Meet Zsuzsi

Next up in our where are they now series, Zsuzsi Lindsay.

Tell us about yourself

I started out being part of the British school system and we then moved from country to country so I was taken through a number of different school systems. I finally worked my way back to the UK to do my A levels and then went to university in Scotland, where I studied an MA in International Relations.

My first job was as a project manager for Allianz, the insurance company. At that point I had no idea what I was going to do with my life so I went into insurance, like you do! In the background however there was always that creativity and desire to work in the creative cultural sector.

About three years into my “career” at Allianz I decided to take a career break to re-evaluate what it was that I wanted to do, and reset my path. I went to live in China for a couple of years, I did some teaching in one of the universities there, and ran a lot of cultural activities and events with both locals and the international community. That’s where I first truly found my creative feet and loved it.

I then came back to the UK to restart my career, having decided I now knew what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, the financial crisis had other ideas having just hit. There were just no jobs and there were over 200 candidates applying for each job that was available. There was just nothing to do so I eventually got a contract role working for AGE UK on their Generations Together project. I was a project officer, looking at the cultural engagement between young people and the over 60’s, working on projects to bring the generations together as a system.

I just finished a contract, I had a small child, I didn't have a clue what I was going to do and, because finding work was really difficult, I then had no ability to attract the sort of salary that would make it worthwhile for me to go back to work with a small child. So I did a number of different contracts and I started up the Reading Fringe Festival with two other people in 2013.  The Reading Fringe very quickly took over everything that I was doing and then, to add to the mix, I decided that I was ready to get another job.

The boys were older, starting at nursery and already at school, so it was a perfect opportunity for me to look for part time work. I took on the role as assistant producer for the Reading Year of Culture. Then it just went from arts projects to where I am today with the Reading Fringe Festival. I’ve also taken on the Reading Place of Culture lead for Reading UK, and working on the Great Places project for them. It's a very weird route to be where I am, but I suppose creativity has always been at the core of everything that I do, and when it hasn't fit into that creative world it hasn't really been able to hold my attention.

How did you find out about Digital Gum?

I found out about Digital Gum from a friend who had attended, she raved about it and she said how wonderful it was. This was when I had just finished one contract and I was quite heavily pregnant. She said it was great for your confidence. My contract had just come to an end and I was really really sad about it, for various reasons. My confidence was rock bottom because I had gone through that experience, and then felt that I probably wasn't good enough at any job at that point and so I felt really really down about life in general. 

How did you feel day one? 

I was really anxious but then I saw the beautiful Digital Gum welcome pack and felt excited. In fact I found the pencil case the other day and it just brought back joyful memories. It was also really really nice to go back into a situation with other women who were wanting to re-enter the workforce, other mums. It felt almost immediately as if we all had shared history, so it was really nice and I felt happy and comfortable very quickly.

Tell us about your experience on the course, what did you learn?

All of the subjects we covered were really interesting but I really enjoyed coding a website and the 3D printing. These were things that I didn't ever think were really for me and were slightly out of my comfort zone. I haven't coded a website since but I feel like I could if I needed to. The Micro:Bit was great, I came home and straight away showed the kids - we all had a really good time playing with it. The course gave me a new respect for technology, it broke down the barriers and demystified a lot of things. It wasn’t just the learning though, I took away a tonne of confidence from it as well. 

How did you manage to find the time to attend the lessons?

Time wise it was great because it was at 10 o'clock so I could just get into the car and come straight up from dropping the kids off at school, so it was a really perfect time for me - just the right amount of commitment as well. 

Were you one of the students who did their homework straight away or the night before? 

I liked that there was no shaming if you were unable to do your homework to the same level as the other students in the class. It felt like a really nice environment, I think it was pitched just right. I was definitely one of the students who had a mixed approach to homework, some was done straight away, sometimes the night before and occasionally in the classroom. I really enjoyed the challenge of some of the homework tasks, being put up in front of the rest of the class as well, and working as a group (you're like I really, really have to get this done for them). 

How did you feel about the pitch back to the charity?

I hate presentations so I wasn’t looking forward to the final pitch, but I loved it. It was really nice to be able to apply your knowledge to a real life situation and then watch the development of the charity on social media as well. Some of the bits we made suggestions for have been used, which was really, really nice. I also really liked working together as a team and I think everyone's contribution to the presentation was really good - I was impressed. 

Now you’ve had time to reflect what was the biggest benefit of going on the course?

Attending the course has really helped with all I am juggling right now. Due to the COVID-19 situation we have had to pivot the Reading Fringe Festival online. As the situation grew it became obvious that group gatherings were unlikely to be a thing of the future for quite some time.

So, our immediate response to everything being knocked down and things cancelling was like well of course, we want to go online. What we were seeing was a large number of artists having all of their gigs cancelled overnight, people losing the majority of their income, and they weren't at that time being properly catered for by the corporate response from the government. It meant that there was a huge amount of pressure but also an opportunity to develop and share practices for digital platforms - it gives us an opportunity to reach wider audiences and address accessibility issues which is really important as well.

We saw it as a real opportunity to learn from the experience and to bring things online and support the people who are using those digital platforms. We just said “you know, we don't have all the answers either but there are people that we work with who do” and it feels like in the last seven weeks how digital platforms are being used for arts activities and events is changing pretty rapidly, which is very exciting.

How’s the homeschooling work/life balance?

I’m also homeschooling two children and trying to keep the smallest one alive. I think it has taken a massive toll on my mental health - it’s been hard not to feel like you are failing on multiple levels. I'm working from home as well and I feel like I have all of these hours to make up, I'm probably working way more than I would if I were going into the office. There is a proper blurred line in the work life balance because I feel so guilty that I can't commit properly during the day, but then I can't properly connect to my children either because I'm constantly one eye on the email. 

So my learnings from lockdown are please can we have interactive learning for our primary school children and I need to make sure I have funding in the future for a nanny.

What are you working on right now?

One of the things I'm doing actually in my role is the Great Places scheme and one of my roles is to create better connections between businesses and the art sector, in a way that can be mutually beneficial. So, one of one of the things that we wanted to do to demonstrate was that link between art and mental health and well being, but also to see if there was some way that we could help in that move back towards going into working spaces, again, or at least keep team spirit lifted for those locked down and working from home. So there are murder mysteries and music sessions and all sorts of other things that businesses can bring into their organisation through virtual means for teams to engage with. It's completely free, at the moment, and it's delivered only by local arts organisations. It’s been great to partner with Jelly on our funding applications and we hope for a more collaborative Reading in the future.