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It’s catch-up time! Here are 9 lovely photos to provide a glimpse of what I’ve been up to – creating and delivering the Mini Art Club sessions at Manchester Art Gallery over the past three months.

We’ve been interpreting and responding to some lovely artworks from the brilliant ‘First Cut’ exhibition on the top floor. It’s been a great opportunity to focus on some beautiful paper artworks large and small.

In November our ‘Shape Shifters’ session responded to the beautiful, intricate and shapely work of Sarah Bridgland. In December, we went into outer space taking the theme of ‘Navigating Nebulae’ from artist Andy Singleton’s amazing large-scale paper-cut swirls. Finally, in January, we explored and built our own ‘Forest of Wonder’, whilst being inspired by Manabu Hangai’s lovely hand-made leaves and installation.

I’m suffering from some serious paper cuts now!

Links:

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/exhibitions/index.php?itemID=92

https://www.facebook.com/ManchesterArtGallery

http://www.sarahbridgland.com/

http://andysingleton.co.uk/

http://www.hangais.com/art_web/eng/e_frame/f_set.htm

Phew… I’m on a roll! Here’s a selection of images taken in the ‘Rags to Riches’ summer family workshops at Manchester Art Gallery as part of the We Face Forward festival across Manchester.

Inspired by Nnenna Okore’s artwork ‘When the Heavens Meet the Earth’, we have been challenging ourselves to transform waste materials into wondrous works of art. Okore uses a range of natural materials which she deconstructs, decays, dyes, reforms, etc. She works with natural materials such as paper, clay, burlap and natural dyes.

Over the past couple of weeks in the gallery, we have been focusing on line and form, producing drawings and experimenting with newspaper in the gallery in front of the artwork. Downstairs we’ve been working with a range of waste materials to create colliograph prints. We also had a lot of fun exploring different ways to shape clay using key words as prompts… what fun!

Links:

http://www.nnennaokore.com/

http://www.wefaceforward.org/artists/nnenna-okore

http://www.wefaceforward.org/venues/manchester-art-gallery

http://www.facebook.com/ManchesterArtGallery#

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/

After a long and lovely weekend working at the Just So festival at Rode Hall Parkland Cheshire, I’ve finally found some time to load up a few pictures.

Hidden in enchanted woodland, ‘Away with the Fairies’, my Tent of Surprise revealed a paper forest (literally!) growing inside the tent. With baskets filled with surprises to rummage through, families were able to explore objects through all the senses. Torches revealed paper-cut shadows and bugs (both imaginary and real!), pots of perfumes or potions conjured up responses, emotions and memories, children listened out for noises and the feely basket was full of surprises – including a real frog that had accidentally landed in there and gone to sleep! Perhaps it was the fairy queen who had been out casting spells…

Links:

http://www.justsofestival.org.uk/

http://www.justsofestival.org.uk/away-with-the-fairies-at-a-glance/

http://www.facebook.com/justsofestival

This month’s ‘We Face Forward’ Mini Art Club session responded to the artist Piniang’s semi-abstract collaged paintings ‘Flood in the Suburb 1 and 2′ and ‘Power Cut in the Suburb’. Piniang (real name Ibrahima Niang) is a multi-media artist who works with a fusion of materials. The paintings in this exhibition depict the architecture of Dakar and somehow capture the chaos of an overcrowded city after a flood or power cut. Here, Piniang is concerned with population growth and urban development out of control.

Families visited the exhibition virtually in the dark, accompanied by the frenetic beat of the drum played by Danny Henry. We then headed down to the studio to mark-make and explore various recycled materials, focusing on the colour palette in Piniang’s work. We later constructed (and knocked down) a fragile cardboard city, and danced to the beat of a chaotic city, led by the amazingly versatile Danny.

What a fast, colourful, frenzied and fun morning!

Links:

http://www.wefaceforward.org/venues/manchester-art-gallery

http://www.wefaceforward.org/artists/piniang

http://www.facebook.com/ManchesterArtGallery#

http://www.mancky.co.uk/?p=3896

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR8-EWcRo08

We’ve just had our 50th Mini Art Club… and what a morning!

As part of the ‘We Face Forward’ summer programme, we responded to artist Nnenna Okore’s work ‘Where Heaven Meets the Earth’, concentrating on the theme of decay and transformation. Materials to be explored and transformed were a variety of recycled papers, different consistencies and types of clay, as well as natural materials such as hessian, twine, vegetables and spices!

Okore is particularly concerned with re-using and transforming materials, working into them using a variety of techniques to test the limits of each material as it deconstructs, falls apart, decays, fades, changes colour, etc. We attempted to explore this laying out a wet clay and natural dye room with paper and also a dark, shadowy paper room. To complement and extend this further, dancer, percussionist and musician Danny Henry interpreted key words (such as rip, stamp, fold) through a series of beats, rhythms and movement – much to the delight of everyone involved! It was really insightful to work with such a diverse and experimental performer who instinctively understood the ethos of Mini Art Club.

