Artwork’s Halloween workshop at Kearsney Abbey in Dover

As a part of the Young Cultural Changemaker programme, Artswork organised a workshop at a fun-filled family event at Kearsney Abbey Gardens in Dover. Young people dressed up in their best Halloween costumes and embarked on a trail walk. At the end of their trail walk, various entertaining Halloween activities awaited them, including free handmade cookies, creating Halloween masks as well as Artswork’s 2D pumpkin-making craft workshop.   

Kearsney Abbey, with its 10 acres of Parkland and lakes, provided the perfect backdrop for young people to enjoy their trail walk in Halloween costume. Despite the weather forecast predicting rain, the sun was shining, adding even more vibrancy to the event. Our workshop was led by Louise Webb, our Creative Placemaking Producer for Dover, who is also an artist. Our craft stall featured five spaces for the young children to design their own 2D pumpkins, which they could take home with them. This is where we engaged in conversations with the young people, asking their favourite places in Dover, as well as their interests and hobbies. This was a wonderful opportunity for the young people to share their thoughts and ideas about Dover.  

The trail walking occurred in different groups, therefore, the workshop got off to the slow start. However, once the first group arrived at the stall area, the five spaces were quickly filled up, and the rest had to wait in line. The young people exhibited their creativity by using stamps to spell their names on their 2D pumpkins and several young people returned to our stall to make another. Everyone displayed their creativity in a unique way, and each had such fascinating ideas. For instance, one young person spelled out all their family member’s names on their pumpkin and even asked for artswork members of staff names to create another pumpkin. We recorded the ages of the young people who visited our stall, and we had participants ranging from as young as 3 years old to 14. A recurring theme in their drawings and designs was family, and the popular areas that these young people liked to visit was the river and the park.  

The day passed quickly, and more young people arrived as we were wrapping up the stall. In the end, we provided them with blank orange paper for them to take home and draw on. It was an incredibly enjoyable day for both the families and us as facilitators where we gained knowledge about what these young people would like to do in their free time and their favourite areas to visit. The insights gained from this event will impact our future creative projects aimed at enriching local spaces and communities, which will be led by the young people of Dover.  

This programme is supported using funding from Arts Council England.