sixty artist dates
1. Write three letters to people you normally correspond with by email. Find something to include to send to them, even if it’s just a tea bag
2. Make a mixed tape – remember those? Pick a theme - home, winter, pick-me-up – and make a playlist of songs that fit. Extra points if you do an actual mix tape!
3. Write a list of 100 things that would terrify you to do (eg do a stand up comedy act)
4. Research the recipe for a fancy cocktail and dress up to drink it
5. Pick a letter – any letter – and go for a walk to take photographs of things beginning with that letter.
6. Bake bread
7. Swim in a river
8. Swim in a lido
9. Design a herb garden – could you grow it on your windowsill?
10. Take your yoga mat to a park and practise under a tree
11. Buy five books from a charity shop, write a note in each and leave them for others to find
12. Go to a new café and enjoy an excellent breakfast
13. Pack a yummy picnic and a good book to go to a new park, roll out a rug, put your phone to one side, and enjoy
14. Visit your library and choose five books at random to read
15. Join in on a life-drawing class
16. Make the kind of dressing up box you always wanted as a child
17. Take a selfie dressed as the main character of a book you’re reading
18. Make biscuits and give to friends
19. Go to a public lecture about a subject you know nothing about (not hard!)
20. Visit a cemetery you haven’t been to before and make notes
21. Write a fan letter. Send it
22. Enjoy an afternoon watching TED talks – choose ones about subjects you’ve never thought about before
23. Go to a concert of a completely new music to you
24. Take a boat trip
25. Paint or draw a self portrait
26. Write a letter to someone you haven’t seen for ten years
27. Make a playlist of music you haven’t listened to for ten years. Who were you then?
28. Plan a road trip round childhood haunts
29. Make a list of 100 things that make you happy
30. Make a miniature garden – as small as you can. You don’t have to use real plants, just your imagination
31. Visit a part of your town you never normally go to – get lost
32. Learn a poem by heart
33. Record yourself reading poetry
34. Go on a guided walk
35. Go to a café and plot out a novel you’ll never write
36. Dance
37. Go foraging
38. Speak to at least five strangers today – even if it’s just to say hello
39. Plant seeds
40. Buy seeds (or visit a seed swap) and make beautiful seed packets to send to friends
41. Go to a chocolate shop and spend a long time choosing just five chocolates to buy
42. Have your own indoor fireworks show
43. Make a photo book of the photographs that make you happy
44. Get a tattoo
45. Go to a matinee
46. Create a vision board on Pinterest for you when I’m 80
47. Create a playlist to give to a friend full of songs that make you think of them
48. Buy a second hand book and create a Blackout poem
49. Go to 5 Rhythms dance
50. Go to a park and identify five trees – make a zine
51. Try on an outfit you’d never normally wear
52. Sit in on a jury trial
53. Go to the opera – research the music fully beforehand
54. Go to a lunchtime talk at a local gallery or museum
55. Find the perfect red lipstick
56. Go to a historic house near you that you haven’t visited before
57. Take note of, and research, the statues you walk past every day
58. Go to a market – choose interesting looking items, make a still life. Photograph it.
59. Pick three things in your house that you enjoy using, and research where they come from, who makes them, is there a story behind them? If there isn’t, could you make one up?
60. Make your own list of 60 Artists Dates you’d enjoy going on.
#30everydaywords
Share your artist date ideas and photos of your real life artists dates using the hashtag #30everydaywords. And don’t forget to tag me on instagram or twitter - @sarahsalway. I’d love to see what you come up with!
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