Breathing Spaces Artist Review

Today we had our review session with the artists who took part in the Breathing Spaces Project 2019.

It was really inspiring hearing people talk about what they did with their sessions and to see the amazing artwork that came out of those sessions.

Through this small project we published a poetry anthology, created handmade textile Christmas presents worked on a co-produced collaborative drawing piece, produced a pack of ten Ruskin-inspired Drawings of Elizabeth Gaskell's House and had a number of events and activities at local venues and public nature and quiet spaces.

Interestingly both Emily Hayes and Naomi Kendrick brought in techniques from their own practices that both happened to be Japanese methods: Kintsugi the ancient technique or repairing with gold leaf and HapaZome - the technique of hammering leaves and petals into fabric to create an imprint (the original Japanese term is 'Tataki zomé’).

During this review we used Appreciative Inquiry methods of enquiry to Discover what were the successes of this project and what elements enabled us achieve what worked.

We then spent the last part of this session working on mind maps the DREAM what could happen next, here are some of our ideas and thoughts about what we would like to work on together in the future:

We will now collate all of this inspiring material and work with our volunteers and participants to create and design our future projects.