Magnetic Ideals is a community organisation providing training, research and networking for organisations working for community interest and social sustainability. We run and support creative projects bringing communities together to create positive social change. This year (2024 – 2025) Magnetic Ideals will be focusing its annual research project on working with Quiet Down There as our research partners.
Quiet Down There runs Harriet’s Press in the Old Market, offering laundry service, a hot drink, and a creative activity for those struggling with hygiene poverty. While people wait, they work 1-2-1 and in small groups on creative activities, with the aim of supporting the formation of a creative identity. Creativity is a lifelong tool for supporting good mental health.
At present, we are project planning and examining a combination of interviews and case studies. We are developing resources and pairing them with some of the artists in our network, supporting them to enhance their arts provision programme.
Image – Chris Kuzmicki presenting at Sonic Rebellions II (2024)
We are very excited to take on Chris Kuzmicki as a Social Researcher for the coming year at Magnetic Ideals! Since its inception, Chris has been involved in Magnetic Ideals, co-chairing our board and co-writing our constitution. He has consulted on numerous projects for us, including research for developing an accredited volunteering programme at Durham University Students’ Union, with The Student Engagement Partnership and the QAA, looking at student engagement in internal quality processes, and more recently, providing Advance HE away day facilitation.
Chris Kuzmicki brings a wealth of unique skills and experiences to our team. His background in research, including qualitative and quantitative data analysis, survey coding, and interview and focus group transcription, is impressive. His extensive work in the public sector and higher education, along with his recent contributions at the University of Brighton, where he conducted research on graduate career opportunities and built relationships with SMEs and the community sector, is a testament to his capabilities. His nine years at the University of Brighton, which included roles at STEM Sussex and Brighton Students’ Union, further demonstrate his diverse skill set.
His academic background includes an MA in critical and cultural theory and an award-winning BA (Hons) in Music. He will present at the upcoming Sonic Rebellions conference in Brighton, where he will speak about music technology and social justice. He is also a fixture of the local Brighton music scene as a musician, sound engineer, and DIY promoter. It will be worth keeping an eye out for his workshops as part of our Reconnect Skills Share projects later this year.
Chris will be joining us full-time to lead our open-access community research project. His expertise and leadership will bring a new level of innovation and success to this initiative. We are thrilled to announce that we will be launching our call for community partners and you can find out more information here!
Magnetic Ideals are a small community organisation working on projects that bring about positive social change. We have a dedicated research team that can help you gather useful data and transform it into insightful reports. As a not-for-profit group, we understand the challenges and budget constraints faced in this sector. We can work with you to find cost-effective ways to help you achieve your goals. For example, we can support you with funding bids for research projects or finding partners with shared research goals to ensure cost-saving.
Our services encompass a wide range of research methodologies, including but not limited to:
Interviews: We can conduct in-depth interviews with stakeholders, beneficiaries, and community members to gather first-hand insights.
Focus Groups: Our experienced facilitators can organise and moderate focus group sessions, ensuring rich qualitative data.
Surveys: We design and administer questionnaires, helping you collect quantitative data and opinions from your target audience.
Action Research: We can work closely with your team to plan, implement, and evaluate action research projects to drive positive change while doing workshops or activities that move you forward.
Case Studies: We excel in creating compelling case studies that showcase your organization’s impact and success stories.
Desk-Based Research: Our researchers can conduct thorough desk-based research, compiling relevant data and literature to support your projects.
Writing up and analysis of existing data: We can work with your existing data sets to find trends, help you highlight achievements or understand your service-user needs.
Away Day Research: Run fun and creative away days that help you gather information, understand your organisational needs, while promoting staff communication and cohesion.
Researcher Training: Upskill your staff so that you can build the research capacity of your organisation internally.
Working with Magnetic Ideals you can expect the following benefits:
Affordability: We understand the budget constraints of small organisations, and our pricing is designed to be reasonable and transparent.
Customized Solutions: We tailor our approach to meet your specific research objectives and organisational goals.
Professional Expertise: Our team comprises experienced researchers and writers who are dedicated to delivering high-quality reports.
Timely Delivery: We are committed to meeting deadlines and ensuring you have the information you need when you need it.
Actionable Insights: Our reports provide you with actionable insights to make informed decisions and demonstrate your impact to donors and stakeholders.
