It was a quieter session this week, which was very much welcomed, as our amazing volunteer Izzy was enjoying a holiday in New York, and I was running the session on my own. 16 families came along to explore the space at Awe & Wonder; some returners, some new faces!

When I was setting up the studio, I realised that I had left behind two significant parts of the environment: the speakers and the overhead projector. This felt a little frustrating at the time, as many families had commented on how relaxing it felt with the calm, instrumental music in the background. When families began arriving, one parent told me that the music was the one thing their child remembered and enjoyed about the previous week. Nonetheless, we had an amazing morning full of creativity and it was lovely to meet new families and talk more with previous attendees.

This week, I tried to incorporate some of the children’s interests discussed by caregivers in a feedback form I sent out after the first session. Many children seemed to show fascinations with ramps, tunnels, and moving objects, so I brought in some guttering and cardboard tubes for the children to explore. I love observing children explore guttering and pipes; the guttering often falls down, causing children to think critically and solve problems. Our families have been amazing, working alongside their children, talking through their discoveries and helping them work out solutions and ways forward.

Providing open-ended materials, such as cardboard tubes, gives us an amazing opportunity to observe children use materials in unique, creative ways. One child decided to place his leg inside one of the tubes, claiming to be a ‘pirate’, asking other children to help pick him up as he tried to balance with a cardboard leg. This resulted in lots of giggling children around him, as he wobbled around like jelly, reminding me how important it is to find the joy in childhood.

Another interest of the group was dinosaurs and water, so I brought in a tuff tray (builder’s tray) and filled it with dinosaur figures, pebbles, greenery and a small amount of water. Most of the children seemed curious about the imaginary world set-up, and some very excited to see it was “real water!”.

In the middle of the room I placed an old protector screen (given to me from my dad) on a clothes rail which was kindly donated to us from the community. I offered a variety of paintbrushes and paints for the children to use. It was wonderful to see the excitement of some children seeing such a large canvas for painting, watching them creep up to it with a look of ‘am I allowed to paint on this?’ We had quite a few younger artists join us, and they seemed to approach the vertical easel with a lot more confidence, swooshing their paintbrushes all over the screen without a care in the world, sometimes paint splashing nearby artists. I had a wonderful interaction with a child painting the screen: “we are really good artists aren’t we?” he told me as we painted together. One of our aims is for everyone to see themselves as an artist, so this interaction meant a lot.

One parent and child who visited first came to one of my art groups 18 months ago. At the time, his parent told me that he was never interested in ‘arty things’ or messy play. During this time he sat for half an hour, exploring making marks with large diggers in paint, and continued to explore his creativity ever since. Seeing him again in his creative explorations was captivating. This week at Awe & Wonder he explored clay for the first time, and again, he spent a long period of time immersing himself in this new experience; squeezing, poking, rolling the material in his hands. ‘I’m making a cake’, he tells me, as he piles mounds of clay inside a bamboo dish. As I begin to explore making ‘candles’ for his cake he says ‘worm candles,’ so now his birthday cake has ‘worm candles on top’. He giggles to himself, as I repeat it back to him.

One thing that stood out from this week’s session was how much families value a creative space for their children. One parent told me that their child often struggles with attending a play group for a second time, however they seemed very excited about coming back and exploring the provision once again. Furthermore, another parent expressed how they find it hard to set up creative activities at home because they find that their child only plays with it for a short time, and the effort it takes to set it up and clean up after it doesn’t seem worth it. This is something special about providing a creative environment in the community: it gives children and adults the freedom to explore creatively without any barriers. In addition, children see other children exploring materials around them, which can provoke and invite them into trying something new.

I am very grateful to have this opportunity to run Awe & Wonder sessions in our community. One reason behind this project was my strong belief that every child should have access to high quality creative art experiences where they live. Article 31 of the UN Convention Rights of the Child states,

Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

If a child doesn’t have access to this within their homes, or at nursery/preschool, where are we providing this within our communities? Crewkerne is a small market town with approximately 8,000 residents. We have limited options when it comes to offering creative activities for our community, and they often come at a price – ‘messy play’ activities in Taunton, Bristol and Exeter are on average £7 per session, which can create an economical barrier for families to access high quality learning experiences for their children. With our grant from Somerset Community Foundation and hall space from Crewkerne Town Council, we have been able to provide all our sessions free of charge.

We are now looking for artists to come and work with us on upcoming creative projects. If you have a passion in creative arts and would like to collaborate please contact Victoria at imaginationtribe@outlook.com.

Our next session takes place over the school holidays, meaning we will not be running as a drop-in studio. We have provided space for 40 families to access the creative environment with their children during this time. If you would like to be on the reserve list, please get in contact.

Thank you for stopping by!

Victoria 🙂