The Picture Poster

Hi Friends!Here's a quick update, as I'm currently looking for new collaborators and commissions.Maybe that's YOU?Much of my work has been alongside charities, community organisations, and purpose-driven projects. The aim is always the same: to represent people honestly, with care and respect, and to create media that doesn’t just look good, but actually connects.If you’re part of an organisation, business, or project and you think there might be a story we can tell together, I’d genuinely love to hear from you. No hard sell. Just a conversation to see what’s possible.JeromeEmail: [email protected] article, with social media links: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/portraits/want-to-collaborate/Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

Angela Peake’s journey into coaching is rooted in lived experience, resilience and a deep understanding of the pressures within healthcare.In this candid conversation, she reflects on an early diagnosis of kidney disease that reshaped her ambitions, leading her into a nursing career she “loved from day one”.Angela shares frontline insights from years in medical wards and research, highlighting both the rewards of patient care and the growing strain caused by systemic pressures. A turning point came when her own health challenges intensified - dialysis, two transplants, and raising a premature son - forcing her to step back and reassess her path.The pandemic became a catalyst for change. While shielding as clinically vulnerable, Angela discovered coaching and began retraining, eventually founding AMP Coaching & Consulting Ltd. Her work now focuses on supporting healthcare professionals and individuals living with long-term conditions, with an emphasis on preventing burnout and recognising early warning signs such as frustration, emotional exhaustion and loss of focus.She speaks openly about “losing joy” as a common thread among clients, and explains how her approach - grounded in trust, confidentiality and self-awareness - helps people reconnect with what matters. From small daily gratitudes to deeper behavioural change, Angela’s work bridges personal transformation and wider systems thinking.Ultimately, success for Angela is about impact: helping others rediscover purpose, improve relationships and realise that change is possible - at any stage of life.Contact Angela:Email: [email protected]: 07359 917844LinkedIn: AMP Coaching & Consulting Ltd---#SponsoredContentSupport the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

I grabbed 5 minutes with artist Mark Edmonds, in his studio at ACAVA Spodeworks Stoke.Instagram: @markedmondsartSupport the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

I called in to Stoke Minster - a Place of Welcome - across Thursday lunchtime. I wanted to catch up with a little group who've been meeting together as new friends to get crafting.They're making a woolly postbox 'topper' to celebrate Mothering Sunday in mid March.Heather, and members of the group, told me what they've been up to.The Minster is open every Thursday lunchtime, 12 noon to 2pm, and you're very welcome to call in for a brew, to take a look round, to chat, or even to sit and ponder - crafting's not obligatory!JeromeSupport the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

Host: Jerome WhittinghamA short reflection on the simplicity of pinhole photography, and making art without having to try too hard.See the photograph and read more on The Picture Poster website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/nature/theres-beauty-in-not-trying-too-hard/Thanks to artist Amy Davis for the motivation.JeromeMUSIC: by Black Box on PixabaySupport the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

Host: Jerome WhittinghamArtist Amy Davis is on a quest to help people embrace wonkiness and imperfection in their creative pursuits.She’s recently been using some mini potters wheels, and making tiny wonky pots. She explains how these ‘toy’ potters wheels are helping her and others to learn to play with clay again, building creative confidence."It’s about celebrating imperfection and all that it’s about. Your creativity doesn’t haver to be perfect, because the moment things become too perfect or people overthink their creative process, that’s when people tend to step away. And I think a lot of the time it’s education, when we were younger, that makes us think that creativity is a scary thing. When in actual fact, if more people were able to embrace the joys of creativity for what it is, rather than perfectionism, I feel that’s when people will get more out of the process," says Amy Davis.Amy’s now looking to extend her Wonky Pot Initiative, and is looking to partner with venues and organisations in North Staffordshire to help her bring the fun of wonky creativity to more people.Interested?Get in touch with Amy on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/alouartist/https://www.instagram.com/thewpi/Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

