Estella Castle, and Why Artist Residencies Shouldn’t Be About The Artist

An Arts Council England grant of nearly £50,000 can be game changing if wisely invested. After securing this prize for their upcoming 'Egham Visions: Changes in Time and Perception', Egham Museum have chosen to spend it on New Zealand born artist Estella Castle. Could a non-local artist threaten to turn the museum's focus away from the local community which has always supported it?

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The Benefits of Cannabis and Chronic Pain – Why Isn’t It Available in The UK?

I am filled with a longing and hope, that one day, maybe in my lifetime this will be available for me to try at home. That it will be a regulated system, that there will be no fear of criminalisation, of who has made this product, hell, maybe you’ll even be allowed to grow your own! One day, I hope that this will be the case, so I no longer watch the benefits from across the ocean and can openly experience them myself, in a legal, supportive environment.

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Why Gardening Has Been My Lockdown Lifeline

There are various creative ways of using home space to satisfy an urge to garden, also known to be greatly beneficial to our mental health. Using wall space to grow climbing plants, sewing seeds in trays on a windowsill, growing indoor plants and creating terrariums: mini ecosystems in a fish bowl, are all simple ways to green up an environment and activate our intrinsic instinct to nurture, without any outdoor space.

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A Love Letter to Bristol

At last, after years of asking nicely, the people of Bristol took the situation into their own hands, rectifying some of our wrongs; they said enough is enough, we will create our own history. They turned the statue’s very existence into an act of rebellion that should be remembered for years to come.

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Weed and Spirituality

The resurgence of spiritual and holistic practice has driven a collective desire to understand ourselves better in order to transcend physical blockages and reach higher levels of consciousness. This is a tale as old as time, with people using psychedelic drugs to tune in closer to God/Spirit/the Universe for hundreds of years, from the American Indian Shaman burning Ayahuasca on the Plains to the LSD loving Hippies of the 70’s.

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It’s Cool to Be Kind: A New Future?

We, as a society, are seeing the worst in people, but we are also seeing the very best. Where there has been a fracture within ‘normal’ society, the kindness of others has rushed to fill it. This kindness, it often seems, can come from complete strangers.

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OpinionGuest User
Working From Home - Before and After Covid

We have a work culture that has been flipped on its head, pre coronavirus, many of us would wake in the morning, put our working clothes on and, grabbing a coffee for the journey, head out to start our day. Traditionally many office workers slogged away from 9-5 before packing up and heading home, repeating the same routine from Monday to Friday.

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