A Conversation with Alyssa from Creative Playground

Give us a brief on your background as a human and as an artist. 

I feel like this is the hardest question. I’m 24 years old, from Sydney, Australia, living in Amsterdam. In 2022 I completed art school and since then, feel like I’ve been ‘recovering’ from it. I feel I have only just become inspired and comfortable to create again. 

As a kid, I was quite confident when it came to expressing my inner world and creativity. I didn’t really feel bound by limitations. I remember I once made a gym in my living room out of trashed cardboard and plastic bits because my parents went to the gym every morning. I thought it was such a cool, adult thing and wanted to recreate it myself. That was a normal day in my life. I was like, what if I use this, and put this and that together, and create a whole gym! I did it just because.

I was lucky to have parents that valued this part of me and saw it as something to nurture. I can’t say I’d have any contact with it today if it weren’t for that.

Through my time at school, this creative spark in me diminished. I found myself repeatedly getting in trouble for being lost in my daydreams and I slowly had to teach myself to ‘snap out of it’. It’s kind of sad because I think that part of me was pretty special. I know there are a lot of people who were also like this, but were continuously told it was a bad thing, and so trained themselves not to enter their imaginative realm anymore.

Fast forward to now, I am trying to reclaim that part of myself.

What led you to start Creative Playground?

Creative Playground has been brewing in my mind for some years now. The seed was planted during my final year in art school, when I noticed that the creative light in me had started to burn out. During one session in my drawing class, I felt like I was hitting a wall, again and again. So, I gave up on trying to create something that was revolutionary, thought-provoking, and ‘artistic’. Instead, I gathered all my materials and sketchbook, and started to create like I did as a child. I tried to be at one with the paper and material, getting curious about the colours, the texture, the space of the page. I was just expressing what my heart desired. I don’t remember it super clearly, but I do remember finding it hard to get into that mindset and stay there. When I noticed myself going into that ‘adult’ creative mindset of “this is ugly”, “no one will like this”, “this doesn’t have any value”, I would try to gently bring myself back into the zone I wanted to be in. I wasn’t necessarily able to stay in it the whole session, but the glimpses I got of my childlike creative state took me right back, and felt so real and visceral.

It made me start to think about the way we were encouraged to create in art school, and how it took us further and further away from our true creativity. We had started to mistake creativity with what would be valued in the art world. I was thinking about that spark that was so alive in us as children, and how many of us parted ways with it along the path to adulthood. So, I thought about how I wanted to bring this back to myself, and to other people.

Years later, while I was living in London, I had an idea to create gatherings where we would give  ourselves permission to reacquaint with that part of ourselves.

And this is where Creative Playground began.

How was your first meeting? Did any challenges arise? Surprises? 

The first evening went so well, to the point that my usual anxiety was confused at having nothing to be anxious about because it just went so..damn..well.

I noticed people's faces change before and after the event. People arrived and they were still caught up in their normal routines, just coming from work and daily life. But after the event they were different – they left with such a lit up face. I noticed people were so giggly, open and calm. We were all a little high from three hours of collaging. 

To see this change in people's demeanour meant the world to me. It was such an honest and raw representation of what the evening had achieved, and to get that from the first event was so encouraging.

I was nervous to create an event that was alcohol free. I imagine providing alcohol would normally give a host some relief in the evening flowing well. But offering tea warmed people up differently. Beginning from their bellies and opening themselves up to each other and art making.  

I left feeling so fulfilled, which I don’t normally feel after leaving the pub. That’s what I’d hoped to create, an activity that would leave us with a spark lit up inside and a warm, full feeling in our hearts, not a hangover.

What is it like hosting at an unconventional space? 

Actually, exactly what I wanted. I wanted Creative Playground to be hosted in a space that felt aligned to its values. A place where everyone felt safe, welcome and not used for capital gain by either the venue or an organisation. A space that has the people in mind, and not an individualistic mindset of growth. 

I feel like this space really achieves that. I really want to steer away from flashy events like the ones you see on Instagram. When I was finding a space I was looking for something that encouraged authentic creation between people. I think it’s really important for everyone involved to be on the same wave-length,and I know Juud who runs Supermercator is, so I am forever grateful to have found a place that aligns so perfectly with Creative Playground.

What are your wildest hopes for the project?

Hmm, I am a very ‘international’ person. I think that comes with being Australian. As someone who lives so far away from home, once you’ve made it to the other side of the world, you really do feel like the world is your oyster. Travelling between main cities in Australia is equivalent to hopping between countries in Europe, and actually making it overseas is always a long-haul flight, so travel is very valued. For now, I am already thinking up about hosting events in London, different parts of Europe, and Australia. And eventually I’d love to have a team of us hosting regular events in different countries/cities, allowing people to regularly come back to this space I am wanting to bring back into their lives.