After finishing our 2017/2018 Changing Faces project last December, if I recall correctly, with a slime-related incident, we secured further funding to run the project during 2019 from the High Peak CVS Health & Wellbeing Partnership and The Bingham Trust. The aims of the project are to create a safe space for young people aged 11 to 18 who face difficulties, develop their life and creative skills and build their confidence.

Workshops ran for the summer and autumn terms, once again at The Green Man Gallery, and this year workshops involved: dreamcatchers, embroidery, painting, stencils, spray-painting, carnival outfits, protest signs, pasta crazy golf and sculptures, pastels, mosaics and mandalas. Associated Carnival-making workshops also involved making the gigante flowerpot puppet and learning how to operate it.

We had new and returning participants and new team members and visiting artists helping to deliver the workshops. They were often chaotic (I recall a particularly mad moment with foam noodles), sometimes calm but always creative. We gently address some of the issues facing young people today and try to help them deal with their varying challenges. With continued cuts to the arts in schools and increasing pressures of the day, we are passionate about providing this opportunity for young people to play, explore and feel supported.

Workshops have now finished for the year but we hope to return in 2020. If you would like more information about the project, please get in touch – email hello@funnywonders.org.uk.

To see more pictures from the academic year so far, see the project page here.