Hannah Carnall, Head Chef of Bench

May is PRESERVE“The beauty in our world deserves to be cherished, sustained, and rediscovered. We share this life, and every day we have the opportunity to act as thoughtful participants in it.” Our Charleston chapter chose this month’s exploration of Preserve and Chris Nickelsillustrated the theme. Thank you to our Global Partners—Mailchimp, Adobe, and WordPress.com—for supporting us.

Kisha Bradley AKA #girlswithdrills

“Inclusion happens when all people know an opportunity exists”

Inclusion is an attitude to consciously be open to ideas that come from outside of our settled ways of thinking or feeling. It’s about making a decision that comes from a place of love, of caring for others. When you place inclusivity at the center of how you live, it has great power to heal, elevate new voices, and change the narrative of who belongs“Inclusion isn’t always easy to talk about. I’m not about quick wins or answers I’m just here to tell my story and how I see it today”Kisha Bradley AKA #girlswithdrills is an engineer and activist for diversity in innovation, but that’s not what she wanted to be when she was a kid. When Kisha was little, she wanted to be the president, or one of Destiny’s Child, or maybe even an astronaut.Kisha grew up in America in a poor family in a majority white town, her and her brother were the only mixed race people in the whole population. In her teens she found a leaflet about college (or uni, for Brits!) and decided that’s exactly what she wanted to do. It was going to cost thousands, something her family could not afford but she got straight As and spent the next three years discovering colleges, before attending herself.“This isn’t a picture of me graduating it’s a picture of the first time I felt bad ass in my own skin. It’s the closest I’ve got to feeling like Beyoncé.”Kisha graduated as an engineer and upon moving to Sheffield and discovered that entrepreneurship wasn’t just for middle aged men with a bit of cash in their pocket.“I needed to know that opportunity existed, that it was accessible to me and that I was capable of achieving it”Kisha created Bright Box Makerspace in Sheffield, to help socially excluded young people can access making. Kisha and her team go communities to help kids discover their potential through making, maths and science. They’re supported and given the space and opportunity to use their own voices and discover their own skills. The kids gain confidence and skills in their own communities, opportunity comes to them through Bright Box Makerspace.Kisha has also cofounded #girlswithdrills. For the #girlswithdrills team it’s all about fighting for inclusivity. It’s important to have role models who the kids can identify with, to go into communities so kids can access them and to give kids the agency to discover things for themselves.“Inclusion happens when all people know an opportunity exists, they know it’s something they can take advantage of, they understand they have the power within themselves to make it happen … it’s about them not about you.”Words by Molly McGreevy.

Kisha Bradley AKA #girlswithdrills

#CMinclusive

Photos by Helena Dolby. See the full set of photos on Flickr.

April is INCLUSIVE

When different people come into our lives, they bring gifts. We can blend the best of our wisdom with the best of theirs. We can teach and learn from each other to produce closer circles that foster community and commit to diversity. People who include with intention, raise their hand to do the work of embracing what is unfamiliar. Inclusion is an attitude to consciously be open to ideas that come from outside of our settled ways of thinking or feeling. It’s about making a decision that comes from a place of love, of caring for others. When you place inclusivity at the center of how you live, it has great power to heal, elevate new voices, and change the narrative of who belongs. As diversity advocate Vernā Myers once said, “Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.” Our Grand Rapids chapter chose this month’s exploration of Inclusive, Libby VanderPloeg illustrated the theme, and WordPress.com is presenting the theme globally.

Jack Wakelin AKA Cocktail Master at Public

“If we don’t protect our waters then what will happen to life?”

It’s the main source of all life. The lifeblood element that makes up 60% of our bodies. It’s the liquid that we don’t drink enough of, yet waste effortlessly.
 
We think there is an abundance, yet only one percent can be touched. If we don’t protect our waters, then what will happen to life?

“Sheffield has always been a city of makers, way before cocktail shakers”
 
Jack Wakelin AKA Cocktail Master at Public got into the industry accidentally but soon fell in love with working behind the bar. Six years later Jack is Drinks Manager for the Rockingham Group, the people behind three of Sheffield’s most loved bars – Picture House Social, The Great Gatsy and Public, plus brand new all day café Ambulo.
 
Nestled on the ground floor of the Millennium Gallery, Ambulo has been open just a few weeks but is already a firm Sheffield favourite with its chilled, family vibes. Much like the Rockingham Group’s other venues, creating a venue which is kind to the environment was a top priority when opening Ambulo, and sustainability runs through everything they do.

“There’s obvious things we can do to conserve water. It’s the little things.”
 
At Ambulo, wine is served on tap straight from the keg, saving around 120 glass wine bottles from the recycling bin every week. Cocktails are batch made too, to reduce the ice waste that comes from shaking each drink individually. It follows a pattern of sustainability in drinks which Jack has been championing since his time at Picture House Social.

When Public, a cocktail-lead bar in the former public convenience underneath Sheffield Town Hall, opened 15 months ago, reducing waste was at the core of everything done behind the bar. With menu inspiration coming from trips to the Peak District, branding inspiration coming from former council caretaker Paul Greenwood’s logbook handwriting, and sustainability at its heart, it’s no surprise that Public was soon winning awards, and became the Observer Food Monthly’s Best Place to Drink in the UK 2018.
 
“Waste at bars is absolutely disgusting. You can waste absurd amounts of water in a bar, I dread to think what big chains do.”
 
At Public, spent coffee is used to make sherry while unused and stale bread from the kitchens is infused into a gin, which goes on to become the key ingredient in a breakfast martini. Fruit peel and other citrus waste is transformed into cordials while the ends of charcuterie is distilled with a mescal. Bananas which are past their best are used to make cocktails, which taste exactly like their foam counterparts.

Cutting down waste is key for Jack, and something he believes all bars should be doing. And it’s not just on the cocktail menu that waste can be reduced. Energy can be harvested from coffee machines, waste water can be used to water plants or in toilet systems. There’s always an opportunity to save precious, water, energy and other resources, it’s sometimes just a case of being inventive. For Jack, it’s important to take that time to find ways to reduce waste.
 
“If we don’t protect our waters then what will happen to life?”Words by Molly McGreevy.

Jack Wakelin AKA Cocktail Master at Public

#CMWater

Photos by Helena Dolby. See the full set of photos on Flickr.

Whether we experience a surreal moment or dabble in processes like drawing without thinking or writing without self-editing, there’s something to be learned about ourselves and what lingers under the hood of our desires to keep life orderly and controlled.

“Surreal begets surreal means those bizarre dream like situations I found myself in, for me, have led to more of the same random situations, which I actually really like.”

Sharna Jackson AKA Artistic Director at Site Gallery, author, animator and boat enthusiast has been at the helm of Sheffield’s contemporary art space since July 2018. Site Gallery is CreativeMornings Sheffield’s home for the morning, with breakfast provided by Kollective Kitchen, the gallery’s new café.

“I think I might be the only black, female, young artistic director in the country which is great for me but terrible.”

Sharna wants people from all walks of life to visit Site, which has undergone a multi-million pound regeneration over the last couple of years and reopened its doors to the public in 2018. Sharna draws on experience from her work with Doc/Fest, the Children’s Media Conference and with the Tate to produce and curate a gallery which welcomes all through workshops, events and exhibitions.

Through her work with Tate Kids, Sharna has written activity books for kids and her first novel High Rise Mystery will soon be released. The next project is an animation for pre-school children, which Sharna is currently in the process of scripting.

“People say you go into autopilot when you’re grieving but for me that wasn’t the case. My grief manifests itself in a way that’s a catalyst for both personal change and creativity.”

From a gravestone obsession to her three Dutch barges (and another boat, but we don’t talk about that) Sharna has found herself in some surreal situations since her mum died in 2010. From funeral arrangements - Sharna fancied the funeral director. To the funeral itself - there was singing, dancing and even a fainting. To the wake - Sharna got drunk.

“That process has been one of the most defining moments of my life.”

But each surreal situation has led to something creative, a new idea or in the case of the gravestones, hours of design only for the finished product to be despised by her wider family when it did not turn out to be the minimal, sleek gravestone Sharna envisaged for her mum.

From the surreal process of grieving have come friends from all over the world, much loved  barge Anna Maria and books, animations and the rebirth of one of Sheffield’s favourite galleries.

“Life is too short to not live it how you want and I know that sounds like a Ronan Keating lyric but it’s absolutely true.”

Sharna Jackson AKA Artistic Director at Site Gallery. Photos by Helena Dolby. See the full set of photos from #CMSurreal on Flickr. 

It’s the main source of all life. The lifeblood element that makes up 60% of our bodies. It’s the liquid that we don’t drink enough of, yet waste effortlessly. It’s home to millions of species, mysteries, and undiscovered knowledge. We know more about the stars in the sky than the depths of our oceans. We can use it to save lives. If used foolishly, it can take lives. We think there is an abundance, yet only one percent can be touched. If we don’t protect our waters, then what will happen to life? Our Perth chapter chose this month’s exploration of Water and Sofia Varanoillustrated the theme.

Jack Wakelin AKA Cocktail Master at Public.

Jack Wakelin, originally from South Staffordshire, has lived and worked in Sheffield for the past six years, five of which have been for the ‘Rockingham Group’, comprising of Public link, The Great Gatsby link and The Picture House Social link.

After accidentally falling into the industry (working weekends for a little extra cash) Jack soon fell in love with working within a bar environment. Although, it wasn’t until he started at Picture House Social, where, given the freedom, did he really start to thrive creatively.

Working closely with both photographer India Hobson link and group director James O’Hara link, a thriving relationship emerged. Cocktail menus based around trips to the Peak District and Cleethorpes, making drinks out of the back of Jack’s Mini, were at the centre of this. These excursions were the start of the fun storytelling and more playful approach which has now taken Public – a cocktail-lead bar in the former public convenience underneath Sheffield Town Hall – to become ‘The Best Place to Drink in the UK 2018’ (Observer Food Monthly).

Jack, now the general manager and drinks director for the group, has seen Public embark upon a remarkable journey in just 15 months of opening, winning national accolades, and making a name for both the bar and himself across the industry in the UK.

We will be gathering at the group’s latest venture with Matt Helders from Arctic Monkeys. They have teamed up with Museums Sheffield link to launch Ambulo link, an all-day cafe concept across two historic Sheffield sites. Ambulo launched last month at Millennium Gallery and Weston Park Museum. Offering all-day dining, specialty coffee, wine and cocktails.

We are at the Millenium Gallery site, where after Jack’s talk on #CMwater you can go view their current exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing link. Amongst the works on display in Sheffield is The head of St Philip (c.1495), a study for one of the world’s most famous paintings, the Last Supper. And his observations of the movement of water, and more.

The genius of Leonardo da Vinci also provides the inspiration for an immersive experience from internationally-acclaimed digital studio, Universal Everything link.

This new installation is a 21st century response to the artist’s ground-breaking Studies of flowing water (1510-13), on display in Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing. Centuries before the advent of photography, these drawings revealed the complexity of fluid movement in a way never seen before. The Vehicle of Nature, named after Leonardo’s own description of water, brings together the latest display technologies to create a digital river, which swirls and eddies across the gallery space.

Based in Sheffield, Universal Everything have collaborated with some of the world’s leading digital innovators, from Apple, Google and MTV to the city’s own Warp Records.

Basically, jam-packed all-around rockstar greatness for this month’s discussion on Water. See you on the 29th!