This week was full of all kinds of creative activities for the women and children to get involved with. We would firstly like to thank The World Museum who's excellent volunteers came along and created all kinds of crafty, colourful masks and head garments with the group. This allowed the women to explore a whole variety of tools and equipment and truly let their creative side shine. This would not have been possible without the support of World Museum, who we hope will be coming along to do similar workshops in the future. We also had Andrew's music group with the women today who are sounding better and better each week. Hopefully we can get some recordings for you all to hear and see soon!Also the Immigmedia Greenhouse took up residence within the group again today, where the children decided this was their own little house to play and have stories read to them.We had a range of activities based around and within the greenhouse, many of the women enjoyed planting their own seeds that will grow and be nurtured throughout the process of this on going project. They will ultimately be brought along to the Liverpool John Moores Degree show where I (Emily Phipps) will be discussing the development of this particular project and the work that SOLA ART does with the general public, they will be able to take the seeds that will have grown by this time and replant them into the plant pots that the women produced out of newspapers a few weeks ago with the topic of immigration captured inside of them and the lingering discussions based around the effect these articles may have on their situation. These plants will then be brought back to Kensington Methodist Church for the group to enjoy and help grow on and on.We are also continuing with the English speaking, reading and writing help that we have previously offered within the group and informing the women of further ESOL classes that SOLA are hosting each week. A lot of the women have come on leaps and bounds with their spelling and writing skills. The great volunteers that keep all the children entertained, allow the women to focus on these activities and learning of new skills but ultimately enjoy their time spent in these weekly group sessions.
This week was full of all kinds of creative activities for the women and children to get involved with. We would firstly like to thank The World Museum who's excellent volunteers came along and created all kinds of crafty, colourful masks and head garments with the group. This allowed the women to explore a whole variety of tools and equipment and truly let their creative side shine. This would not have been possible without the support of World Museum, who we hope will be coming along to do similar workshops in the future. We also had Andrew's music group with the women today who are sounding better and better each week. Hopefully we can get some recordings for you all to hear and see soon!Also the Immigmedia Greenhouse took up residence within the group again today, where the children decided this was their own little house to play and have stories read to them.We had a range of activities based around and within the greenhouse, many of the women enjoyed planting their own seeds that will grow and be nurtured throughout the process of this on going project. They will ultimately be brought along to the Liverpool John Moores Degree show where I (Emily Phipps) will be discussing the development of this particular project and the work that SOLA ART does with the general public, they will be able to take the seeds that will have grown by this time and replant them into the plant pots that the women produced out of newspapers a few weeks ago with the topic of immigration captured inside of them and the lingering discussions based around the effect these articles may have on their situation. These plants will then be brought back to Kensington Methodist Church for the group to enjoy and help grow on and on.We are also continuing with the English speaking, reading and writing help that we have previously offered within the group and informing the women of further ESOL classes that SOLA are hosting each week. A lot of the women have come on leaps and bounds with their spelling and writing skills. The great volunteers that keep all the children entertained, allow the women to focus on these activities and learning of new skills but ultimately enjoy their time spent in these weekly group sessions.
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This week the greenhouse was put in place within the group where the women and children got involved with the putting up of the greenhouse and the children played within their very own little house. Many of the children got involved in the story telling activities within the greenhouse which brought a great sense of innocence and adventure to the project. This weeks women's group worked very well and all of the women took part in a variety of activities throughout the duration of the gathering. These activities where based around a range of mediums and purposes that the women thrived and truly engaged with.Manyof the women have been focusing on their sewing skills andlearning how to use the sewing machines over the past few months. The women that have been involved have had no previous experience, yet they seem to be extremely confident and successful with working on the machines provided. Creating items such as cushion covers and clothing, which ultimately can be sold in the future to provide and continue more activities that cultivates the learning of quality skills that the women are entirely creative with. With International Women's Day approaching, a group activity was created where the women collectively produced a banner that celebrates this symbolically empowering day. It will be displayed at next weeks group that will be a party for the women to celebrate their active role in society where they are given the opportunity to voice their opinions in a rapidly altered environment from previous generations of oppression. The banner that was conceived throughout the day was an excellent display of the diverse creativity of the women and they were given total freedom to put these ideas into practice and ultimately work as a productive team. The Immigmedia Greenhouse project that we have been running alongside these activities creatively flourished this week with a much more engaging involvement of a variety of ages and ethnicities. The women and children have moved on to producing flowers out of newspapers within the group and as the workshop moved on, the group of ladies branched off into producing a whole variety of their own techniques and adaptations of beautiful flowers with a whole range of crafty objects. Over the next few months, the group with be discussing their own perception of immigration in the media today and the growing emphasis we see in the general public. Hopefully this will lead into the women taking part in creative writing workshops that they can put their english skills to test that they have been encouraged to develop within the group over the past 6 months or so. With the accompaniment of ESOL classes that SOLA are running at Toxteth Library - For further details please do get in touch or we do have information previously posted on our blog about dates and times. This will allow the women to voice their personal experiences of taking refuge within the UK and express their perspective freely within society. We are all looking forward to next weeks activities and the party of course. We will be posting some pictures up on here for you all to enjoy too! This week was interestingly different to last weeks workshop as many of you know, a lot of the children are off school for a week so there was plenty of new little faces attending the women's group. It was great to see many of the children getting involved of a variety of ages, and really engaging with the project. At present the main focus is the paper mache plant pots made out of news papers which can get messy but the children seemed to really focus and approach their creative side along with many of the women. Hopefully we will be beginning the flowers made out of newspaper articles soon enough and the project will really take shape, allowing me to bring in the greenhouse that we will be filling with these media filled flowers. The first workshop held on the 30th of January in the Methodist Church in Kensington was successfully orchestrated. The beginning stages of the project consisted of the women engaging in plant pot paper mache out of a variety of newspaper articles that delivered debate on immigration with the intention of developing discussions between the women within this group that it directly relates to and discussing the effect that these media representation have on the people concerned. Many concerns had been voiced previously on the effect that these emerging elements within the media may have on the children of many of the women involved within the group. A concern that effects the detrimental future and progression of immigrants integration within our society and culture. It was excellent to see a lot of the children involved in the production of these plant pots that we will continue to produce over the next few weeks. Followed by workshops for creating the newspaper flowers to be displayed within these pots. Ultimately we will be building discussions around the articles we find within these newspapers that concern and give a knock on effect that this has on the general publics perception of immigration, refugee's and asylum seekers and creating something positive out of these articles through creativity and speech. Also this will encourage many of the women to use the english skills that we have previously held workshops for, with their use of communication and also their reading skills.
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AuthorEmily May Phipps - Visual Artist Archives |