Such a great way to celebrate our 50th session!

N.B. Lo-fi mini vid clips hopefully coming up soon!

Links:

http://www.nnennaokore.com/

http://www.wefaceforward.org/venues/manchester-art-gallery

http://www.wefaceforward.org/artists/nnenna-okore

http://www.facebook.com/ManchesterArtGallery#

http://www.mancky.co.uk/?p=3896

…am recovering from a random, last-minute art gallery-packed day down in London!

The Serpentine Gallery 

First, a long walk from Knightsbridge and through Hyde Park to the Serpentine Gallery to see Yoko Ono’s latest show ‘To the Light’ which opened yesterday. The exhibition features a variety of installations, films, photos and archive material – threaded together by an accompanying sound piece of bird cries and ambiguous heartbeats.

The central piece Amaze 1971 invites viewers to take their shoes off and lose themselves within a disorientating maze of clear perspex, which simultaneously serves the purpose of revealing the participants to the rest of the gallery. The installation seeks to reveal the viewer as the ‘viewed’, as the participant struggles through the space, unsure of whether they are about to hit a wall as subtle reflections confuse their sense of space. Finally, the lost viewer finds or ‘re-discovers’ themselves once more as their reflection is revealed in a small, cubic water well at the centre of the piece.

Elsewhere, the world distorts as the viewer encounters suggestive objects, such as a ladder leading up to a suspended magnifying glass. The seemingly overlooked soldiers’ helmets filled with jigsaw pieces of a blue sky also provide a sad testament – rather heartbreaking on reflection. Perhaps the lost blue skies can be found on the ‘Sky TV’ in another room where a plasma screen transports us to a flat, one-dimensional, filmed sky. Ono leaves a trail of suggestive notes here, telling us that the ceiling is, in fact, ‘the floor’ and the floor ‘is the ceiling’, or is it?

I also practically walked into Yoko Ono as she was being accompanied out of the Serpentine’s learning studio towards the new Pavilion – in preparation for her talk, in conversation with Waldemar Januszczak in the warm, dark, cork-filled, sensory pavilion designed by architects Herzog and de Meuron and artist-activist Ai Weiwei!

Links:

http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2011/03/yoko_ono_to_the_light.html

http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2012/02/serpentine_gallery_pavilion_2012.html

Then it was on to the Barbican’s current Bauhaus: Art as Life exhibition, an in-depth portrayal of the Bauhaus movement and manifesto – the UK’s biggest Bauhaus exhibition in over 40 years. At first slightly hesitant to enter a world of rigid architecture, geometry and colour theory I did, however, become quickly immersed. The Bauhaus vision of utopia is hopeful and appealing as creativity, imagination, play, celebration, community and shared identity are emphasised as key ideals in a movement that blossomed and then dissolved in the dawn of the Second World War. The path through the exhibition provided a comprehensive timeline of the Bauhaus movement, but the curated space, did not seem to capture enough of the playful, free spirit of the movement. This was to be found, instead, in the close examination of small archive photographs and photograms, prints, drawings and paintings.

http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=12409

After being properly immersed in the world of Bauhaus, it was a mad dash to the British Museum to the Art Fund Prize 2012 award ceremony! The two prize categories were The Art Fund Prize for Museums and Galleries – Museum of the Year 2012 and, also, The Clore Award for Museum Learning 2012.

And the winners were….

Museum of the Year 2012 – Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery (although I was rooting for and had my fingers crossed for the Hepworth, the team have achieved a tremendous amount over such a short space of time and were favourites to win).

Clore Award for Museum Learning 2012 – joint winners Leicestershire County Council Heritage & Arts Service – Held in the Hand and Touch Tables and also… the Whitworth Art Gallery/ Manchester Museum / Manchester Art Gallery with the Manchester Early Years Partnerships!! The early years initiative began over 5-6 years ago through the Creative Collaboration projects in Sure Start Children’s Centres and rippled out to the galleries which provide innovative sessions as part of a core offer for the early years, where ‘children lead the way’! It has all come a long way and our Mini Art Club session at Manchester Art Gallery will turn 50 next month – yes, that’s the 50th session!

To read more about the shortlists:

http://www.artfundprize.org.uk/clore-award/shortlist-announced.php

http://www.artfundprize.org.uk/2012/art-fund-prize-2012-shortlist-announced.php

To hear/read about the winner of the Art Fund Prize 2012:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jrqry#p00tx76g

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2012/jun/20/royal-albert-memorial-museum-art-fund

http://www.artfundprize.org.uk/press/2012/press-release-120619.php

Links:

http://www.facebook.com/ManchesterArtGallery

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anE0oZg1DOs&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CIvnrQFvyE&feature=relmfu

After 2 weeks of ‘Colour Pop’ workshops (see previous post), colourful prints were stripped off the studio walls and replaced with clean layers of black & white paper for Mini Art Club – how different it looked!

