#CMEdi Speaker Catch-up: Hazel Johnson

In Edinburgh, since 2014, the month of May has signalled a creative pilgrimage. A flocking of creatively inclined folks, forming community and reclamation at Hidden Door Arts festival. In September of last year, we had the good fortune to welcome their director, Hazel Johnson, as a speaker at CreativeMornings Edinburgh!

Fresh out of their 2018 line-up, Hazel and her team were still wiping the sweat from their brows - whilst simultaneously running an emergency campaign to secure the future of the festival. Since then, the Save Hidden Door campaign has achieved phenomenal success, thanks to donors, volunteers, and community ralliers just like you!

So, here we are, in May of 2019. The stellar Hidden Door Arts Festival 2019 line-up launched, with tickets on the go, and a whole new round of fun in store for the creative city that is our home. What better time to catch up with Hazel, reflecting on her introduction to our CMEdi community, and all of the inspiring things that have taken place since!

Photography by Suzanne Heffron 📷

Audrey: Hey everybody! Audrey here, with Hazel of Hidden Door Arts, following up on our CreativeMornings Edinburgh event last September - where Hazel was our speaker, on the theme of ‘Chaos’!

So, it’s been a fair few months now… 

Hazel: Yeah, a while ago now! 

Audrey: A good amount of time for many things to have happened. And, perhaps, some positive, productive reflection? 

Hazel: More chaos! 

Audrey: Oh, I bet! It’s all looking great though!

So, thinking back, to the preparation for your talk - can you give us a little insight into how you went about that? 

Hazel: I had a really useful phone call with Alex (CMEdi host), talking through the theme, event, Hidden Door, and the spaces that CreativeMornings Edinburgh community create. My paid employment also gives me a lot of experience in giving lectures and presentations. So, I wasn’t too phased.

The nice thing about having the opportunity to chat to Alex on the phone was that she painted a picture of what exactly it might be like, and managed my expectations of crowd size. And, even little things, like with the length of the presentation, knowing that it was ok to run over a wee bit. So, preparation wasn’t too much, but just enough. To set the scene like that with me, it was really good.

I also really appreciated that training was offered. Had I wanted or needed it, the fact that that was something I could have pursued was very, very good actually.

Audrey: I’m so glad that the chat with Alex was so helpful, and that you weren’t very nervous about speaking to us all.

It would be great to hear about the lectures and talks you give with your work, too. Can you give us a little insight into this experience? 

Hazel: That sounds a little bit grand! *laughter*

So, my job is with Historic Environment Scotland. In project management and policy review. There’s a lot of going out and speaking, letting people know about what we’re doing. Or at least there has been that element of talks over the course of the projects that we’re doing. As well as facilitating workshops, and that kind of public interaction.

On top of that, I get asked to talk about Hidden Door fairly regularly. More so over the last two years. For example, I do an annual talk for students of the Festival & Events Management course at Edinburgh Napier University.

It’s experiences like these that make the process of getting up in front of a very friendly bunch - which the CreativeMornings Edinburgh crowd definitely are - very easy.

Photography by Suzanne Heffron 📷 

Audrey: We were are all very excited to see you! 

Hazel: Yeah, it was great! The reception was wonderful. It was a very stimulating environment to be invited into. Lot’s of interested people, and at that time in the morning there were some very interesting faces as well… everybody seemed a lot more awake than I was!

Audrey: We’re always really keen - even from the queuing, on our way in!

Hazel: Oh yeah, that queue!

Audrey: It was amazing. Early risers, all so eager to see you!

Hazel: It was crazy! Awesome… Good queue CMEdi! *laughter*

Audrey: Yeah, that was pretty special! Good queue folks!

Was that at all what you were expecting? Even just in general - the people, the vibe?

Hazel: There were probably more people there than I expected, which is good!

With the vibe, I didn’t know what to expect - but it was so much warmer than I could have expected. I know that sounds like quite an undefinable thing… I expected it to be a group of interesting people, but I wasn’t really sure why, or how much, they would want to hear about Hidden Door. But, actually, they were all super, super interested from the word go.

The sea of faces was a very warm and receptive one, so it was all even better than I had expected. It was a particularly welcoming environment. 

Photography by Suzanne Heffron 📷

Audrey: So, that was your first time at CreativeMornings?

Hazel: It was! And with the added bonus of being able to hang-back and hang-out with members of the community, after the talk.

Audrey: Oh, that was so lovely. It meant a lot to us all!

So, looking from the outside in, before you’d been to the event, what was your impression of CreativeMornings Edinburgh?

