We recently packed our old kit bags and headed to the No Boundaries conference in Manchester with the glorious Chemaine Cooke, associate artist and all round chum of The Brick Box. It was an interesting few days, rattling through an inspiring lineup of speakers from different backgrounds and disciplines: there was a lot to digest and we’ve been chewing on the creative cud for a while since.

Yesterday the GLA’s Culture Diary published their 5 takeaways from the conference so I thought we’d do the same:

1. “Diversity is inviting someone to a party, inclusion is asking them to dance”, John Dyer from Credibility. YEAH! Specifically, in Canning Town, it’s your audience teaching you how to do the Electric Slide.
2. “Professionalisation creates a narrow lane” – Theaster Gates touching on a shared interest in outsider artists and non-traditional experience.
3. “Memories live in objects, songs, stories, patterns, proverbs and metaphors”, Munuve Mutisya from the Akamba Peace Museum, Kenya.
4. Vasif Kortun, live from Istanbul, got us thinking about “how to build institutions which are not located in a space but in the psyche of the people it is engaging with”.
5. Basma El Husseiny, from Action for Hope, talking about how “artistic expression helps people face daily challenges of marginalisation and displacement”.

A feast for thought, right? Thanks to the conference team, all the speakers and participants for the energy and inspiration.