About Cat:
Cat Miller is an artist, writer and friend of Exceptional Individuals. She also has Dyslexia.
Cat was diagnosed with Dyslexia in 2002, although she claims that it is less about spelling, and more about the way she communicates what she thinks and feels. She said: “The way I think is in pictures and feelings. It takes time to identify what those thoughts and feelings are, but it does lead me intuitively to insights that can take others much longer.”
Cat works with Tower Hamlets Council to curate arts and wellbeing events to promote community cohesion, writes articles about artistic books and events, and is an exhibiting artist herself. She has several blogs where she communicates her ideas, concepts, thoughts and feelings about the world, through art and poetry, and shares her exhibitions for her audience to enjoy.
Why Cat came to us:
We worked with Cat some time ago when she took part in one of our Public Speaking Workshops, to help improve her confidence through developing her communication skills.
Cat was finding that when public speaking, her nerves occasionally got in the way and that her dyslexia sometimes meant words came out in the wrong order.
She then joined our workshop which put people into groups and helped her to develop skills and techniques, before giving Cat an audience to practice public speaking.
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Delivered
What Did We Do?
Cat took part in our Public Speaking Workshop, in order to develop a bit more confidence. The workshop put people into groups and allowed people to practice a number of skills and techniques.
After working with a neurodiverse group of people, two hours later, attendees (including Cat) gave a dialogue of their choice. Cat said: "After that couple of hours everybody's confidence in that room had improved a lot."
Following the workshop, Cat also build her relationship with Exceptional Individuals. Our Head of Community, Nat, asked Cat to contribute to our annual event, Great Minds Think Different.
Cat then went on to perform at our event in Crouch End, promoting neurodiversity awareness through open mic. The event celebrated people with neurodivergence through artwork, songs and more.
"The supportive and positive environment was really uplifting, and allowed people to showcase their work and talk about their experiences. Exceptional Individuals serves as an advocate for people with neurodiversity and it's nice to be represented," Cat said.
What Cat said:
"“If you have dyslexia or dyspraxia, don’t let that stop you from doing what you want to do.
"There is support out there and there are lots of very nice people who understand, who have dyslexia themselves and have been through it."
One of Cat's artistic works, 'Sequence', has been acquired by the Special Collection of Artist’s Books at the British Library, the Wellcome Library and the Women’s Art Library.
What happened next:
Since Cat worked with us at Exceptional Individuals, she has gone on to do some amazing work, creating fantastic artistic exhibitions that have been acquired by well-renowned libraries.
One of Cat’s exhibitions, ‘Stereoscopics’, was based around the idea of engaging both the right and left hemispheres in cooperation so that people can have a full-minded approach.
On a similar topic of memory, Cat also created an Artistic Book called ‘Sequence,' which can be seen on the left. Cat used old photographs from a family album to create a book that followed three generations of her family through the history of analogue photography, so that someone with dementia [or a stroke victim] could project their own memories and feelings onto the image.
Cat plans to head back into education: “It has given me a taste for more. My future plans are to apply for a PhD and further explore how to encourage a whole-minded conscious approach to life through the arts and wellbeing."