Open Doors

Open Doors is a monthly session at Manchester Art Gallery where the galery would open early in order to make the space more accessable for families who had autistic children. 

Sessions included an engagement with a piece in the galleries collection which was then used to set a theme which is returned to during a range of interactive and sensory arts activities. 

I first worked on these sessions as a volunteer, then as an assistant to Lead Artist Sarah Marsh and then took over as Lead Artist myself. 

I produced handouts ahead of each session and e-mailed them to participants. These described a bit about what to expect during the session and also included some pictures and descriptions of the gallery environment (space, sounds, smells) in order to help any families accessing the space for the first time to prepare for their visit. 

If you would like to comission a workshop, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Above & below the waves

This months session took inspiration from the Romantic paintings of the sea. The session was thinking both above and below the waves. We started with an activity in the gallery itself using different materials to create sea sounds and imitate waves. We then went down to the learning studio where I had built a sensory installation based on the sea. We painted black card fish outlines with UV paint to create luminescent light puppets that could then be performed.

Sensory Plants

Icy Edwardians 

For this months session I drew inspiration from the snow paintings in the edwardians exhibition. In the gallery we had a snowflake making activity. In the Clore we had ice crown making as well as various other sensory and art activities to explore.

South Asian Costume