Apathy is the enemy of creativity. As the summer season kicks in it is all too easy to find ourselves on autopilot. Whether boiling our brains on the Northern Line, or navigating the mental gymnastics of summer childcare logistics, summer can be a difficult time to maintain momentum. For creativity and curiosity to thrive we need rest and inspiration. Be it recommending a book, a breathing method or developing a craft, this summer BITE is asking leaders to share how they are making the space to nurture their creativity and find their pace. 

Ross Newton, Creative Director, House 337, talks about using art to stay inspired and avoid a summer slump.

You gotta love summer. But I do feel ‘the slump’ creeping in at this time of year, especially when it feels like everyone is in holiday mode the whole time.

I do have one sure-fire way to keep my inspiration levels high though, and that’s through art. Any kind of art. And the beauty of living and working in London, means there’s never a shortage of stuff to see.

Whether they’re painstakingly curated shows at the big, established institutions, or small, low-key displays on the sideboards of a local coffee shop, the thing I love most about art shows is the fact that they always have to be attended in person. And seeing art in the flesh, is a whole different experience to simply seeing photos of the work online.

Banksy’s phenomenal Cut & Run show up in Glasgow last summer, forced me to lock my phone away in a pouch and experience the work using just my eyes. And it was truly liberating. So, I now always fight the urge to reach for my phone and view everything through a digital screen, and instead take a moment to stand and ponder the works in front of me. It’s such a fantastic way to let life’s stresses slip away, find some inner calm and allow your mind to wander.

Alongside the work itself, I love the people you meet, too. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to chat to the artist and get to hear first-hand how they created the works, their choices of materials or technique, or where their inspiration came from.

I love chatting to complete strangers that happen to be there, too. The shows I generally attend aren’t the elitist, white-walled, champagne-reception ones, so you’re guaranteed to bump into loads of like-minded folk who have been thrust together by a common interest (or a free bar).

Lots of the shows I’ll visit will be pre-planned. I already have Peter Kennard: Archive of Dissent at Whitechapel Gallery, Henry Moore: Shadows on the wall at The Courtauld and the opening of the much-anticipated MOCO Museum London on my hit list.

But my favourite and most memorable shows are normally the ones that I knew nothing about and just randomly stumbled across. Or pop-ups that get announced out of the blue and disappear as quickly as they arrive, like the recent 3-day Paul Insect ‘This & That’ show held in a bric-a-brac shop in Hackney.

So, this summer, to avoid the inevitable slump and stay creatively curious, I’ll be ditching my laptop and phone and hitting the streets to soak up as much art as I can.

Have a fantastic summer and hopefully you’ll be someone I end up having a random chat with at a future art launch party.