Previous research projects include working with EASA, mapping resistance to precarious work practices (interviews, case studies, desk-based research), supporting student-led research into housing for Sussex Students’ Union (training, report-writing), away day facilitation and write-up for Advance HE and service-user surveys for Menopause and Mind.
If you’re interested in working with us, we’d be happy to hear about your project however big or small! Please reply to this email or get in touch with info@magneticideals.org to schedule a free consultation, include if you can a rough outline of the project you are planning and any budget constraints and funding ambitions. We’re a friendly group and are keen to work with you, not just for you.
The launch of the Creative Climate Café Programme brought together artists, musicians, environmentalists, and community activists to celebrate funding for a new kind of climate café. This new programme, funded by the Rampion Community Benefit Fund, brings creative art practices into the traditional creative climate café format. This programme of ten cafes covers issues from the energy crisis, marine life and wetlands preservation.
A partnership project between Magnetic Ideals, Arts for Life and Ecotopia Now!, the Creative Climate Cafe initiative will help address eco-anxiety, and fuel conservation for vulnerable groups by running ten intergenerational, family-friendly Creative Climate Cafes that also address the cost-of-living crisis. These workshops will be hosted by experienced facilitators and community leaders with backgrounds in sustainability, mental health, eco-anxiety and community empowerment. Arts activities range from painting with natural dyes, to marbling and working with charcoals, the full programme of events is available on Eventbrite.
Kirsty Lumm from Arts for Life discussed how creative climate cafes, people will engage in healing artistic pursuits, and build community while learning to save money sustainably in the cost-of-living crisis. Each cafe addresses a different cost of living issue, from home fuel use, water use, food, social life and connections, sustainable purchasing, and empowering people to ask for change. Heather McKnight from Magnetic Ideas explained how at these builds on the Climate Psychology Association model of Climate Cafes as open, inclusive spaces for discussing climate change. Cafes allow a forum that can encourage action and educate in cost saving. Research indicates that these collective experiences can lead to better mental health outcomes and be better for the planet, as people move from anxiety to action. Booking for the creative climate cafes is available here.
Xenia Christopoulou from Ecotopia Now! gave an empowering talk about how small actions can make a big difference, and about how interconnected we are with the world around us. Katie Scanlan, the Rampion Stakeholder and Visitor Centre Manager, also gave at talk highlighting the way in which the Rampion Windfarm have been engaging with community both through the visitor centre, and through the Rampion Community Benefit Fund.
The launch event featured a soundscape by local musician Jim Purbrick under the guise of Remember Glaciers. The project Snæfellsjökull 2011 recalls memories of a road trip to an electronic music festival near the Snæfellsjökull glacier in Iceland. The story is told in fragments of dialogue from a more care free time when our only concerns were “Where’s the raves at in Iceland?”, how to make Salmiakki and whether the car would be able to get us there and back again.” You can hear edits of this stream from this live project on his YouTube.
A highlight of the night was a performance of protest song Under the Pee by Lorelei Mathias and Phil Johnstone comedically highlighting pollution in the sea. Lorelei is a comedian, author, mermaid… and founder of cause-powered comedy collective, www.Meloncomedy.com. Lorelei Mathias believes comedy has a unique power to create change, and has made work for South Coast Sirens (which she co-founded), and performed at Surfers Against Sewage /SOS Whitstable’s ‘Cut the Crap’ marches, as well as comedy shows from London to Melbourne. Phil Johnstone is a songwriter and musician in the Bedford Celts, The Qwarks and other projects and also works at the University of Sussex researching and teaching on sustainability transitions. He co-wrote Under the Pee with Lorelei.
Under the Pee Performance
Overall, the night was a wonderful opportunity to bring together people who were activists, artists, community and political leaders, as well as climate café participants from the original pilot scheme. While the climate crisis is very much upon us it is inspirational so see so many people taking part in projects big and small to inspire change, create change and bring the community together around one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced.
Creative Climate Cafe Programme Launch and Booking Open for Oct/Nov Cafes
We are delighted to announce the launch of a ten-part Creative Climate Cafe Programme funded by the Rampion Community Benefit Fund. Our launch event is on Friday 20 October, and the first two cafes are now open for bookings. Events are free, but places are limited so please book in advance.
