What We’re Made Of Exhibition | Live Brief Project led by creative film-maker James Silvanus

Across June 2026, Level 2 visual and performing art students from Heart of Worcestershire College got hands on professional experience to hone their individual portfolios. Students worked with local creative filmmaker James Silvanus-Davis to develop their own digital portfolios and explore their creative identity, find their creative niche and begin to develop a portfolio to support them as immerging professional creatives.

The sessions covered James’ creative journey, how to be confident in an ever-changing creative and digital climate, and the importance of building strong relationships with likeminded creatives. The What We’re Made Of Exhibition presented dynamic digital feeds sourced from students’ preferred social media platforms. The VIP event on 18^th June 2026 brought together the launch of the exhibition, the opportunity to connect with Worcester’s creative sector, and dovetailed with the Pitch Up event. This project culminated in the third creative networking event as part of Local Voices Creative Choices.

‘What We’re Made Of’ is a student-titled exhibition of artwork produced by young people from HoW College after participating in a series of workshops to identify and develop their professional Creative Identity. This process allowed the emerging artists to reflect on their own practice and what makes their own way of working and seeing the world unique to them. This has allowed them to carefully curate their own work, to share the pieces that they really feel hold a lot of personal relevance to their identity and ambition as artists and creatives.

The students have begun to consider how they share their work digitally through existing platforms, which will serve as a basis for sharing their portfolio of work online to potential clients and collaborators, as well as authentically documenting their journey.

The workshops were delivered by a local creative filmmaker; James Silvanus, who has over 10 years experience in the Creative industries and Arts & Culture sector. He helps share the stories of community driven arts projects, delivers workshops on storytelling, guest lecturers on creativity and encourages everyone to embrace their own authentic expression.

The exhibition was designed and assembled by James Silvanus with the help of another local multidisciplinary creative; Richard Fox. The two worked together to blend the feel of digital and analogue portfolios to create an offline experience that links to the online world.

This Live Brief project is part of the Skills & Talent strand of the Local Voices Creative Choices programme, which aims to embed the Heart of Worcester College and University of Worcester in Worcester’s cultural and creative community, and encourage students to consider future careers in the city’s growing creative sector.