PARTICIPATION
Sounds from The Other City
I developed and delivered the art direction for Sounds from the Other City 2026. This consisted of multiple elements, including a parade which took place during the festival on the green where one of the larger stages is located. I created a large alien head which was worn by Tam (1/2 of the department of peculiar affairs) and he became the alien leader which led the parade, and was used in the marketting in the lead up to the festival. I also made an ‘everybody welcome’ banner which featured in the parade, and we used ‘everybody welcome’ banners that had been made last year in workshops by another artist to create a surreal yet inclusive parade.
Egg Bingo
The ‘Egg Bingo’ project consisted of a series of workshops for Super Slow Way taking place in the Exbury Egg located in Burnley. Over a number of weeks, members of the community took part in workshops firstly focusing on creating lino and foam stamps depicting nature and things that were found around where the egg was located. This allowed participants to connect with the environment and have conversations about the canal, wildlife, flowers and plants as well as knowledge sharing across generations. The sessions then moved onto creating costumes and props for the bingo game. One final workshop was held on the day of the burnley canal festival so participants who hadn’t attended the earlier workshops could print their own bingo card using the pre made stamps, culiminating in a bingo game on stage hosted by Kristoff Tango.
Mask making
(drop in workshops)
I have developed and delivered mask making workshops for a number of organisations in a variety of settings including drop in family workshops at a number of art festivals including the Festival of Thrift and for Down to Earth. My mask making workshops make use of repurposed materials that would otherwise be thrown away.
Mask making
I have developed and delivered adult mask making workshops for organisations such as SICK! and Lime arts. The SICK! workshop particularly focused on providing a safe space to allow participants to discuss themes around identity, exploring different techniques and materials to express their thoughts and feelings around the theme.
Mystical Mushroom Trail
For End of the Road Festival, I devised a mystical mushroom trail featuring multiple papier mache mushrooms leading to a large mushroom, concealing a keyboard, which had musician Tom Briggs Davies performing as a wizard in the centre of it. The trail remained up from the duration of the festival, and performances took place whilst I delivered a mushroom whittling workshops where participants could whittle their own tiny mushroom.
Claymation Workshop
Tam and I (the department of peculiar affairs) delivered two half day animation sessions to students at Piper Hill Post 16. Collectively we spent time storyboarding before making characters and environments, and then brought their visions to life through animation in the second session. During the second session some students also recorded voiceovers and sound effects to add to the animation. Take a look on the animation page see the finished animations.
Turnpike Gallery - Printmaking Sessions
I delivered a number of saturday family printmaking sessions at the Turnpike Gallery in Leigh. The sessions were different each time, and explored various techniques such as lino printing, collagraph printing, tetrapak printing, monoprinting and screenprinting. The sessions were held as drop ins allowing participants to stay as long as they like, with some choosing to stay for the whole duration to develop on their skills by trying out mulitple prints.
Zine Workshop
This workshop allowed participants to explore creating stamps out of lino and foam, as well as using existing stamps to create zines that expressed their identities. Participants had the opportunity to collaborate and share stamps.
Plasticine Companions
I developed and delivered the plasticine companions workshop the National Festival of Making in Blackburn and The Bridges festival at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton. The photographs are from the National Festival of Making. Each session was around an hour long and participants were able to create a simple armature using a cork, wire and foil before adding plasticine to create their own unique character.
Collage and printing workshop
This workshop was developed and delivered for the Farrell Centre for a group of Year 8/9 students with SEND. The workshop allowed for experimentation collaging paper and tissue paper to create a background, and then printing on top using foam and tetrapaks then pressing them using pasta machines.
Lino Stamp Map Icon Workshop
As part of the late shows, I delivered a lino stamp workshop at the Farrell Centre where participants were able to create a carved stamp of something that represents where they live, or something that they like about Newcastle upon Tyne. Participants were able to print on small versions of the map as well as adding their stamps to a larger wall version.