Enjoy a series of free art workshops at Dilston Gallery during Autumn half-term, with different activities each day and tailored to specific age groups. Explore nature in Southwark Park and make beautiful artwork. You will look at our local flora and fauna, make eco-friendly artwork and become ecology buffs!
Workshops are held at Southwark Park Galleries // Dilston Gallery, Southwark Park SE16 2DD. Drop-in, no need to book.
Programme //
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Tuesday 25th October 2022
Creative Tree Belts
with Artist Associate Sheyamali Sudesh
Responding and inspired by found materials from Southwark Park Gallery Garden and the surrounding area of Dilston Gallery, families will make a belt for a local plane tree. Participants will be using string, wire, charcoal drawings, watercolour paintings and found materials to make the belt and then tie it onto the tree intentionally with an embrace.
Wednesday 26th October 2022
Pattern & Shapes – Autumn arrives
with Artist Associate Anne Ogazi
Using patterns and designs inspired by the change of season and nature, families will paint, print and make collage with leaves, flowers and seed/pod shapes – using their hands or even the leaves, flowers and pods themselves to make marks and patterns.
Thursday 27th October 2022
A Festival of Fallen Leaves
with Artist Associate Laura Dee Milnes
In celebration of Autumn, families will create their own masks, crowns and patterned flags using fallen leaves and other natural and recycled materials.
Saturday 29th October 2022
Learning to see is beginning to care
with Artist Associate Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck
Inspired by a walk in the surrounding green space, families will draw, paint and make paper cuts and collages of the animals and flora they saw in the park.
The morning sessions (10am-12pm) are designed for Under Fives, while the afternoon sessions (1-3pm) are for 6-11 yrs. Though they are tailored to specific age groups, we will accommodate families with mixed ages and adapt the activities if required. Please note children must be accompanied by an adult.
[Please note: on Friday 28th October 2022 our popular Family Allotment Club for families with pre-schoolers will run as usual, hosting an end-of-season celebration bonanza! Come and join us in our beautiful garden at Lake Gallery from 10 am to 12 noon.]
Green shoots! Autumn Creative Ecology Family Workshops is part of our larger programme of learning activities. For more information about the programme, please sign up for our newsletter.
About //
Laura Dee Milnes works both collaboratively and individually across art forms, utilizing performance, sculpture, writing, image, music and facilitation in various combinations. She also enables others to create and discuss, through organising and curating DIY events and publications, and leading and supporting workshops with children and adults.
In 2021, Laura co-led our popular Allotment Club together with Community Gardener Anne Gumuschian, and currently facilitates first-hand nature-based experiences as an educator in Forest Schools across London.
Laura is particularly passionate about empowering children to make their own decisions, encouraging them to problem-solve, be considerate and use reasoning and reflection to learn from their experiences, while developing confidence in their creative ideas and choices.
Anne Ogazi is a Weaver, Textile Artist and Designer. She has been working as a freelance artist and facilitator in the community as well as in various museums and galleries.
Her primary creative practice is arts and crafts. This involves disciplines such as weaving, collage, clay, paper mâché, batik, printing and origami. She also has experience in storytelling.
Her main audiences have been early years and primary aged children and their families, as well as SEN families and groups. Anne has a strong theme of shapes within the natural world, texture and colour in the work she produces and is a strong advocate of using recycled as well as natural materials whenever possible.
Sheyamali Sudesh is an interdisciplinary Tamil artist and arts facilitator living in Ilford, London. In their personal arts practice they use dance, drawing, sound, film and writing to explore their simultaneous connection and dislocation from nature.
They are interested specifically in the folklore, histories and geographies of both rural and urban places and how the memories of non-human beings co-exist with the people occupying these places. They believe nature to be an abundant source of rich creative inspiration for all.
They recently curated Re-Wild, a 6week arts engagement project inspired by 5 green and communal spaces in Ilford, and have previously project managed and facilitated art programmes at The Line Art Walk, Tate Modern and Drawing Room Gallery.
Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck is a painter, transdisciplinary artist and cultural practitioner artist based in rural Oxfordshire (England). Her practice composed of painting, drawing, installation, sculpture, film, photography and writing often conceals ecological messages, rendered in soft and delicate methods. In several of the artist’s projects, interaction with the environment and others plays a central role.
Solo and duo exhibitions include By Your Side at HOME By RM in London and The Things I made at Nidi Gallery in Tokyo. Books on her practice have been published by InOtherWords Imprint, Chose Commune and Jane & Jeremy.
In 2014, Johanna founded the positive and collaborative cultural project Poetic Pastel. In 2018, the artist co-founded the publication series Journal du Thé – Contemporary Tea Culture. In 2021 she founded The Gardening Drawing Club.
Thanks to //
Green shoots! Autumn Creative Ecology Family Workshops is made possible thanks to the generous support of RIVA – Residencies in Visual Art.
