Spreading a little Joy at The New Art Gallery, Walsall RAW's directors, Gary O'Dowd and Alex Vann As members of the Collections Community Panel at New Art Gallery Walsall, we were delighted to be involved in working with 2 groups of young people to create new artworks for inclusion in the The Joy Project leading up to the Gallery’s 25th birthday in 2025. The exhibition can be been in the Community Gallery on the ground floor until 6th July 2025.
The Joy Project seeks to find positivity in the everyday and aims to advocate for, and support, young people in Walsall and the West Midlands. The fab branding has been created by Katherine Tromans.  A Collections Youth Panel of under 25s was recruited by an open call out by Collections Curator Julie Brown and our involvement on the project was with Funky Kids and Braidwood Trust School for the Deaf to produce different artworks that celebrate joy within the young deaf and hard of hearing communities and BSL. For the other themes, the panel decided on the following sections: the ‘Joy of Celebration’, ‘Joy of Music’, ‘Joy of Hobbies’, ‘Joy of Nature’, ‘Joy of Colour, ‘Joy of Community’ and ‘Joy of Everyday Surroundings’  Public launch event of the Joy Project with video filming at the 2 RAW projects. The People's Show photos are on the right The young people were also photographed by Sherrie Edgar with items they like to collect as part of a reimagining The People’s Show project which pictured members of the Walsall public alongside their collections in the 1990s. Working with Funky KidsIn November 2024 we met with the young people at Funky Kids a Walsall based charity supporting families affected by hearing loss by providing recreational activities. We asked the group about what brings them joy, what sort of art they’d like to create and what things they like to collect. Originally, we considered making a sculpture then we decided on a collaborative paper collage resembling a dartboard as darts came up as a source of joy by many members of the group. Each segment of the Funky D:Art Board was created by a Funky Kids youth member at a workshop at the Art Gallery in January. These were then all pieced together to create the finished artwork. Our original design work Photos from the Funky Kids session in Jan 2025 at the New Art Gallery, Walsall Working with Braidwood Trust School for the DeafIn December 2024 we led an ideas workshop with a group of students from Braidwood Trust School for the Deaf, Birmingham, at the gallery. Our director Gary O’Dowd worked as a teaching assistant at the school for many years before his role at Real Arts Workshops. Similarly to the Funky Kids sessions, we asked the young people about the things that brought them joy and what art they’d like to create.  Hands (signing) were a common theme in the young peoples' drawings, and we devised a Tree of Joy with individual hand shapes to form the foliage decorated by a student in bright colours and designs.
We visited the school twice in January for the making sessions which involved painting the tree trunk to echo the Braidwood School branding and hands which had been profile cut out of wood. At the base of the tree 2 larger hands make the BSL sign for ‘Joy’ and are decorated in the colours of the Deaf flag designed by Arnaud Balard. Photos from workshop session at Braidwood Trust School 24.1.25 Photos from workshop session at Braidwood Trust School 31.1.25 Private 'Joy Project' Launch Event 20.2.25It was great to see the 2 artworks mounted and on show at the exhibition other works...
The Blue Lights Choir, set up by Jorja Smith did a fantastic performance and there is a mural made by choir members working with Yasmin Agilah on the wall of the Joy Project exhibition. Pictures from the Public Launch Event 22.2.25The Joy Project exhibition is currently on show to the public and runs until 6th July 2025 in the Community Gallery on the ground floor of The New Art Gallery, Walsall. #braidwood #braidwoodtrustschool #thejoyproject #GivingPeopleACreativeVoice #funkykids #ArnaudBalard #Deaf #BSL #BritishSignLanguage #artworkshops The Collections Community Panel and RAWWe have been part of the Collections Community Panel (CCP) since the start of 2023. The CCP is perfect for us because we have met and worked with a diverse team of practitioners and have been able to get involved in selecting works from the gallery’s collections for temporary themed exhibitions, which fall under the umbrella of embedding diversity. The aims of which are the give more power to the people that own the collections (ie the public), represent the people of Walsall and give them a voice, build stronger links to the wider community, make the collections more accessible and create digital content. We feel all of these aims are being met by this project. Book RAW & bring some JOY to your group!Our key takeaway from this project is that bringing some joy to others brings us joy too!
