We are an artist-led social enterprise with arts education at its core.
We are dedicated to creating conditions for people to learn from, through and alongside art.
Delivering exhibitions, workshops and collaborative projects, it brings artists, designers and the public together to explore ideas through practice. We exist to create opportunities for creative exchange: making, conversation and shared experiences are the foundations for learning, building confidence and developing a creative practice that lasts.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
→ CREATIVE PRACTICE THRIVES ON EXCHANGE ←
Ideas grow when they're shared. Making alongside others, talking, collaborating, exhibiting and exchanging different perspectives can all help us think differently, try things out and develop our creative practice.
→ MAKING IS A WAY OF THINKING ←
Making isn't only about what you end up with. It's a way to test ideas, solve problems, notice what happens and work out what comes next — which is why we value experimentation, play and process as much as the finished thing.
→ EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING TO TEACH & SOMETHING TO LEARN ←
Learning works both ways. Our activities are artist-led, but everyone brings their own knowledge, skills and experiences — so we create space to learn from each other as well as from the person leading the room.
→ CREATIVE PRACTICE CAN BEGIN AT ANY STAGE OF LIFE ←
There's no right age, background or level of experience needed to start making. We create different ways to get involved, whether you're starting something new, returning to a practice you've lost along the way, or looking to take your existing practice further.
→ SMALL INTERVENTIONS CAN HAVE LASTING IMPACT ←
Creative practice grows through doing a little, then doing a little more. A workshop, conversation, new skill or small experiment can provide the confidence and momentum to keep making long after the experience itself is over.
MEET THE TEAM
ZÖE LOUISE PLATT
founder & director
artist-educator
Zöe is an artist-educator with a background in graphic design and typography. She holds a PGDipE in Lifelong Learning and spent ten years teaching art and design as Curriculum Lead at Leeds Arts University, after earlier teaching in China as a qualified TESOL teacher. Her practice moves between book arts, print, paper and sculpture, with an interest in analogue processes, simple materials and what happens when ideas are tested through making.
Travel, observation and curiosity feed into both her art and teaching, bringing new places, visual cultures and ways of working into her practice. She set up Short & Few to bring making and education together, and gets a real kick out of helping people turn ideas into action. Her approach is practical, curious and process-led: get started, try things out, ask questions and see where they lead.
HELEN WARBURTON
co-director
curator & educator
Helen is a curator, educator and practice-based researcher with a background in documentary photography and exhibition production, and a particular interest in the history of photography. Her MA thesis was awarded the Henry Moore Dissertation Prize for excellence in postgraduate research and is now held in the Henry Moore Institute Library in Leeds.
As a curator, she has developed gallery programmes specialising in photography and visual art for Ffotogallery in Wales, BAFTA in London and the National Trust, and currently teaches with the Open College of the Arts (OCA). After years of working with major organisations, Helen brings that experience back to the grassroots: working directly with artists, developing exhibitions and creating opportunities for people to make, show and engage with art.
How slowing down, making by hand and starting small became Short & Few
Short & Few started during Covid, at a time when life got smaller and slower. With a break from teaching, Zöe found the time to revisit her own creative practice, finding a lot of joy in simple materials, analogue processes and having the time to follow ideas without knowing exactly where they would lead.
The name Short & Few came from that experience: a conscious move away from the pressure for everything to be faster, bigger and more. It values slowness, attention and making with what you have. Creative practice doesn't need huge amounts of time, space or resources to be worthwhile — small acts of making, done when and where you can, can build into something much bigger.
What began as making and running workshops from a glorified shed at the bottom of the garden gradually grew beyond it. Short & Few now has a bricks-and-mortar home, with a studio, project and exhibition space to bring people together. Bringing Helen into Short & Few opened up new possibilities. With Helen's experience of curating exhibitions alongside Zöe's background in making and creative education, the space could become somewhere to not only make, but show work, share ideas and create opportunities for other artists, too. It's still rooted in the same idea, though: you don't need perfect conditions to start making — sometimes you just need somewhere to begin.