The Flux Gallery, creating art and wellbeing: Interview with Mark Baldwin

The Flux Gallery is an initiative created by staff and students at University College Utrecht to showcase the creative endeavours of the UCU community. The Flux Gallery was set up in 2023 by co-initiators Mark Baldwin, Nina Köll and Lotte Berk, staff members at UCU, with the first exhibition entitled "Inside Out". The exhibition was co-organized by UCU students Chinouk Plaat, Faye Saglid and Lucas Areal Coulombe. In 2024 the group organized it's second exhibition entitled "Roots", with the student team consisting of Minke Brits, Adriana Sousa Eling and Lou Steins.

The Flux Gallery is currently preparing for it's third exhibition, so we sat down with Mark Baldwin, who works at University College Utrecht as senior counselor at the Connect Centre for Counseling and Guidance, for a chat about art, the power of creativity and wellbeing.

We know that you're an accomplished artist yourself. Could you tell us how your interest in art has developed over the years? What do you focus on in terms of your own artistic endeavours?

Since I can remember, there's always been sketching and doodling and drawing in my life. Later on, I discovered that it was more than just fun. It also had some kind of positive effects on daily life. I think that had to do with providing a nice bit of hyper focus when I needed it, so that it could counterbalance a busy life. It could also be a way of channeling if there were things going on in my life. It was nice way to use art to process life events.

Drawing still remains part of my life. But then I got into painting and more recently printing, specifically, lino cut printing, where you use different tools and different processes to get your image, and that made it more complex. The complexity was an attraction because you go from concept to sketch, to reverse image to cutting with a knife, to rolling with ink to pressing on paper to get your final image.

What kind of themes are attractive for you to address in your own artworks?

Lately, inspiration is coming a lot from poetry, but also it can also be lyrics from music, where a line or a sentiment might just spark something. Also, it might not surprise you, but as a counsellor, ideas of health, particularly mental health inspire me. We all go through things in our own lives. I certainly do, whereby art can be, for me a very helpful, or even necessary part of processing life events. I can no longer envisage life without there being some kind of artistic practice that I can call on.

In the past have you been interested in collaborations with other artists, is that something that's attractive for you?

That was a really big part of what I was doing when I belonged to an art collective in Manchester that existed, you could say, as a bit of a notorious  underbelly of the city’s life. We were quite a  non-conformist bunch. Manchester at that time, which was the early 90s, had many possibilities for our collaborations, as it was a very permissive city. We would do guerrilla exhibitions in some of the old industrial warehouses that were no longer in use, where it felt on the edge of what was legal or not. But there was the possibility for amazing collaborations with artists and other people who were, for  example, experimenting with light installations (t was a time when lasers were becoming accessible). So we did a lot of collaborations with other artists, musicians, and people who would maybe just call themselves a bit marginal, but found themselves in this collective. That was extremely exciting. And then we even collaborated with hospitals and patients to try to have a positive effect on rehabilitation from accidents and wounds and surgeries.

How did the Flux Gallery idea come about? How did you get to know your collaborators and how did it all come together?

In the Connect Centre I soon recognised the value of art and creativity in the context of healthy student life. At the same time, there were colleagues who said that they hoped for more creativity on campus in the context of intellectual academic life. And at the same time, I heard from students that they hoped for more opportunities to be creative on campus for the sake of connection and carrying on something that was important to them from earlier life. I happened to know that one or two of my colleagues were particularly creative themselves, and others had already been part of initiatives to showcase student creativity. I reached out to them and said, shall we try and develop upon that? And it didn't take long before the idea of a gallery came up.

What was the first exhibition like?

