A three year programme of projects connecting with Brent’s learning disabled community.
Over the course of the next three years (2024 – 2027) we will be leading a series of creative workshops for Brent’s learning disabled community. Made possible by support from The National Lottery Community Fund, the creative workshops will be held at our Brent studio at ASC Ealing Road and delivered over 3-6 months in partnership with other Brent-based organisations.
The workshops will be co-led by one of ActionSpace’s learning disabled artists, who are graduates of ActionSpace’s in-house ‘workshop-leader’ training and employment programme, together with one of our professional Artist Facilitators.
Participants will be encouraged to explore their creativity, try something new, and make their own decisions through the experimental workshops with each project culminating in an exhibition to which friends, families and carers are invited to attend.
The Workshops
Over the last three months, we have run a series of workshops co-led by our specialist Brent Artist Facilitator, Emily Rees-Haynes and ActionSpace resident artists Daniel Seneviratne and Benjamin Allen. Working with young people from The Inclusion Project and students from The Village School, the workshops explored experimental processes of art making and were an opportunity for ActionSpace artists to run their own workshops based on their distinct artistic practices.
Explore the artworks created!
Workshop 1
A group of young people from The Inclusion Project joined us for a sculptural workshop inspired by ActionSpace artist Abubakar Akram‘s sculptural practice. Using modelling sticks, tape, glue and coloured tissue paper the group constructed striking architectural forms. The group then presented their works in an installation they had created in our Brent studio.
Workshop 2
ActionSpace artist Daniel Seneviratne led a series of drawing and painting workshops for The Inclusion Project that was inspired by his practice. Using straws and foam tubes, the group was invited to create stencils similar to those of Daniel. Bending, overlapping, and twisting the materials together, these stencils are the basis of Daniel’s two-dimensional works. The group then drew around their forms on fabric, exploring positive and negative spaces in and around these shapes. The workshop participants added colour to these grounds using acrylic paint and ink, highlighting the different forms and compositions created with their stencils.
Workshop 3
Working with students from The Village School, our Brent Artist Facilitator Emily Rees-Haynes led a workshop exploring texture, material and sculpture. Using draping techniques with fabric, sheet materials and sculptural structures, the group explored constructing experimental textile works. The workshop group also created layered, semi-transparent two dimensional mixed media works to expand on this material experimentation.
Imaginary Landscapes
The first three workshops cumulated in the group exhibition Imaginary Landscapes opening at Canalside Gallery, Alperton on 9 – 13 December 2024.
Workshop 4
We welcomed a group of students from Woodfield School to participate in weekly workshops at the Brent studio. The project focused on storytelling and world-building, inspired by the work of our studio artist, Benjamin Allen.
Ben, an illustrator, works with portraits to create new characters and stories. The students, inspired by Ben’s work, created their own textiles and costumes, combining these elements to form new characters. They then described their characters and built stories around simple prompts such as, Who are they? Where are they? What are they like?
As part of the process, students observed and engaged with Ben’s work, using words to inspire new stories. This collection of words became part of an interactive piece, where the young people could remove and collect words that sparked their creativity. The students also worked with another studio artist, Mohammed Imran Khan, to create a backdrop for our portrait studio, which was used during A New Direction’s I Am Festival.
The workshops culminated in a major workshop as part of A New Direction’s I am Festival 2025 at the Tate Modern.
This project is made possible by The National Lottery Award from The National Lottery Community Fund.
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