Hazel: It was really good! I don’t think you could improve the way you convey the real nature of the events and community. You facilitated enough information for me to go and look up what the event might look like. Seeing the photos of previous events, and the way that this is all connected to a much wider, international group of talks. There was a lot of great information available so I could ready myself!

Audrey: So, when you were up on that stage in that moment - you’ve already said that there were lots of happy, smiling faces looking back at you. How did you feel? Did you feel like you were all of a sudden part of a community?

Hazel: I would say I felt like I was speaking to a community, which I could readily become a part of when I join at more events. I absolutely intend to come to them in future!

But, the “speaking to a community” absolutely didn’t change the fact that I felt welcome. I felt a part of it.

An interesting thing for me, when I’m giving a talk, is that it’s almost form of performance isn’t it? So, there’s possibly a line drawn; but that’s my own line that I’m drawing, rather than one that was drawn by somebody else, for me.

Audrey: And, now, you’re not up on the stage. You’re a part of the community… we feel that!

Hazel: Oh, I have made made to feel that, too. Absolutely!

Certainly, being invited to join everyone for coffee afterwards, the newsletters that I now have signed up to and get - it also helps that I work with Chloé, one of your organising team members! And Chloe is an absolute Diamond of a person!

I would definitely say it’s something I feel I am now a part of. 

Photography by Suzanne Heffron 📷

Audrey: Were there any special moments during your morning with us? Perhaps even interactions or things that came about as a result that stand out to you?

Hazel: Oh yes. The interactions on the day, with yourself included. Everybody was so welcoming! Briana, Alex, and you. And, the chap on camera and audio…

Audrey: Oh, Callum!

Hazel: Yes, he was great. He had to come and hook me up for the microphone, and test. But he did it in a very natural way.

When I’m doing presentations, one thing that can freak me out is being mic’d up. Not because I don’t like being amplified, it’s because of the idea that I might break the equipment, or it might go wrong. Because, you can be fairly confident about what you’re saying, but to roll with the punches of the technological failures is something that everybody is perhaps a bit more concerned about.

So, he made that whole process really easy. Which is nice. It might seem like a small thing, but, you know… going in, as the first thing in your morning, that was - for me - quite an important part.

Also, the coffee! Absolutely important! Then, afterwards, quite a few people stayed back to talk to me, ask questions, and chat about the content of the talk. One or two potential opportunities potentially, also, came out of it.

Overall, it’s so very worthwhile. Oh, and! I got invited to do Creative Circles, about a month later. And Morvern [the organiser] was really upfront - she said “Off the back of your talk, would you mind coming and doing another talk!” She’s fantastic.

Audrey: That’s fab! So, would it be right to guess that you might recommend others join in at CreativeMornings?

Hazel: Yes. Hands-down, definitely. As a speaker, and more generally as part of the community. I can’t wait to get more involved.

Audrey: Were there any other highlights to the experience of the morning?

Hazel: That venue was a really nice environment for taking part. In the number of times that I’ve been to the Fruitmarket Gallery, it was nice to go there and feel like I was actually contributing something, as well as going there and looking at all of the other amazing stuff that everyone else is always doing.

These are very important spaces, for people to go, learn, and see things. I felt like I was a part of that - on this particular morning, especially.

Audrey: That’s a very interesting way of looking at it. When we do a talk in a museum or gallery, recognising that it all of a sudden becomes a contributor to the space. Not just a sense of being visitors. That’s really special.

Hazel: Along with breakfast. It was amazing! Everyone was just really going for it.

Audrey: Oh yeah, those mini breakfast taco-bowls and beautiful cakes, they were flying off the tables! Thank you Homespun Kitchen!

Photography by Suzanne Heffron 📷

Hazel: There was also the ice-breaker activity. With the theme of ‘Chaos’, everyone took someone else’s name badge, going on to either find the owner of the badge or become who they imagined them to be. That was really, really fun.

Thanks to Alex for coming up with that idea, and getting me to contribute in on it. I can imagine there’s a lot of fun to be had when you create ice-breakers like that for different themes and speakers!

Audrey: Something that we see after events, related to the more personal level for individuals, is a shift in perspective. About creativity, community, and themselves. Related to that, how did you walk away feeling, after spending the morning with us?

Hazel: That’s a really interesting question actually. I think I always find that preparing a talk does focus your mind slightly. Now, the theme obviously means that you’re writing it with an angle, perhaps. Or, a steer. But, with what we’d just come out of with Hidden Door, has been a huge period of uncertainty - and I hadn’t given a presentation or talk since the festival in May 2018. Usually I give tours and presentations during the festival, but we came out of that festival with quite a lot of debt - despite it being hugely successful. This meant we had leapt straight into fundraising, right after.

