We are proud to present our first piece of work from the Space to Explore project, a meeting point for neurodivergent people. This Zine – “a Safe Space – to free your mind” came from workshops with autistic artist Charlie Collins, with Helen Robson leading on the theme of feeling safe. We want to display the zine around the High Peak and beyond, so if you have ideas for where it could go, get in touch!
The first term of the project worked with autistic artist, Charlie Collins who runs Derbyshire Zine Library and co-leads Milestone Studios in New Mills. The theme, led by Helen, was ‘feeling safe’ and the environments and adjustments people need to feel safe. There were group mind maps and each person designed a page to go into the group zine, ‘Safe Space – to free your mind’. We also had debates about language – for example some like to use the term ‘neuro-spicey’ and others find it uncomfortable or disrespectful.
Group member, Jessica laid out the back page and designed a spaceman logo from other people’s ideas. Jessica and Helen, another member, made their own zines as well, using content from their special interest areas. The group zine will be printed to be able to share and display around the High Peak and beyond!
We also collected further ideas on artforms, and we are now working with filmmaker, Mark Turton in photography and digital editing, and booked Gordon McClellan for creative writing from June. We look forward to sharing more of their work!