A small group, but focused … today we made our own characterful money boxes. Christmas crept in with Lyla’s fab snowman; Alex made a very sweet cat; Flynn created a fantastically detailed drawing which became a submarine model; and Alice’s colourful Robin has bags of charm! A most enjoyable afternoon 🙂

Another great day of making, and the Halloween themes begin to kick in! We painted compressed paper models in a variety of Halloween-y colours, then created our own arms, wings and other additions, which were applied with the trusty glue gun. At this morning’s session we also had a go at some textured painting, creating a ‘Gotham City’ -esque image using a limited palette. Amazing to think that these have all been made by 4 to 9 year olds!

Soul Searching: we’re hoping to crowdfund this project – our first attempt at something like this. Having already received funding support from Creative Minds, we thought we’d try a different approach for the match funding. Click here if you think you may be able to help us to raise the funds.

Here’s the plan:

We would like to organise an exhibition of artwork relating to / exploring / arising from mental health issues, curated by artists suffering from/affectd by mental health problems, and incorporating a series of workshops and talks. The exhibition will take place across two venues in early 2017: at our gallery in central Mirfield, and at Batley Art Gallery. We aim to manage a series of weekly events relating to the exhibition throughout its two-month duration, which will be facilitated by artists whose work is included in the exhibition.

Our Artistic Director and curator, Mark Milnes, will mentor a selected group of artists who will have applied to be part of the organising team for the exhibition. They will use a resource called Curatorspace to source artists for the exhibition, alongside websites such as Creative Kirklees and other arts forums. The opportunity will be posted to other relevant local groups/organisations such as Hoot Creative, Pathways and Womencentre. The exhibition will be publicised with press releases, posters, banners and leaflets, all of which will be designed in-house and will be subject to approval by the organising team. Our aim is to highlight the beneficial effects of creative activity on mental health; its use as an exploratory tool and its therapeutic benefits. The opportunity will provide 90 exhibition days (36 at Creative arts Hub, 54 at Batley Art Gallery) for participating artists (an estimated 50 participants), across two well-known local arts venues.

Arts activities will include poetry readings, talks and practical arts sessions. For this element of the project, we intend to provide one two-hour session per week of the exhibition period, offering a broad variety of experiences for those attending. The sessions will be offered free of charge with a maximum attendance of 15 per session. These are most likely to occur at our Mirfield base, though we would be open to exploring the possibility of alternate weeks of activity across both venues.

Image: ‘The Index for Child Wellbeing’ by John Ledger (exhibited at ‘Soul Searching’, Dewsbury Museum 2016)

Can you help? Click here to donate to our Crowdfunder appeal

With Halloween just around the corner, we’re busy thinking about things that go bump in the night! On Sunday 30th October we’ve organised an afternoon and evening (2 separate events) of spooky creative fun! Join us to try out a range of creepy crafty activities, including shadow puppetry, web weaving, face painting and a pre-school craft corner for the tiny ones. Cost £3 per child, book your place here!

We made fab things today … look at our Minion battlebuses! Made with a small group and lots of careful attention 🙂 It’s great working with small numbers as we can do so much more. BUT: we would enjoy having a few extra bookings. Check out the SPECIAL OFFER on our next two art club days here!

… hoorah! And not before time. We’ve added great functionality to the page by including eventbrite booking for all of our activity sessions; info about exhibitions and other events; images from our resident artists – and much more. Look forward to hearing what you all think 🙂