So, being able to almost press pause on that train of thought, and look over all of the previous years’ successes, and challenges; all of it together was a really nice way of resetting myself, and my approach to the organisation. We’ve been in emergency mode. To be able to talk and, I guess, reignite my own enthusiasm for the project - that preparing of the presentation was actually quite meditative. A really good opportunity for me to stop and go “You know what? Yeah. Of course. This is why we do this.” It doesn’t matter that we had to go out and find funding.

Being right in the middle of the ‘Save Hidden Door’ fundraising campaign in September 2018, when doing the CreativeMornings Edinburgh talk, was pretty much the beginning of when we were having to sit down and figure it all out. So, it was good.

It reignited my optimism, because it felt familiar. It was nice to be able to talk about something we had been working on for 5 years, and frame it in a way that said “This is a really special and important thing to me” and, as it turns out, to a lot of other people, too.

Audrey: Quite a few members of your team came along, with you. Did that make it seem like a team day? A kind of celebration, and reflection?

Hazel: I didn’t put it on them to come along, so it was incredibly lovely to have them there. Although, it did heighten my fear that I would say something wrong about their areas of expertise at Hidden Door! *laughter*

Within our team, everyone one is so skilled and dedicated, and has a lot of autonomy over the different things that they do. For example, I don’t do any of the content.

But, no, it was so nice that they came along. That’s one of the nice things about Hidden Door; we are very supportive of each other’s endeavours. I did say to them “Please do come, by all means! But, can you sit at the back? So I don’t have to look at you?” *laughter* That is one of the few things when I’m giving a talk… what will make me a little bit nervous is when there’s people I know really, really well in the audience. It’s the only thing that can really rattle me!

Nevertheless, a particularly lovely thing was that some of our events volunteers came along, as well as members of the core team. These were volunteers who had just done stewarding shifts at the festival, along with some people who had asked if they could be involved in future, so they could learn more about it. And, we had people come along who had worked with Hidden Door in previous years.

While I knew, with some confidence, that I’d see hands go up in the air when I asked “Who in the room knows Hidden Door, or has been to Hidden Door?”, I was overwhelmed at just how many hands would go up in the air. It was lovely to see those familiar faces, and catch-up with a few folk that I hadn’t seen in a while.

Audrey: It sounds like you have a fundamental understanding of that special vibe we find so hard to describe, in the context of CreativeMornings. Sure, Hidden Door has a different cycle in time, and magnitude per occurrence, but it has that ‘special something’. You’ve done that. You’ve got people giving their time, and wanting to see you again.

Hazel: Yeah, absolutely. There’s something that, whenever we get a new influx of volunteer stewards - there will be brand new people, but there also will be people who said “my friend can’t come this year, but they said I should definitely come and do it, because they had such a good time previously.” or something like that. And then, you have the people that keep coming back.

And, when you really look at it, what we’re asking people to do is invigilate artwork, or steward drunk people. They get perks, and hopefully get a lot out of it. We try and work it so that they do. But, we’re asking something of them, and yet they come back! I’m always just a bit like “Wow! I can’t believe you’re here again!”, and it does remind you that people are good. People are really good!

There are people out there who just like doing something because it’s a good idea. Rather than necessarily thinking “oh well, what am I going to get out of this?”. Sure, they might get some free tickets, but, in the grand scheme of things, their time is so valuable. I’m always very aware and appreciative of that. 

Photography by Suzanne Heffron 📷

Audrey: Do you have any messages you would like to send out to the CreativeMornings community, local and global?

Hazel: I would love to send out my thanks. Thank you for thinking of me, inviting me to contribute to your community and space. It was such a beautiful experience.

Also, for the opportunity to shout about the work we were doing specifically around the fundraising. The awareness raising of the festival and organisation is great. It looks big and shiny from the outside, so to be able to talk people through how it actually happens - that it is all volunteer run - is no small thing. Thank you for that, as well. 

Thank you so much to Hazel for taking the time to catch-up with us, and for sharing these incredibly valuable behind-the-scenes insights!

If you’re in Edinburgh between 30th May and 2nd of June, 2019, make sure to make time to head on down to Hidden Door, at Leith Theatre! There’s visual art and performances, both filling and surrounding the venue, all free for you to explore. As well as a mind-blowing array of night-time performances, for which tickets are flying off the digital shelves - grab yours on their website at hiddendoorblog.org/tickets/

If you can’t be there this year, cure the FOMO by following them on instagram @HiddenDoorArts, on Twitter @HiddenDoorArts, and on Facebook @HiddenDoor 📲🎨