Fri 20 October – 6pm – 8pm – Creative Climate Cafe Launch Event – Come join us for a celebration at the Rampion Visitor Centre near the i360, with refreshments, live entertainment, glacial soundscapes and find out more about our Creative Climate Cafes that will be running over the next few months! Booking is essential on eventbrite here!
Sat 21 October – 2pm – 4:30pm – Charcoals Creative Climate Cafe at the Cornerstone– Climate Cafes are open, inclusive spaces for people to talk and act on climate change, everyone is welcome to join the conversation and get involved. Magnetic Ideals and Arts for Life are running a climate cafe with a difference where there will be the option of engaging with art and creative practices to engage and learn about issues around the climate crisis. This session will focus on saving home energy and working with charcoal. Booking essential, sign up here!
Sat 11 November – 2pm – 4:30pm – Welcome to the Swamp! Creative Climate Cafe at the Cornerstone – Climate Cafes are open, inclusive spaces for people to talk and act on climate change, everyone is welcome to join the conversation and get involved. Magnetic Ideals and Arts for Life are running a climate cafe with a difference where there will be the option of engaging with art and creative practices to engage and learn about issues around the climate crisis. This session will focus on using natural paints and exploring the biodiversity of our rapidly disappearing swamps and wetlands. We may be outside for some of this workshop weather permitting! Booking essential, sign up here!
Creative Climate Cafe Programme Launch Event – Combatting Eco-Anxiety and Promoting Affordable Sustainable Living
The launch of the Brighton and Hove Creative Climate Cafe Programme 2023/24 will take place on 20 Oct at the Rampion Windfarm Visitor Centre. The Creative Climate Cafe initiative will help address fuel poverty and fuel conservation for vulnerable groups by running ten intergenerational, family-friendly Creative Climate Cafes that also address the cost of living crisis. These workshops will be hosted by experienced facilitators and community leaders with backgrounds in sustainability, mental health, eco-anxiety and community empowerment.
At these creative climate cafes, people will engage in healing artistic pursuits, and build community while learning to save money sustainably in the cost of living crisis. Each cafe will address a different cost of living issue, from home fuel use, water use, food, social life and connections, sustainable purchasing, and empowering people to ask for change.
This approach builds on the Climate Psychology Association model of Climate Cafes as open, inclusive spaces for discussing climate change. Cafes allow a forum that can encourage action and educate in cost saving. Research indicates that these collective experiences can lead to better mental health outcomes and be better for the planet, as people move from anxiety to action.
The project will improve support and awareness of marine ecology, nature conservation and environmental improvements through community outreach. Sessions will run in the Rampion Visitor Centre and others at the Cornerstone Community Centre.
The launch event will feature talks for project partners gluten-free and vegan, refreshments.
Entertainment will be provided by award-winning comedian Lorelei Mathias (from comedy collective Melon Comedy) and Phil Johnstone, a songwriter and musician in the Bedford Celts. Lorelei is a resident mermaid protestor in Brighton, has made comedy shorts about the plastic crisis in our oceans and has been featured in the Guardian and the BBC. There will also be a soundscape from Remember Glaciers, a project that aims to recover stories of glaciers from the past like bubbles of air trapped in ice cores and to share them as fragments of memory echoing and fading into glacially slow generative ambient soundscapes.
This project is funded through The Rampion Community Benefit Fund at Sussex Community Foundation and is a partnership between Magnetic Ideals, Arts for Life, Ecotopia Now! and the Rampion Windfarm Visitor Centre.
As part of our community Reconnect! Programme we were very excited to run a Bee Friendly workshop, which aimed to educate local residents about the plight of pollinators, and build confidence in engaging with others in the community while tackling this issue in our city, where there are many solitary urban bees. The workshop was designed to build community, teach people new skills about their lived environment, build confidence, reduce eco-anxiety and educate!
Our expert facilitator Xenia led us through her story, and how her initial fascination with bees started with honey, she is now about 30 years on from that initial fascination, and as a vegan, she is no longer consuming honey. However, she was still as enthused by this nature’s little wonders as she was when she first learned about their existence. Bees are, on the whole, very interesting insects that are indelibly linked to humans’ food security. They pollinate over 130 fruits and vegetables, and on many occasions, they are the only pollinators adapted to these plants. They are responsible for pollinating three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants. They pollinate seeds and nuts, helping plants and trees to grow – which is vital to clean, breathable air.
There is about 26,000 known bee specie, however, out of those, only eight have the capability of building colonies that contain honey. There are a huge variety of bees, from cuckoo solitary bees known as ‘brood parasites’ to leafcutter bees. In the UK, there are over 250 known species, primarily solitary bees, there are twenty-four species of bumble bees and only one species of honey bee! It is important to remember it is not all about just bees – there are other pollinators, including, but not limited to wasps, butterflies, moths, and flies, that are equally important.
What is happening in the countryside?
As humans have industrialised farming to feed a growing global population, pollinators – animals vital for plant reproduction – have seen their food supply decline. In the UK, intensive agriculture has eroded biological diversity in large portions of the countryside, with vast swathes of cereal crops and ryegrass pastures now replacing flower-rich habitats.
Agriculture represents approximately 70% of England’s land use (DEFRA, 2011b) and as such agricultural production can have a substantial impact on the resources available to bees throughout the landscape. In particular mass flowering crops, such as apples or oilseed rape, can provide short-term but highly abundant forage for local bees, and pasture grazing can influence the quality of nesting sites and bee forage in grassland.
Bees in the City
While we might think about bees as countryside critters, about 83% of the UK population now live in an urban area. Urban areas are complex patchworks of different land uses, from green spaces like parks and gardens to pavement, road verges to roofs. Recent research conducted in 2021 in the UK suggests that urban landscapes are hotspots of nectar diversity. This means that there are more kinds of flowering plants producing nectar in towns and cities than in the farmland and nature reserve sites we measured. Bees are drawn away from monocultures into this diverse landscape, because just like in humans, a balanced diet is important for keeping pollinators healthy, helping them to fight off diseases.
What can we do?
While the picture may seem bleak globally, with so many pollinators in urban areas, there are actually many small ways we can work to help support the pollinators in our city and beyond!
Create a Bee Hotel for solitary bees to lay their eggs in lay their eggs as they don’t live in hives, or a Bee Bath for the hotter months.
Plant your own wildflowers by transforming an unused urban space (e.g. tree base, road verge etc.) or if you have a garden space you can plant pollinator-friendly wildflowers there!
In the last part of our workshop, everyone made a bee hotel out of recycled materials to take away and place in their local community. It is important that with all of these global issues, we can take little local steps, helping our nearby pollinators one larvae at a time!
We hope you enjoy these pictures of our Bee Hotels creations and are inspired to go forth and make your own!
The WaspLove Game. Wasps are nature’s pest-controllers and pollinators. This game is based on observations of the complex social life of the European paper wasp and was created by UCI and fo.am, funded by NERC, UKRI.
Tew, Nicholas E., et al. ‘Quantifying Nectar Production by Flowering Plants in Urban and Rural Landscapes’. Journal of Ecology, vol. 109, no. 4, 2021, pp. 1747–57. Wiley Online Library, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13598.
… so a while ago we got a kind invite for one of our Menopause and Mind team (Heather McKnight) to speak on Menopause Mindset by Sally Garozzo, it’s now up on Apple Podcasts if anyone is interested in listening. Some show notes below from Sally summarising the show!
*** Menopause Mindset Podcast – The Power of Art and Collective Care ***
Self care not working? Maybe you need collective care.
When I first heard the term ‘collective care’ it dawned on me, maybe that’s why self care often falls short, because it doesn’t quite reach the part of the nervous system that is often disregulated in menopause.
Let me explain. The ventral vagal branch of the parasympathetic nervous system (the part that’s responsible for our sense of safety and belonging) can only be healed when we are in safe communion with others. When we feel lost, alone and unheard, which we often do at menopause, no amount of SELF care is going to fix that.
My guest today, Heather McKnight is a utopian scholar, an activist and a community worker with a special interested in menopause and in our conversation we talk about:
What Utopianism has got to do with menopause.
Why community healing is perhaps MORE important than self healing when it comes to menopause.
The good thing that collective care can actually lead to (that we don’t always think of).
The thing that we are not told BEFORE menopause that might help so many people during it.
The powerful community practice that can help with navigating the feelings attached to your own personal menopausal experience.
The one thing that holds people back from participating in helpful alternative practices for menopause (no it’s not their mindset!).
The serious mental illness where oestrogen has a greater positive effect than drugs (no it’s not depression or anxiety).
What ‘catching ants’ can do for our mental health.
The challenges we face in trying to be inclusive around the menopause conversation.
How this particular type of thinking can help us feel so much better about what we’re going through (hint: it has nothing to do with positive thinking).
Heather’s new DIFFERENT chosen word for menopause.
So if you’re ready to get a much broader perspective on the menopause, this episode is for you.
Our Creative Climate Cafe event last weekend, on 7 Jan 2023, was an inspirational space where we connected with a diverse group of people interested in climate issues from different perspectives, experiences and generations. People came together for a few hours to reflect, share and create together. We were particularly inspired by our youngest attendee, who aged seven, was furiously making save the planet posters before we even got a chance to get started!
Climate Cafes, as defined by the Climate Psychology Alliance, are open, inclusive spaces for people to talk and act on climate change. Everyone is welcome to join the conversation and get involved. When running this climate cafe, Magnetic Ideals and Arts for Life wanted to build on this idea by running a climate cafe with a difference; the option of engaging with art and creative practices.
We believe that art helps people connect so they can come together and creatively engage with ways to take action, create community, and process eco-anxiety and dread about the future of our planet. Art can help process difficult feelings because it activates the imagination allowing us to sit with our feelings, acknowledge our feelings, and then transform our feelings. It also allows us to look at different possibilities for the future to reimagine what we want the future to look like. Any art can help with feelings of eco-anxiety: think about all of the amazing art that has been present throughout different protests in the last couple of years and how those visuals on social media allow people to connect and ingest the information differently.
Our session began with tea, coffee and check-ins. People had a chance to share why they wanted to attend the event. People expressed eco-anxiety in different ways, from activist burn-out to concerns for the future, and frustrations with local and national politics and corporations. We also heard about people’s interest in nature and community projects and a desire to connect with others on these issues.
Then we began looking at some positive news stories from the last year; it is so easy to focus on what is wrong that we felt a bit of inspiration would be helpful. Each group worked on a mind map of their thoughts and feelings. We discussed a broad range of hopeful issues such as organic farming, spaces for bees in the city, circular economics and political campaigning. There were also some really productive talks on what we can do individually, starting from where we are, slowing down and changing little things in our lives.
Following our mind mapping, people worked with old books and magazines to create collages, some as a group, others as individuals and other artworks. This allowed people to focus, chat, and visually explore ideas and feelings. Themes about potential futures, food chains, anger, action and appreciating the beauty of nature were abundant. We will let these pictures speak for themselves!
Our next Creative Climate Cafe will be a drop-in session on 18 March 2023 as part of the College of Self-Managed Learning’s Festival of Learning. We hope to run more of these cafes as the year progresses. You can sign up for our mailing list here to be kept updated with issues and view our other events as part of the Reconnect! Programme here.
Finally, we want to thank Andrea, who also wrote a narrative to her artwork and has allowed us to share it below…
This art is Mother Nature, with all her colours, with all her kindness.
Being one with Nature by Andrea Lopez Alba
One of the issues has been to take Nature as property and not as one of us. This has allowed some people to use her as a resource to enrich themselves (understanding wealth as an individual economic benefit). Instead, other people have created communities with another way of living. It is to perceive Nature as a mother and provider of food for her children, therefore as someone to be respected and cared for.
I will refer specifically to indigenous communities: native people with a deep connection to Nature, with the consciousness to analyze her and learn from her cycle and her movement. From those communities, we have much to learn. Unfortunately, the indigenous communities that exist are threatened day by day by problems of power and territoriality, by an economic system that results in forcibly displacing them, losing in the process, the land they care for, and, progressively their culture and way of life.
My invitation is to continue in contact with Nature. To feel her. To allow ourselves to appreciate sunrises and sunsets, to walk on her land and while doing so, I want you to think and understand how she works and how our daily actions influence her. If the impact is negative, in our consciousness, we will start to reduce it, and if the impact is positive in our consciousness, there will also be the desire to replicate it.
With many thanks to our funders at the National Lottery Community Fund.
What Utopianism has got to do with menopause.
