Last week we hosted our first Awe & Wonder creative session during the school holidays, and we were blessed with 39 families accessing the space.

During the holidays, we decided not to run as a ‘drop-in’ studio, to give us an idea of numbers to expect and to ensure we kept everyone safe. This worked out very well, as the space felt busy and exciting, but not too overcrowded.

What was particularly enjoyable about this session was watching children explore the space with their older siblings and different family members – all being imaginative and creative together.

Our theme for this session was COLOUR. We took a little inspiration from artists Henri Matisse, Hervé Tullet and Yayoi Kusama, working with bright colours at the creative stations.

On the clay table, we offered clay and different coloured pipe cleaners. Some children made ‘trees’, ‘doors’, ‘bracelets’ and ‘bridges’. Some simply enjoyed poking holes in the clay and twisting the pipe cleaners around each other. I noticed a few older siblings, sat for a while manipulating the clay into balls and bowl shapes, quietly observing others in their creative play. Clay can be very therapeutic – it is cold to touch, extremely messy, but wonderfully malleable and imaginative.

“The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.”

–Dieter F. Uchtdorf

On one of our wooden toddler tables made by The Shed, the children were invited to play with empty photo frames and small items such as curtain rings, coloured gems, shapes and large plastic paper clips donated from my Nan’s loft. This is a simple provocation which can be replicated at home using old frames and small interesting objects (natural and/or manufactured).

This type of activity is sometimes referred to as ‘Transient Art’, and encourages children to explore lots of different materials to create different pictures, patterns or structures. The parts are moveable, with no specific ‘goal’ in mind, therefore giving children endless opportunities to play creatively. It is always a pleasure observing children interact with lots of small objects and noticing what ‘they see’. One child explored the plastic paper clips in great detail and told me, ‘I’ve made a dragonfly’, and showed me how to create my own.

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.”

— Fred Rogers

The overhead projector continued to be of interest to the group, with many children observing dinosaur silhouettes closely and placing them on to the glass in different arrangements.

There is something very magical about light and shadow play – children seem to be naturally entranced and fascinated with it. Next to the projector we placed a basket of different colourful materials, which ended up becoming ‘dens’ for picnics and imaginary homes for others. A number of parents intuitively tied some of the material to the chairs, bringing children’s imaginations to life and sparking wonder and excitement.

By the large glass windows, we arranged our bespoke wooden easels made by The Shed and some large red plastic sheeting with mark making tools dipped in paint.

The red sheet offered a bright backdrop for children to create colourful marks with paintbrushes, corks, and different circular objects – we even had little hands and toes making marks too.

From recently reading Hervé Tullet’s book, ‘Art Workshops for Children‘, and watching countless Youtube videos of his workshops, my brain is buzzing with wonderful, fun activities to set up in the future. Herve presents with a gentle, playful nature that helps ignite creativity in all, regardless of their age, background or artistic ability. He is a big fan of large rolls of paper on the floor, like myself, and lots of pots of paints and pens etc.

The creative explorations on large paper last week were mesmerising – so many children and grown ups adding to the work of art; we saw flowers, faces, lines, dots, circles, names, handprints and even solar systems!

It has been wonderful to watch families play together and create together over the past six weeks. One group of siblings spent a long time working together, building an imaginary world using some large white styrofoam strips and cardboard packaging, constructing bridges and ramps. From the start, my intention for this project was to offer a safe place for children and adults to immerse themselves in materials and experiences together. For some families, this may be the first time they have experienced the qualities of clay, or the wonder and joy an overhead projector can bring.

One of our aims at Awe & Wonder is to bring people together; children, caregivers, teachers, professionals and artists. Creative spaces invite people to participate, without necessarily caring about an end product, allowing them to let go of inhibitions and be ‘free’ to be creative in their own unique way.

“Creativity fuels our imagination, and our imagination fuels our dreams of a better world.”

— Greta Thunberg

Thank you to everyone joining us on this creative journey (children, caregivers, volunteers, Crewkerne Town Council, Somerset Community Foundation,The Shed, local businesses and everyone else following this blog and our instagram account @aweandwonderuk).

Our next drop in creative art studio runs on Tuesday 27^th February between 9:30-11:30am at The George Reynolds Centre – come and join in the fun!