Cultivating spaces for extraordinary artists

Art Express

A female, with grey / brown hair and glasses holds adark green wax figure of a witch like creature, with wings and a pointed hat, holding a small book.

ART EXPRESS:

The Art Express workshops were a great success - bringing creative workshops to various rural venues across Shropshire. The culmination of the Art Express project was an exhibition of work at the Visual Art Network Gallery in Shrewsbury's Market Hall.

This exhibition celebrated the project by allowing participants of the workshops to exhibit some of the work that they created - and it was on show between 1st June and 28th June.

The Art Express programme delivered workshops in portrait painting, book art, clothed figures and much more. Further funding is currently being explored to enable another series of workshops in the future.


Here's what the participants said about the workshops:

"The workshops allow us to meet up and develop skills together. We all live so far apart without any public transport and do not see each other very often. This allows us to have fun, think about things and create something."

"There are not many opportunities in Shropshire for workshops, so I jumped at the chance to do something that is fun and to make me think in a different way."

"I've been to two workshops now and have learnt lots of techniques. After the last workshop I worked out how could combine some of the simple printmaking with feathers and my fingers into my book art work."

"Really made me think about my own family and places that mean something to me, to put on my own life map"

"It felt like a safe environment for me to play with my ideas"

"Made me think about maps in a very different way - not just a straight forward way to follow to get around."

“"It was great to apply new skills in a different way and it got me out of the house and not let my disability confine me at home."

"The workshop was led by an artist who also had a disability – it was so inspirational to see someone achieve that much."

"I had never met an artist before who had a disability and was successful, it was so good to see what she has achieved."