A.O.B FOUNDER,
MELANIE
Melanie is a multidisciplinary Artist with over seven years of professional experience in Arts Facilitation. Spanning from education settings, health and wellbeing, and working for a high end arts company, teaching in venues such as The Barbican. She has experience, both personally and professionally, of the power of the arts for healing and transformation, and creates an environment that ignites this boundless, creative medicine that lays within us all.
My Story
Hello! And thank you for being here! I'm Melanie, and I'm the founder of the 'Art of Being' School.
As a child, I loved to create; painting, script writing, sketching... birds nest making! I was in. But as a teen, I became disenchanted with the way art began to be taught. My inspiration faded, I stopped creating, and unfortunately like many youths, I had no sense of direction or purpose.
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Then, in 2015, after years away from art, and after developing what I now recognise as depression, an opportunity arose to volunteer overseas. There, amidst the beauty of the landscape, the meaningful work we were doing, and the power that can come with novel environments, I met some new people. To me, pretty profound people (though simultaneously simple) who wrote poetry, sang songs, read philosophy, and lived the life of constant creation that I always dreamed of. They had genuinely diverse perspectives, and encouraged my unique soul expression. It was there that I picked up a pencil and began to sketch, sing, and write my ideas about life down on paper. Connecting with my own spirit, a higher power, and tapping back into the divinity of life. I felt a huge spiritual shift, and the beginning of a journey of deep healing, which only continued to flourish once back on English soil.
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Since this time, I have worked in special education, health and wellbeing, and with young offenders institutions, all with creativity at the base, as a mode for healing and transformation. I have fused together the vast array of experiences from working with children in these different settings, together with my recent three years teaching art to adults professionally, to forge a creative education for all, that I truly believe in.
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I believe art, expression, and good people saved my life, and I am on a mission to help catalyse this creative medicine within humanity. 'Art of Being' is a philosophy, a mode of healing, and an invitation to live your truest, highest self. We very much look forward to creating with you soon!
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With love,
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Melanie
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LOVE
EXPRESSION
FREEDOM
TRUTH
HEALING
We are the Art of Being. We believe in activating unique soul expression; facilitating an environment which brings forth each person's highest potential. Our Core Values are LOVE, EXPRESSION, FREEDOM, TRUTH and HEALING. These five tenants help guide everything we do, dissolving the student/ teacher boundary, and facilitating an environment where everyone is learning and transforming, striving for the highest possible good both individually, and as a collective.
Art is the way you speak, move, breathe, listen. There is an Art to everything. Being (existing) and being a 'human being' is an art, in that through expression, conversations and meditation we can become better at life, better at 'being'.
We believe that this philosophy can change the world, one incredible mind at a time.
We are the Art of Being.