A podcaster from Oxfordshire has won a prestigious international podcast award for her work which explores creativity in the county.

Creativity Found shares the stories of people who have found, or re-found, their creativity as adults, as well as interviewing local creatives from across Oxfordshire. 

The podcast was started by Claire Waite Brown following conversions she had with adults who attended drama and singing classes which she runs.

She realised many of the adults shared the same creative experiences and she wanted to tell those stories in a podcast.

Oxford Mail: Claire Waite Brown accepting her award (The Skylark Collective)Claire Waite Brown accepting her award (The Skylark Collective)

Mrs Brown, 50, from Forest Hill, said: “The response has been fascinating. My guests and I now tell their stories and explore common themes and wildly different experiences between them all.

“I talk with my guests about their childhood experiences of the arts, how they came to the artistic practices they now love, and the barriers to creativity that they experienced between the two.

“I had already had friends whose stories which fit into the Creativity Found ethos. I then went onto local Facebook groups and put calls out and next thing it just really grew from there.”

A podcast is a digital audio file which is made available on the internet for downloading to a computer or mobile phone. Podcasts are typically available as a series with new instalments being received by subscribers automatically.

Creativity Found was only started in November 2020 but now ranks in the top five per cent of all podcasts.

At the International Women’s Podcast Award’s 2021, Creativity Found won the award for Moment of Raw Emotion.

Mrs Brown hopes the podcast will help to ‘inspire and encourage creativity in anybody of any age’

“The Creativity Found ethos lets people know that they can try something new at any stage in their lives – and not to worry that they might make a mess of it.”

The same attitude goes for her creative classes, called Open Stage Arts, which she started five years ago when she was suffering with anxiety.

The classes do not require any experience and are for adults who do not want to commit to putting on a full show but enjoy being creative.

Mrs Brown said: “I hire local professional theatre makers to teach and share their love of the performing arts, in its many facets. No experience necessary.

“Lots of the adults who come to our workshops – and current online events – are looking for a creativity that has been put to one side during their sensible, grown-up years.”