“Only Connect!” is the result of two people who became friends while sharing a passion: Ellie Robinson-Carter and Peter Daniels.

We want people to feel at home with themselves and the world around them. Human dignity is inviolable. Regardless of the condition you are in, you belong.

So we build and help build communities. One step at a time. With inclusive society as our ultimate goal.

We first met in 2017 at Humanitas Deventer, when Peter was Chief Happiness Officer at the home. Later Ellie came back to be artist in residence. In 2019 Peter spoke at the first “Only Connect!” Conference in 2019, together with Sores Duman, one of the resident students.

We use questions as a starting point for a conference. For “Only Connect!” 2019 the question was: “Who do you want to meet?” This is about exposure. For example: One of our students went to school by bus. At first she checked out where the old people were and went over to the other side. After having lived at Humanitas for a while, she sat down next to them.

For “Only Connect!” 2022 the question was: Do you really want to meet this person? This is about looking yourself in the eye, stepping over your own shadow. For “Only Connect!” 2025 the question will be: “Are you in for a project?”

“Only Connect!” Conference 2022 was a three-day conference with lectures, workshops, meals and endless conversations. It was a gathering of people of good will. Every single person there, wanted to be. One of the delegates said: “This was the first conference where people did not have a look at your name-tag before deciding to speak to you”. And still there wasn’t enough time to speak with everyone.

We have learned: “Blessed are those that seek the spirit”. It makes us happy. If you would join us, that would make us happier still.

“Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.”

E.M. Forster, Howards End

Ellie is a Socially Engaged Creative Practitioner, Researcher and Consultant based in Plymouth (UK). Ellie is a specialist in using creative practice to enable people with dementia and intergenerational groups to connect to themselves and others around them, fostering empathy, building belonging and challenging disconnection in our society.

Through embodying a co-creative approach, Ellie’s projects are shaped by those who participate: this is reflected by the variety of media used and forms the projects take. From photography, printmaking, letter-writing and painting to organising community events and conferences, Ellie is skilled at creating the opportunity for connection to spark between people through creative communication.

Ellie is Founding Artistic Director of The Photobook Project, Programme Director for MSc Dementia and a PhD Candidate at University of Hull. For a full list of current and past projects, click here. 

Peter Daniels is former Chief Happiness Officer at Humanitas Deventer, a care community in the Netherlands. Humanitas became known internationally through their resident student program: the first intergenerational project of its kind in the world.

“Showing our home to the many visitors this generated became part of my job. Basically I was a care-worker without a job description. In other words: I got paid for everything I used to be fired for.” 

Together with Ellie Robinson-Carter, Peter is co-chair of “Only Connect!” He is also a member of Sensory Trust’s Creative Spaces Advisory Group.