Two staff members hit the national press with innovative art speeddating business.
15 Aug 2013
Two of our Faculty of Arts staff are taking art practice out into the community in an exciting and innovative business venture that has attracted the national press and radio.
Madi Meadows and Clarence Singleton started their DoodleDate speed-dating business in 2010 while they both worked at the Centre for Research and Development in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Brighton. Clarence has since moved to Oxford, but continues to run the business with her former colleague, Madi, PA to Professor Jonathan Woodham.
The innovative idea taps into the heart of the Faculty of Arts' creative ethos. Drawing can move personalities and allow ways of expression and understanding that words can't. The DoodleDate speed-dating concept also encourages the have-a-go mentality that is part of our educational outreach and ethos of widening participation.
Madi and Clarence's DoodleDate concept was inspired by Angela Rogers’ ‘Drawing Dialogue’ workshop at the university’s 2010 staff development conference, in which participants were asked to perform exercises in non-verbal communication by drawing pictures instead of talking. They immediately saw the fun in putting a similar idea to use in the world of dating, and set up events on Brighton beach before moving DoodleDate into the city's pubs and bars.
The press interest generated has gone from an article in the Brighton Argus to a full page in the Daily Express, an interview with the BBC, and other magazine features in the pipeline. The events are a unique take on the well known speed dating concept: instead of interviewing each other for two or three minutes, daters have seven minutes in which to create a picture together with pens and pencils. The idea has really taken off with many singles finding the chance to doodle provides the perfect icebreaker for those awkward first dates.
The former colleagues are still running DoodleDate monthly, with events being planned in six other cities in the South in the coming months.
You can see future events and some of the ‘dating doodles’ on the Doodledate website: www.doodledate.com
Read the article in the Brighton Argus 'Speed daters can now doodle in Brighton'
