A Museum of Journeys in a Chest of Drawers – Looking Beyond the Stereotypes.
Some of you may have heard me talk about the community art work I do and in particular the above project I have been working on with artist Rachel Ramchurn. Excitingly the exhibition opens next week Saturday!
Preview 12pm -3.30pm Saturday 29th February. Hosted by Arc centre and inside the Hatworks Museum Wellington Mill, Wellington Rd South, Stockport SK3 0EU
A participative and interactive art project, including stories and artworks from participants at Arc Stockport and Global Sistaz United Nottingham.
“Look inside the chest of drawers and discover stories from two seemingly different groups of people. Will you recognise yourself in the stories told?”
This exhibition hopes to share the stories of what unites us as humans during a time of political, social and cultural divide.
Share your story at the end with our poem-making machine. Do any of the words resonate with you?
It will be lovely to see some of you there. The exhibition preview is running alongside Arc’s Saturday Family art club 11.30am -4pm.
Below is a sneak preview and some of the art works in progress.
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Continues to show Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 10am – 4pm until 17th April 2020.
Recently I have had a busy time on other community based creative art projects, working collaboratively with other organisation and artists. I thought I would share some of this. Do have a read and look at your leisure. May not be stained glass but hopefully still interesting soulful eye candy. Thank you.
A large community project looking to tackle social isolation, through an engaging programme of participatory events, gathering local resident’s tales, memories and feelings of the area. These are held and celebrated within a big book hosting all the stories. Making the book was my part, along with running creative art sessions with residents to capture the visual essence of the Tales of Miles Platting. Poet and writer, Al Keogh ran creative writing workshops with local residents. A community wide celebration event was held at the end. It was a really interesting project to be involved in, meeting lots of lovely people. I now feel like I know Miles Platting, its history and people. I view Victoria Mill from my Ancoats studio window with much more familiarity now.
I am an associate Artist with ARC centre and gallery, running regular health and well-being works around Stockport.
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In the centenary year of WW1, ARC centre and gallery won a commission to run project ‘We are dreamers’ commemorating the centenary. Excitingly I have been invited to join this project, leading participative workshops, creating artworks for exhibition which will be held at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, opening on November 11th. Please watch out for more information and opportunities for Stockport residents to become involved.
Much of my artist practise involves stories and or small familiar objects that hold great meaning to those who keep them. Follow links to see more:
‘A Pocketful of Treasure’, an R&D Arts council funded project, working with artist Rachel Ramchurn. We are continuing onto the next fund raising phase now, hoping to start in November.
‘The Chandelier of lost earrings’ a collaborative award winning project, hosts over 3000 gifted lonely earrings, people donated their single earring that had been kept after the other of their pair has been lost and along with meaning personal stories.
The Chandelier of Lost Earrings, exhibited inside ‘The Summerhouse’ St Mary’s Hospital Manchester
Primary School participative stained glass project
May – July 2016
I was commissioned to design a window to celebrate the live of a beloved teaching assistant who had been at the school for a long time and was particularly close to the year 6 pupils.
I came into school and worked with the children in year six to help them think about how they wanted to celebrate and remember their teacher visually within a stained glass window. I also gave them some understanding of how a stained glass window is constructed and brought in examples. We then over two session came up with design ideas, which I worked up into two designs, and the children chose one. Whilst I made the window I sent regular picture updates to show the process to the class.
Below is the finished window and some of the process, which is in a quiet open plan area and overlooks the schools main hall.
Manchester Stained Glass 