Assorted Items put forward by The Creative Team to represent ‘Art’

Fiona Carr - Curator

Art is a window into other worlds, it is the search for beauty, truth, connection and an opportunity to share what brings you joy, with other people.

Skylar Mabry - Curator

Art helps us to express ourselves and connect to others or to the world around us. It allows us to become more empathetic and interconnected as humans.

Amerah Saleh - Storyteller

Art is how people make sense of things that are too big, too painful, too complex, or too ordinary to explain neatly. It’s about connection. It’s a way of noticing, naming, and holding things that might otherwise be ignored.

At its best, ‘Art’ asks better questions.

Rory Chu - Photographer

Art is about expressing ourselves and building ourselves up.

Kelly Casey - Museum Manager

Art is simply... freedom.

Assorted Items put forward by The Creative Team to represent ‘Art’

Kelly Casey - The Museum Manager

Solihull is community. 

Skylar Mabry - The Curator

Solihull has become home. It has allowed me to learn and develop as an artist and as a person; I love doing whatever I can for this borough and its people.

Rory Chu - The Photographer

Solihull is my new home. I grew up in Hong Kong, but my new home now is Solihull where my family are. I just love this place.

Amerah Saleh - The Storyteller

Solihull Town is my local ‘town centre’, the place I go to run errands, meet people, sit with a coffee, or walk through when I need to clear my head. It’s familiar in an everyday way. Not special because it’s exceptional, but because it’s where life happens.

Working on The Museum of Me has made me slow down and really notice it. The people moving through. The different reasons why they’re there. The stories you’d miss if you weren’t paying attention.

Fiona Carr - The Curator

I was born and grew up in Solihull, I haven’t always lived here in my adult years, having returned only a few years ago. Coming HOME and connecting with Core Creatives has been a turning point for me in my own creative practice.

Lots of books - the tools of the trade!

Skylar Mabry - Curator

I am originally from Colorado in the USA, but I have lived here in the UK for a little over 7 years (first in Essex, but then I moved to Solihull in 2022 to work with the council and I’ve been here ever since). I am a theatre maker and community arts facilitator.

I love working in community arts because it brings people together and encourages everyone to take part in their own way. It allows everyone to try new things, to meet new people, and to explore new sides of ourselves to unlock things we might never have imagined. I love being a part of enabling that in others, no matter what age, identity or background.

Theatre is a fantastic avenue to apply to this because it opens up pathways of imagination in exciting and creative ways.

Art materials, paint jacket, and community flyers

Fiona Carr - Curator

I am Fiona, a mother of 2, from Solihull. I am part of the team at Arts In The Yard and at first we were volunteers ourselves. It benefited me, because I had been on maternity leave and felt like I didn’t have the space to be artistic. Now, I facilitate artists to help community members explore their own creativity.

Listening to and being part of people’s stories has helped me to tap into my own. In my paintings I’m drawn to the imagery of domestic spaces, patterned wallpapers, vintage fabrics and gardens. Typically working in the small-scale from my own home,

my oil painting work hopes to evoke forgotten memories and histories held by that place we call ‘home’

I am currently exhibiting in Surreal Solihull and it’s a privilege to be able to share my ideas and imagination with others.

Notebook and pen

Amerah Saleh - Storyteller

I’m Amerah; a storyteller, writer, and facilitator. I’m someone who listens closely, notices what’s often overlooked, and cares deeply about how people are represented.

I’m shaped by the experience of those who have lived it, by community, and by a strong sense of responsibility to do work that feels ethical, human, and honest.

My practice starts with people, not outcomes. I work with stories because stories shape how we see ourselves and each other. I’m interested in who gets listened to, whose voices are amplified, and how power shows up in everyday systems.

Who I am affects how I work. I’m careful, relational, and values-led. I don’t rush people or their stories. I try to create space where someone feels safe enough to speak in their own way, without being simplified or turned into something they’re not.

Notebook and pen

Kelly Casey - Museum Manager

I aim to be a curious and brave creative that thrives in community. I am a hardworking woman, mother, friend and human being and have lived an extremely varied personal and work life so far. I’ ve learned many lessons along the way and I continue to. All of this enables me to navigate all that is presented to me and use it for good. I love to laugh: belly laugh - it’s an essential life ingredient.

I love to make art that changes perspectives and invites others to join.

Art is in and around everyone; you just need to look. Within my practice I aim to make the connection of the ‘real’ self and ‘unreal’ self; the self viewed from within and the self that others receive.The unravelling of each is a beautiful thing to witness as a creative.

Rory’s items capturing these gifts

Rory Chu - Photographer

I’m Rory, I was born and grew up in Hong Kong, but I moved to Solihull 4 years ago amongst the political shifts there. I am a Christian, and we believe that music, sport and art are gifts from God.

I am working as a photographer on this project, but I am also a leader of community groups where I teach basketball or badminton and I lead coffee mornings as 852 Spaces Cafe. All of these help us to polish our character and to connect.

Take photography for example; when we look at a photograph, I might like it and you might not. But, in looking at the same photo there’s a connection between us for that moment at least. I often capture moments; weddings, birthdays, graduation days and aim to capture the memory for that person, through use of a lens.

Extra Ordinary Objects form Paul’s home.

Paul O’Donnell - Concept Creator and Storyteller

I’m an average guy, with an average build and average height. I’m a middle child, from the Midlands, stuck in the middle with you. I’ve been a type 1 diabetic since I was two years old and that’s brought me up knowing that I am never going to be the ideal idea of ‘perfection’

I’m cool with that. It’s actually quite liberating to know that, and I hope to spread that joy with you.

I set up Extraordinary Us in 2022 with an aim to elevate the ordinary. Too often we are led towards unrealistic ideas of perfection, and so I hope - through projects like The Museum of Me - we can disrupt that agenda and instead champion the everyday, plain, mundanely average people who surround you.

My organisation and I believe that ‘ordinary’ is officially ‘in’

Vogue. Vogue. Vogue. Vogue.