Zaynab Bunsie

My Story

It’s been a meandering journey to try and centre my nature, my interests and my values in my work. It’s one that I’m still on. Along the way, I have encountered practises and people that have added to my own personal stew. A degree in Social Anthropology – a kind of global sociology and a subject I'd never heard of until I read the blurb in the university prospectus – ignited a natural interest in culture and the expansiveness that comes with embracing the many ways different people do life. Why didn’t we learn about this in primary school I wondered?    

Speaking of primary school, I’ve been working in one as a Learning Support Assistant for the past three years alongside training to become a psychotherapist. Working with children and young people has peppered my different roles over the years. In fact, when I first left university, it was my volunteer work at a youth centre in Brighton that supported my application to work for a small television production company in Brighton making educational programmes. This led to my first career in television production, researching and producing documentaries and factual programmes for some of the main broadcasters.

Coming back to people’s stories, young people, healing and production ten years later, represents a circling back that has been a work and life trend of mine. After returning from a long stint living abroad, I was delighted to be able to use my television production skills and training to produce and manage a variety of site-specific arts events with and for arts organisations like Arts Catalyst (there I produced Mission//Misplaced Memory), the BFI, Scanners Inc, Architecture Doing Place and now The Space to Come on projects that all centre community, connection and creative participation.