What is PAUSE

We recognise the shock, distress, and exhaustion most of us are carrying today.

We believe collective resilience—staying steady, calm, and conscious—is our strongest response.

By Pausing before we react, seeking to understand and support one another, and taking small positive actions together, we can build a better future

Join us every other month to PAUSE in conversations with ordinary people across arts, science, technology, law, and conservation, who are making extraordinary choices each day to make a difference in their own communities, using their unique brand of talents and strengths.

PAUSE

with Amrita Karunaratne

Artist / Ceramist

Nederlands

(19-August-2026)

Lessons in life - from the Arts

and working with Clay

~ Patience ~

Clay requires slow, repeated steps (centering, drying, multiple firings), teaching sustained patience.

~ Letting go and acceptance ~

Artists must release attachment to outcomes because pieces may crack or change in firing.

~ Resilience ~

Failures (exploded or cracked work) are part of the process and build persistence.

~ Humility before material ~

Clay has its own character and limits; working with it means cooperating rather than controlling.

~ Discipline and craft ~

Mastery takes time and practice; visible ease belies long training.

~ Experimentation and serendipity ~

Playful trials and unexpected results can lead to new directions.

~ Therapeutic, meditative benefits~

Tactile, hands‑on work promotes calm, presence, and emotional openness.

~ Teaching deepens practice~

Explaining technique clarifies and refines the maker’s own process.

~ Community and Access ~

Classes and exhibitions build connection, value, and can sustain a professional practice.

~ Empathy and creative education ~

Arts cultivate sensitivity, patience, and understanding. Qualities valuable in life and schooling.

Please join us for our next conversation

If You would like to take part or would like to nominate someone you know for a PAUSE conversation, we would love to hear from you.

PAUSE@Oxford-psychometrics.com

Abby Shafran. Hand in Hand (15 April 1989)

John Lennon / Imagine

Themed bronze sculpture created as part of the youth sculpture programme associated with Greg Wyatt's Peace Fountain in Children's Sculpture Garden, Cathedral of St John the Devine, New York City, USA.

OXFORD PSYCHOMETRICS LTD

Behavioural Science

Occupational Psychology

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