Anna at EYST

A bit about myself

I'm an Anglo-Italian artist living in Cardiff, I graduated from USW studying Creative and Therapeutic Arts.

After University I was doing various part time jobs in hospitality and schools, while trying to grow roots as a community artist in South Wales. When lockdown happened I was made redundant like many people from the hospitality industry. While searching for new jobs I came across a vacancy through EYST; even though I didn't get the job | applied for, my line manager contacted me with another vacancy that she thought suited me best.

What made you choose EYST?

I've always wanted to work with the community, and although I was in contact with opportunities in the area, most of the time the arts are seen as free. I wanted to be making a difference through the arts, but I was missing the support needed to really make a positive impact in the community.

What did your placement entail?

I was the Marketing Support Officer for the BME Invest project. My job consisted of creating promotional pieces of participants who had benefited from their placements.

I got to meet people from various organisations, interview them and make a promotional piece of them in two weeks. After that onto the next promo! Depending on what the organisations needed, I either made articles or videos of their placement. This was my first professional job, and a first for me working from home!

How have you grown?

I was able to co-ordinate my own time and make my own creative choices for each story I was promoting: that meant so much as an artist!

I had minimal knowledge of marketing and making digital art, but I was for sure keen to learn. I can now confidently create articles with a creative flair, contact host organisations to research the information required. Most importantly, listen to someone's story!

I was fascinated by the people I met and the communal effort of making a better world, I felt grateful that the way their story was represented was in my own hands.

How has EYST aligned with your values?

Dignity, worth, respect are the ways EYST sees the community they are supporting. I landed in the intercultural environment that the EYST family is, with whole open-heartedness.

The staff always makes sure you're comfortable with the workflow and checks your wellbeing during these stressful times. My line manager was what made my job light and exciting: it means a lot when your boss praises your work, caring so much about the quality of all stakeholders.

EYST is:

GENUINE, UPLIFTING. TRUSTING

What qualities have you discovered through this placement?

I began to trust myself with my own choice-making in regards to how and when to work. I chose how to handle my hours and worked at my own pace. It prompted me to be less fearful when reaching out to people and to push me to get what I want.

I felt a connection with the participants I interviewed which made the work much more meaningful: I wanted to gift them the best visual description of their story in exchange for their hard work with the community

I've developed a trust towards my creative flair that has impacted the quality of my marketing work; I feel like I can tell by listening to someone how I would see their story look.

What are the greatest benefits you received from EYST?

There are so many members at EYST, each one of them are passionate about social justice. It is motivating to see how much work some members of our community are putting in for the benefit of us all.

My favourite part is meeting new people and organisations, but especially seeing how pleased people are when seeing how their story was told. We share our opinions and respect our viewpoints, while supporting each other in making positive change happen. 

The greatest benefits are the training received from other organisations on topics like racial justice, sustainability, poverty, safeguarding. These are special opportunities to share how much I don't yet know and to learn the ways in which we can all be active citizens.