Clay tile and Sgraffito workshop at Littlehampton High Street
Artswork took to the Littlehampton High Street as part of the Love Local Arts programme, funded by Littlehampton Town Council and Arun District Council, to hold a free Clay tile and Sgraffito workshop for the children and young people. The activity was held by local artists Esther Heylen, Do Lawrie and Deidre Carolin, who also run a regular after school at club at the Creative Heart Cafe in Littlehampton. They were supported by Artswork’s Creative Placemaking Producer (CPP) for Arun, Beccy East and Apprentice Leanne who took to the High Street asking children and young people what their town means to them, and what creative activities they would like to see happen in the area. It was a busy day on the high street, filled with live entertainment for children, free fairground rides and rows of creative market stalls and workshops, with over 50 children and young people participating in our workshop! During our consultation with the young people, the idea of low-cost activities including after-school and youth clubs was frequently suggested, with an emphasis on ‘trying something new’ such as metal workshops and making art with recycled materials.
One young person became very eager and inspired when the mention of creating a town mural cropped up. Both the young person and their sibling said they’d never had an opportunity to show off their artwork before so having their art as part of a mural would be amazing! In other conversations the idea of a museum takeover was popular, with one person stating that the town looks and feels old, and perhaps we could put new art on the streets or outside of the museum; another suggested about having a permanent place that children and young people could exhibit their art in. CPP Beccy East shared her thoughts on the event: “For me, that session was an extremely effective consultation because of the opportunity to offer a really high quality and surprising creative activity at the heart of the High Street, an area urgently and visibly in need of regeneration and redefinition as a community space. The level of creative material produced was inspiring.”
With the feedback from this consultation, we will translate those ideas into inspiring creative commissions in the future, where young people will directly lead creative projects to transform the areas and communities they live in as part of our Young Cultural Changemakers Programme. As part of this process they will have the opportunity to develop valuable and transferable skills such as budgets, planning and overall delivery of the commission.
This project is supported by public funding from Arts Council England.