Host: Jerome WhittinghamAnarchy Is Her Birthright, a group exhibition curated by April Star Davis, brings together women and non-binary artists to explore 'resistance, care, survival and feminist refusal, shaped by lived experience and place'.Presented at ACAVA Spode Works in Stoke, 'Anarchy Is Her Birthright' follows April's residency at ACAVA, awarded as a prize after her success in the Three Counties Open Art exhibition at Burslem School of Art in 2024.Instagram: @april_star_davis_Anarchy Is Her BirthrightPREVIEW: 5.30pm, Friday 20th February, ACAVA Spode Works, Stoke, Elenora Street, ST4 1QQ. The exhibition then continues to 1st March.Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

Designer and creative thinker Megan Fitzoliver is co-ordinating a celebration of North Staffordshire's creative and caring individuals, groups, and industries.The Festival of Hands will take place across Stoke-on-Trent and beyond, 1st to 14th June.She's looking for expressions of interest from anyone that wants to get involved.We sat in Spode Rose Garden in Stoke, enjoying a coffee from the Bluebird cafe, chatting about the festival and its themes.Get in touch with Megan at:[email protected] website will be going live soon too.Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

We meet Yuliia Holovatiuk-Ungureanu, one of two Ukrainian artists currently exhibiting 'On The Edge' at the University of Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent.Yuliia talks us through the themes of the exhibition, co-produced with fellow Ukrainian artist and friend Olha Barvynka.The exhibition explores 'transformation in response to a world shaped by crisis.'One part of the mixed media exhibition, Yuliia's ceramic bricks, have attracted unwelcome and upsetting attention from a small number of visitors to the Henrion Gallery space - a thoroughfare used by students and visitors to the university. Yuliia updates us about what has been happening.UPDATE: since recording yesterday morning, the artists’ exhibition in the Henrion Gallery at University of Staffordshire has suffered more vandalism, including the breaking of several of Yuliia’s ceramic bricks. We’ve welcomed both Ukrainian artists into our city to give them safety and a home. They’ve responded in gratitude by giving us incredibly poignant art, adding greatly to our local arts scene. It’s shocking to think that a small number of visitors to the gallery would act in such a vile way to our friends. I hope the police and university exercise their fullest powers in bringing the perpetrators to account.The exhibition has now had its run extended to 6th March.Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

I set myself a deceptively simple challenge: to spend a single summer’s day photographing as many species of bumblebee as possible.What unfolded was less a straightforward wildlife hunt and more an eye-opening exploration of how our landscapes, natural and urban, shape the lives of pollinators.And, 11 miles walked!Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

Artist Semaan Khawam, who calls himself “Birdman”, spoke with me at  Appetite’s Astley Walk arts space in Newcastle-under-Lyme, where he is artist-in-residence during Allison Lochhead’s Art for Peace exhibition.Born in Syria and raised in Beirut after his family fled conflict in the 1980s, Semaan reflects on displacement, identity and the freedom he finds through art. Working with discarded materials, he transforms waste into sculptures that explore migration, borders and the human desire to be free.Birds appear throughout his work, symbols of movement, return, and a life without borders.During the conversation, Semaan also describes his latest sculpture, The Flying Instrument of the Mind, created from wire, plaster and salvaged materials while working in the gallery space.A thoughtful discussion about art, refuge, and the power of creativity to turn the world’s “garbage” into something peaceful.Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

We chatted with FRONTLINEdance Ltd a couple of weeks ago about their work across North Staffordshire. They now have news of a special project to mark the Queen’s Jubilee, and they’re looking for dancers of all ages and abilities to take part.Rachael Lines, creative director, said: “2022 marks 70 years since Her Majesty the Queen ascended the throne, and FRONTLINEdance has been awarded some funding to host a creative and cultural event to celebrate.“We are creating an event called 'With Soundness of Heart', which is an inter-generational inclusive performance project, and this weekend is when it all starts.”Rachel shares all the details.Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

