Ruby Peacock

Hi! I’m Ruby. I’m a legal researcher and aspiring barrister. My focus is human rights law. Equal access to education and empowering children are the key driving forces behind RPS; this ethos aligns with my personal values and activism. At RPS, I’m usually behind the scenes applying for funding and brainstorming ideas for projects in our community. In my spare time, I’m into watching documentaries, hiking and open water swimming.

My own creativity

I spend most of my time writing so this is where I try to bring in my creativity as much as possible. I like using words creatively to get across my arguments and ideas in a precise and interesting way. When I express my creativity through art, it’s usually photography. I like photographing people, whether it be street photography or portraits. More recently, I visited Clay Cafe in Cape Town, South Africa and have become obsessed with pottery painting and glazing. I’m planning to buy bisque blanks and make it a regular hobby!

What inspires me

I love art which combines imagery with words. I’m not sure why but I find this particularly inspiring. I saw a collection of Barbara Kruger’s collages at an exhibition last year – this is the type of thing I’m talking about! This is why I love asking our mini-artists at Rock Paper Scissors to explain the meaning behind their projects, because I usually find their explanations just as inspiring at their work! 

I also love photojournalism; the ability of a photographer to tell a story through imagery never fails to inspire me. The late war photographer, Tim Hetherington, is a favourite of mine. This keys into the message I want to send to our young artists: art isn’t only about making pretty images (although that’s a lovely part of it), it can be about constructing a narrative, showing the rest of the world your unique perspective and, critically, it can be a medium through which you can change the world for the better.

My favourite project

We did a self-portrait project at one of our afterschool clubs, and I just loved seeing and hearing our young artist’s completely uninhibited impressions of themselves. I love the bold water colours and felt tip pens which we used - it was so colourful and honest!

Why I do this

The reason I do this is simple – the ethos of RPS really resonates with me. Recycling, reusing and reducing our impact on the environment is important to me. I love RPS’s ambitions to create stronger community cohesion and deliver affordable but high-quality art tuition to young people. The pandemic really gave us the opportunity to expand our community projects. I’ve enjoyed engaging with partner organisations to make a valuable impact in our communtity.

A stand out moment

A standout moment for me was the first ever Easter hideout. It was really exciting to see Chloe’s and Lulu’s ideas come together – and to see how engaged the children were! We had a really good de-briefing meeting after to see how we could make the next session even better, and the team has managed to make improvements every time since! 

The future

I would love to see RPS roll out after school clubs in every school in Suffolk! After school and lunch time clubs were the absolute highlight of my school experience, and really inspired me to engage with core curriculum subjects in a more meaningful way. I’d also love to see us continue using community funding to provide free tuition and materials to families and children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to access it.