Hey! Will here.

I hope you’re having a good start to 2026, whether that means launching or easing yourself back into things.

Myself, I was up in North Yorkshire for Christmas and New Year’s with family, and I’m feeling thankful to have enjoyed some much-needed spaciousness over the holidays.

Here’s the view from the summit of Roseberry Topping, which I hiked up on Boxing Day:

I think it’s safe to say I’d bitten off more than I could chew towards the end of last year.

I was trying to juggle a few too many commitments, and the result was that I wasn’t able to work on Collaborative Residencies as much as I would have liked to, beyond the residency I was undertaking myself.

From September to December, I was hosted in London in exchange for some communications consultancy work for Future Stewards — the charity behind the Three Horizons framework.

This was one of the first pieces of work I’ve delivered via my new creative studio, Ways with Words, through which I’m helping organisations with communications, collaboration, and regenerative cultural work. If you’d like to learn more about that (and about what I’m up to more generally), you can read my public journal entry for January, just published.

In the spirit of learning-in-public, I’ll aim to do a write-up of this residency soon — as well as of the other collaborative residencies I undertook earlier in 2025 — which I’ll share here on the blog.

In the meantime…

Reading people’s comments from the expression of interest form about what’s drawing them to Collaborative Residencies, it’s clear that many people have already had a wealth of rich experiences — of either hosting or being hosted — in all sorts of interesting places and contexts.

If you might like to share an inspiring story, or any particular insights or learnings that you think the community could benefit from, I’d love to hear from you.

In February I’ll be headed to Spain — initially in order to go on a long walk (somewhere a bit warmer and brighter than the UK), but ultimately with a view to spending Spring in Barcelona.

And of course, I’ll be seeking potential hosts with whom to live and collaborate while I’m there :)

I’ll be writing a dedicated post next week to share in a bit more detail:

I’ll also be working to curate a list of interesting Barcelona-based people and projects — both those that are already on my radar, and any that are suggested to me in the course of organising my visit. I’m looking forward to being able to share it :)

If you haven’t already, do sign up and stay tuned for more news and updates over the coming weeks,

All best,

Will
Collaborative Residencies

~~~