Spaces of Trust and Discovery

Image: Curators Jennifer Gilbert, Paige Donovan, Mary T. Bevlock, and moderator Samantha Mitchell speaking about the Look Here project exhibitions.

I’m in Philadelphia for the Look Here Symposium, having conversations with incredible people from progressive studio programs across the country.

A theme that keeps surfacing is the facilitator’s role in constructing environments where the unknown can safely be encountered. This is at the heart of creativity itself and a topic I’ve explored in many of my previous blog posts. These are spaces where artists can meet new materials, ideas, or sensations and build knowledge that is entirely their own.

This balance between safety and exploration reveals so much about the skills of a good facilitating artist. It also highlights the trust that must exist across all levels of a studio: between facilitator and artist, among peers, and within the organization as a whole.

When that chain of comfort and trust is strong, it can even support creative relationships between artists and facilitators who may not yet know one another. It’s a quiet but powerful testament to what inclusive, trust-based creative communities make possible.

Being at the Look Here Symposium has been a reminder of how rich and generous this field truly is, a network of practitioners eager to meet, share, and learn from one another. These conversations affirm that progressive studios are not just places where art is made, but where relationships, trust, and new forms of knowing are continually being built. It’s inspiring to be among so many who understand that facilitating creativity means guiding others toward what they haven’t yet known, and doing so with care, curiosity, and confidence.