Families followed a trail up to Roger Ballen’s beautifully rich black & white square-formatted photographs in the current ‘Shadow Land’ exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery. Despite the slightly dark, adult-themed nature of Roger Ballen’s work, families with young children responded well to his photographs – making simple connections with textures, lines and imagery in photos in certain areas of the exhibition. Children particularly loved feeling feathers, twigs, drawing with wire and finding animals hidden in the photographs as well as in toy form on the gallery floor.

Downstairs, two studios were set up to recreate the rich aesthetic of Roger Ballen’s photos as children were invited to explore textures of key materials and, also, shadow and light on a large scale.

Links:

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/exhibitions/index.php?itemID=87

http://www.rogerballen.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uee_mcxvrw

Here are some lovely pictures from half-term family workshops at Manchester Art Gallery this week and last!

The workshops introduced the concept of complementary or ‘best friend’ colours in paintings in the Modern & Contemporary Gallery, taking inspiration from John Hoyland’s ’14.6.64′ (1964). Families looked for sets of best friend colours in paintings and were asked to think about how the colours made them feel. Later, downstairs in the studios, families could print using interesting objects and /or make abstract screen prints choosing combinations of complementary colours. Two studio activities were available for families with children aged 0-5 years and 6+ years.

As the two weeks progressed the studio walls became filled with a collection of pop colours!

As mentioned a few weeks ago, here’s a lovely vimeo vid by Jessica Wild, which captures the ‘Imagine’ session we led together at Manchester Art Gallery.

Inspired by Max Ernst’s ‘chance’ frottage collage ‘Petrified City’, families were invited to create random sound compositions by collaging stickers and other materials onto old vinyl records which were then played on a turntable. In addition, families also enjoyed cutting up album covers and made interesting, surreal collages. One little girl even decided to put stickers over all the men’s heads on the album cover of Fame, leaving only the women’s heads visible!

To see and hear the ‘chance compositions’, click on the link: https://vimeo.com/37909145

Also, for some rather low quality vid clips go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michikofujii/sets/72157629162585530/

Mini Art Club is a monthly session for children aged 0-5 and their parents / carers at Manchester Art Gallery. It runs as 2 sessions from 10.15am – 11.15am and 11.30am – 12.30pm every 2nd Friday of the month. The aim of the club is to encourage young children and their adults to creatively explore and respond to artworks, spaces and materials both in the gallery and in the learning studio.

Mini Art Club has really grown as a project space for working creatively with young children and their adults, mainly through:

good team work, careful planning, time and space to set things up, making observations, documenting sessions, reflection, evaluation, paying attention to details and maintaining a desire to keep things fun, child-led, family-friendly and innovative (phew!)

We’ve also tried to develop new ways to engage with artworks and gallery spaces, so that families/carers with young children can feel comfortable visiting the gallery. The aim is not to simply make and take something home, it’s all about having the time and space to play, explore, encounter, discover, engage the senses, get messy, have fun and develop new expressive vocabulary.

Looking through my photos, I realised I have been developing and delivering Mini Art Club since 2008. This month it’ll be our 43rd club! I was going to wait until the 50th club to blog about it but I’m a little impatient so I thought I’d make a start now!

Please click on the link (below) to see the wonderful Mini Art Club film created by filmmaker and fabulous Mini Art Club Assistant, Jessica Wild (Wild Bees Production). Jess filmed our recent ‘Light Trails’ Mini Art Club session and created this wonderful video clip. Also here are some stills from the session:

In this session we asked families to explore the light and dark spaces of the Craft & Design Gallery, using torches and coloured acetate to find objects, shadows and different light features on the top floor of the Art Gallery. We then invited everyone to explore a specially created light laboratory in Studio 1, where there were a number of materials to explore (touch, crawl into, shine torches through, hide behind, etc). In Studio 2, we also played music in a fairly dark, empty space with a small blue-light projection screen, which provided the opportunity for families to interact with each other, move around, dance with torches, listen, look and just enjoy spending time together relaxing:

Please click here for the Mini Art Club film: http://vimeo.com/30916255

For Mini Art Club ‘Light Trails’ stills, please see the pictures below!

Related links:

http://www.grassrootscreative.co.uk/clients/cce/miniart.swf

http://www.creativitycultureeducation.org/our-programmes/story-catching/mini-art-club,448,AR.html

http://vimeo.com/17795478

http://vimeo.com/wildbeesproduction

http://www.flickr.com/photos/manchester_city_galleries/sets/72157628036606333/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/manchester_city_galleries/collections/72157606686346575/

http://www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk/

http://www.earlyarts.co.uk/ http://culturebaby.co.uk/