The first thing we did was decide  we needed some students to do this with us because we didn't want to own it. We wanted to sort of co-facilitate the whole thing. We put the word out to students that we were setting a gallery up and who would like to help us do that. Then together, we set a theme, which for the first exhibition was Inside Out. We invited submissions and we got a very small budget, which is all we needed, for frames. We wanted a theme that was as universally applicable as possible, but still allowed for the art to form itself around. Since art is sometimes  expressive, we hoped the ‘Inside Out’ theme could be a way of bringing to the outer world, part of our own inner world. It's letting others see what is within us. In another sense we realized that there were some great artists on campus already busy making things., and perhaps that was hidden away in their sketchbooks or in their portfolios in their bedrooms. So the gallery itself was a place for their artwork to be not inside their room, but out in the public domain for sharing and for appreciation. People submitted all kinds of things, some of which were extremely personal about lived experiences, particularly around the themes of health, identity, and being as a young adult. It was very heartfelt. Others were simply proud of something they'd drawn, so it ranged from the very thought-through to the spontaneous.

The students we collaborated with were brilliant, they really dived into it, and they were very good with formulating the theme, encouraging their peers to contribute a piece, and hanging the show itself.

What has been going on since the opening? We understand you had a second exhibition and are preparing for a third.

The theme of the second exhibition was Roots, which can be interpreted several ways. For many, it spoke to the idea of identity. It feels topical to be thinking about identity when we're also teaching and learning about decolonization, who we all are, where we all come from. Other people chose to respond to the word roots more literally, in almost a scientific or biological way. So roots as a form of literal growth. For others, that word was about tracing something back to its origin.

For the forthcoming exhibition, the theme will be metamorphosis.  For some, it might touch upon issues of change and evolution and spring. We are planning the launch the exhibition at the end of April. Right now the call is out for artworks. And then as usual, we will try to have a nice gezellig opening with some music and some drinks and maybe someone saying a few words  to  celebrate it all.

Do you have a vision of where this all could go in the future? How it could blossom and grow into different directions?

I definitely have hopes for it. I can't say that they are yet plans. We know enough now about how creativity contributes to neuroplasticity, and how creativity can also help create psychological resilience. It helps with being able to deal effectively with negative emotions, to be effective under stress, to connect with others and to understand oneself. You can look in any direction for good science, which underpins the value of creativity for a healthy mind. Knowing this, I think every university and maybe even every faculty ought to have a display place for works of creativity amongst students and staff there. That doesn't mean that everybody has to be a flourishing artist, and nor should people  feel compelled to be proficient. I think the value of having somewhere where new attempts and forms of  creativity can be encouraged, nurtured, and appreciated is immense. It can help form a sense of community that is trying to be built there, and through the conversations it can generate, can help to stabilize any difficulties that might be being experienced there personally, but also collectively. I would be a very willing partner to anyone in any faculty who thought they wanted to have a go at that.

Sometimes it's also important to use art to express that which is positive and successful as well. We don't necessarily  need to wait until we've had difficulties or struggles or negative experiences to make or create. We can also find inspiration from things that go well, and that we want to share or that we want to understand further.

Many people might be hesitant to display art in front of other or be discouraged because they think they're not technically proficient enough or their art isn't beautiful enough to display in front of other people.

I think it is a challenge and pleasure for the Flux Gallery, or any initiative like this, to keep a low participation threshold. I completely believe in the value of something that's fun as well as something technically proficient. And if an artwork arises from someone just having a go because it's fun, that has equal rights to something that's technically accomplished. It remains an ongoing priority, but also challenge for the gallery to be somewhere that's experimental and welcoming enough for beginners, so that they can display their efforts side by side with those that may have been making art for several years.

It's very easy, I think, for our young adults to feel drawn into a lifestyle of consuming information these days, or  being singularly devoted to academic pursuit. Of course, that's a big part of college life. But the act of being physically occupied with your hands and even with your entire body in making something, I find has a value in its own right. Where someone uses a brush, a sewing machine, a hand tool or even a piece of charcoal, the fact that their hands and eyes are busy in the act of observation and interpretation is wonderful., That is different from being digitally busy, or rooted in university assignments, and is something I would like there to be more of on any campus like this for the sake of our wellbeing.

The third exhibition of the Flux Gallery entitled "Metamorphosis" opens on 24th April at 18:00 in the Gallery area, Locke first floor.