Although Bath is more of a Georgian haven than the open-air, art gallery-esque streets of Bristol, beneath the façade it is a creative city at heart.
Creative PlayGround, a group of young professionals in Bath that meet regularly to collaborate and natter, fills an artistic void in the city. Begotten by a small group of twentysomething’s working in advertising, PR, design, publishing and related fields; it was started as a way for creative young people to get social.
Their first event; held in Gascoyne Place, boasted free cider and had more than 50 attendees. They have since had events at The Griffin and The Salamander and have bundles of plans for the future; including exhibiting the work of their members and starting a regular magazine. Holding itself to the motto “be inspired by the world around you”, they class themselves as a “friendly bunch that want to bring together the young professionals in the city for social events and to share their work.” Perfect for young people working in left-side of the brain industries, it is aimed at recent graduates and creative folk in their first few years of employment that want a social outlet for their passion.
Steve Harries, who works at Seager Publishing, and is one of the founding members of Creative PlayGround, commented: “Bath is really quite an artistic city, so we wanted to create something of an artistic hub based around socialising.” He noted: “we didn’t want to label CP as a networking group, as networking tends to have negative connotations. There are already established groups in Bath that cater for social networking within the creative industries but we wanted to focus on the young creatives’.” He said “it may just be a matter of time until Bath overtakes its neighbouring cities as the artistic centre of the South-West!”
With Bath Spa University and University of Bath, as well as the array of local publishers, creative agencies and PR companies; potential members are plentiful, and Creative PlayGround promises to pencil in a gap in the lives of these young, artsy professionals.
Check out their website at www.creativeplayground.org.uk. Events are every other Thursday; see their Twitter profile @CPBath for dates, times and venues.
Our thanks to Jessica Cook for this article on Bath’s Creative Playground.