In this episode, I speaks with curator Siobhan McAleer “Shiv” about The Depository of the Dull, an unusual museum that celebrates the overlooked objects of everyday life. Created during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the project invited people to reflect on the ordinary things around them, items that might appear dull at first glance but carry deeply personal stories.Shiv explains how the project began as a creative response to the isolation of lockdown, encouraging people to look again at their surroundings and rediscover meaning in the mundane.Our conversation explores why ordinary objects matter, how storytelling transforms the value of everyday things, and what these small artefacts reveal about our lives.Shiv also reflects on the curatorial challenge of presenting something intentionally “dull”, and why the humour of the title hides a deeper reflection on attachment, loss and memory.Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

In this podcast, the creative team behind Hidden Winter audio adventure, tell me about the joys and difficulties of adapting their theatre and storytelling skills to reach audiences during the pandemic’s lockdowns and restrictions.My guests are:Ruby Thompson, Artistic Director of The Herd.Rosie MacPherson, Artistic Director of Stand and Be Counted,and Firas Chihi, narrator and translator of Hidden Winter.“We can't stop engaging with our participants. We can't stop the work that we do. We are a point of support. So to be able to make work with participants, that they can see is definitely going to happen and have a life, has been really important and crucial in keeping things going.” Rosie MacPherson, Stand and Be Counted theatre company, Bradford.Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

This week I visited a useful little project that might just have big impacts on our future. One that can help us to reduce the stresses we’re putting on the planet, as well as reducing the stresses we put on our own pockets.It’s called the Hull Library of Stuff, and its Director is Alan Dalgairns.Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

A conversation between an uncle and his nephew around a red ribbon turns into a candid discussion about what it means to be HIV positive and how attitudes and science have changed in the last thirty years. CAST AND CREW Uncle Collin: Andy TrainMatt: Jerome Denton Written by Josh WhittinghamProduced by Jerome Whittingham Music: “Overdrive” by Corbyn Kites Zapslat.comAdditional sounds: Youtube Audio LibraryProduced for Trade Sexual Health, Leicester, for World AIDS Day 2020 Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

I’ve been to a couple of meetings recently, scrutinising Hull’s ‘net zero carbon’ ambitions. At each of the meetings there’s been a chap who’s challenged us to think about how we should put nature back into everything we do.That man is Andrew Gibson. He works for Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, he’s one of their conservation officers.I wanted to know more about what Andrew means by this phrase ‘put nature back into everything we do’. So I took him up on his offer of a drive around the city to look at some examples of what he means.We met at Andrew’s office in the Trust’s wildlife garden in the corner of Pearson Park. It was a miserably wet day in late November, so you’ll hear the rain splashing on the mic at times.I began by asking Andrew what sort of environments we’d be looking at…Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

I’ve been chatting to people, exploring what can be done to reinvigorate retail in Hull city centreIn this podcast we’ll be hearing from shopkeepers - all confidently trying out new ventures, we’ll be dipping into history for ideas, we’ll be tackling tax and the business rates conundrum, and you’ll hear one of our local MPs talking very passionately about foliage.There are solutions to the decline of our High Streets.Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

Project Blyth, run by the Greenpower Education Trust, offers young people the thrills and spills of the racetrack, but only after they’ve successfully built their own single-seater IET Formula 24 kit cars.I've been been following the progress of Francis Askew Primary School’s car, competing in the IET Formula Goblin class for 9-11 year olds.With thanks to Connected Hull.Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

Children at Dorchester Primary School in Hull tell me all about The Chewy Project, led by innovative design agency Creative Briefs.We've all had it stuck to our shoe at some point, but these children have been exploring what can be done with chewing gum before it litters the streets.An ace little project.Find out more about Creative Briefs here: https://www.creativebriefs.co.uk/Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews

Recorded as part of my 'Moved' project, in which Hull's movers and shakers recall moments in their life when they've been moved by an artistic experience.Mark Page, DJ, music promoter, and the guy that brings us The Sesh, shares a moment from his early teenage years that switched him on to the music scene for life.'Moved' was commissioned by Roots & Wings and Hull Library Services.Support the showGet in touch anytime!Website: https://thepictureposter.co.uk/Follow Jerome on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeromewnews