Charlie Hill (Uncover Cultural Skills)
We’re spotlighting some of the facilitators working on our Uncover Cultural Skills Project (find out more about the project below).
Introducing one of the workshop leaders, Charlie Hill, a creative outdoor facilitator and artist exploring ways to connect to nature and each other through community, creativity and bushcraft.
The Uncover Cultural Skills project seeks to support hidden creative's development and make visible inherent skills that can then be shared and celebrated widely. The aim of the project is to uncover creative skills within different cultures and community groups in Rotherham.
The project is working with 4 groups and 4 artists delivering 6 sessions for each group. BME Young carers group, Apna Haq, YAWR services and Steel City / Masbrough with a different artist working with each group. Uncover Cultural Skills is funded by National Lottery Community Fund. Find out more about the project and the upcoming exhibition in July 2025 here.
“I have to create to make sense of the world and where we live.”
Can you tell us a bit about your practice as a visual artist?
I’m a creative outdoor facilitator working in communities across Yorkshire. My practice explores ways to connect nature, people and place through creativity, community work and bushcraft. I facilitate experiences to support people’s wellbeing and co-create installations and make objects using natural materials, inks, dyes and textiles. These objects are connected to the places that I’m working in and the seasons and the cycle of nature.
Why do you create?
I create because it makes me feel good. It’s my way of connecting to the world, people and myself. I love to play and experiment with natural materials and see what can be made. And I love learning and sharing my skills, making and chatting. I’ve been doing it for so long that I just have a drive inside me to create and my fingers get twitchy if I’ve not made something. I have to create to make sense of the world and where we live.
Can you tell us about your role in the Uncover Cultural Skills project in Rotherham and your experience with it so far?
I’m facilitating sessions with You Asked : We Responded over 6 sessions and we’ve been sharing skills. I’ve been sharing my skills in basketry, natural materials and sewing, as well as providing a space for the group to make and chat about their culture and heritage. It’s evolved over the weeks as it does when you’re let buy the group and their own skills and interests and I’m learning from them. They’ve taught me how they make their baskets they make in Pakistan and their traditions of embroidery. I love this exchange of skills. They’ve been exploring their own creativity and how to put that into an object. So far we’ve made coiled baskets, mats and a collection of embroidery pieces that will be put together as part of the exhibition in July.
Do you consider yourself to be part of an artist network/community, and if so, how does this impact you and your practice?
I do. I’ve been involved with Ignite Imaginations- an arts charity in Sheffield for over 15 years. Sadly the charity closed recently but we’re still in touch on WhatsApp.
I’m always messaging and showing ideas. It’s a great way to find people to collaborate with and support each other when things are tough. So I’m lucky and it’s really essential as a freelancer to have some people you can share ideas with.
What changes would you like to see in the wider arts sector?
It would be amazing to see creativity at the heart of education for kids and I think the effect of having creativity every day in school would support the wider arts sector and encourage much more investment in it. It would add value to how it supports our wellbeing and helps us make sense of the world and our place in it. That would be my dream - for creativity to be pushed in every school.
“It would be amazing to see creativity at the heart of education for kids and I think the effect of having creativity every day in school would support the wider arts sector and encourage much more investment in it.”
What are your future aspirations as a visual artist and have you got anything coming up you’d like to share?
I have a quite a few. But here’s my top three. I’d love to do more collaborative work with artists and some place-based residencies where I’,m embedded as an artist in a community, exploring and connecting with whatever the outdoor environment is there and the people around that.
I would love a studio in a community outdoor space. I don’t have a studio at the moment- I just work from home and it’s sometimes quite restricting as I can’t make larger stuff and the house gets taken over by natural materials everywhere. I’d love to have a mobile making station that can pop-up in different places for making and chatting. I’ve explored this in the town centres of Sheffield and Rotherham and I’ve really enjoyed that! I did it as part of my Rotherham ROAR residency. I’d love to learn more basketry skills, how to spin flax and nettles so that I can display my work without any trace so it can go back to the land.
Coming up I’m going to be working with Flux in Rotherham delivering some creative walks over the summer. I’m also delivering outdoor creative sessions for families that are affected by cancer with my colleague, Woodland Wellbeing, and that’s part of a some work supported by Weston Park Charity. So lots of lovely things coming up.