home.
The fragmented nature of the images show the disorienting effects of conflict, where memories of a distant and peaceful life persist despite the surrounding devastation.
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Title: ‘Shibaraku!’ (暫 - Wait a Moment!)
Trevor is a shinnichi (親日), a Japanophile. His love of Japanese art stems from his discovery of Zen Buddhism through Judo.
He lived in Kyōto for three months and fell in love with Kabuki, the classical form of Japanese theatre.
The picture is of the main protagonist Kamakura Gongorō Kagemasa from the Kabuki play ‘Shibaraku!’.
Trevor served in the Army for 5 years as a Regimental All Arms Physical Training Instructor but left due to the ban at the time on gay men & women serving in the Armed Forces.
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Title: A Poppy in a Corn Field
Richard created this painting remember those dear to him who have passed and how a new way of life has begun.
Richard took up Art as a coping mechanism, allowing him to learn to live with physical pain and coming to terms with having to use a wheelchair. Richard says that through art his pain has now learnt to live with him!
Richard spends a great deal of time volunteering with Armed Forces Charities, providing Art Therapy Workshops groups all over the UK.
His next mission is completing Lands End to John O’Groats in May 2025 in his wheelchairs!. Everything I do is Voluntary.
Richard works under the name of R. Taiks Art.