If you are (or know of) a group or organisation that has been successful in securing funding for some engaging and meaningful creative/cultural activities ...
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Amazing Christmas and New Year HAF CreativityWe were really pleased to be funded by Department for Education and Wolverhampton City Council to provide a range of enriching art, craft and BSL experiences for young people aged 7-16 (25 with EHCP). The HAF scheme provides funded places for eligible families, and recognises the impact holiday clubs have on children and young people. These schemes help young people stay active, eat healthily, take part in enriching and engaging activities and reduce social isolation. We design our activities based on previous feedback from young people and foster a sense of community, inclusion and support. Our sessions are generally staffed by a sign language interpreter making them accessible to BSL users.  Chinese lanterns created by the young people adorn the foliage in the atrium at All Saints Action Network We ran our sessions on 4 days, on 23rd December 2024 and then again on 2nd, 3rd and 4th of January 2025. We were hosted by All Saints Action Network, and would like to thank all our staff and volunteers for making this another memorable scheme. Here's a little snapshot of what the young people got up to on our scheme... Day 1 : Christmas Crafts and Healthy LifestylesWe took the opportunity to do some Christmas Crafts as there were still 2 days left until the big day! This included pinecone trees, tea-light snowmen, decorated cardboard baubles and wood slices and drawings. Here's what the young people told us in feedback about the activity:
It is a requirement of our funding that we deliver some information about healthy lifestyle choices, including about diet, and so we thought it would be fun to encourage the children to make their own Christmas characters using fresh fruits - which they could then eat. Here's what they told us about this activity:
Day 2 : Tee Shirts and Cardboard afternoonThe children had a morning of creating their own tee-shirts. As you can see there were all sorts of different designs. This was followed by an afternoon learning about RAW's founder, artist Alex Vann's journey from a final year university project to Real Arts Workshops, via the Wolves in Wolves public art project, painting the mayor of Wolverhampton and publishing his book 'Joseph The Useful Cardboard Box' which led onto some cardboard crafts including about healthy eating etc. The message being that from a seemingly small idea can come a whole business idea! Here are a few pics... Here's what the young people said about this day...
Day 3 : wooden model making, optical illusions and snake drawingsThis was a busy day of creativity! Starting with assembling wooden models of animals, insects and dinosaurs - a good test of following instructions, patience and fine motor skill work! This was followed by our volunteer Wayne leading some mind-bending optical illusion type drawings on gridded paper. As 2025 is Chinese year of the snake, some young people tried out their sketching skills on a drawing of a King Cobra - aren't they amazing? Here's what the young people told us about this day...
Day 4: Chinese New Year and BSL / Deaf awareness and gamesThe young people took part in a wide range of Chinese New Year activities, icluding making lanterns (using baubles), snake origami, painting Chinese characters on a 'magic' disappearing paint mat and making good luck Spring Couplets. Then our very own Deaf role model, Gary, explained about his own journey as a Deaf person growing up in a hearing environment, including, meeting ambassador for the Deaf community and level 2 signer, Princess Diana; campaigning for BSL recognition by the Government and being a TV presenter (even appearing in hit TV show Byker Grove). Followed by BSL game of bingo, which included vocabulary about physical activities. Lunch time runarounds!We are lucky to work at a venue with its own football pitches and our young people love to get some fresh air and exercise at lunch times. Survey resultsWe always ask for online feedback on the last day of the scheme. This is anonymous and gives us an insight into what the young people enjoyed most, how they rate our staff and our activity and helps us build and plan for future activities.  As you can see, we get an almost 5 star rating, which we are very pleased with.  100% of participants said they enjoyed taking part ans 90% told us that they learnt something new.  90% told us that they felt more creative/ inspired after attending our scheme. End of scheme feedback (including volunteers and parents): Thank you all for your kindness and support Fruity Fun on our Summer HAF in Wolverhampton! Thanks to Department for Education and City of Wolverhampton Council for funding our Summer HAF scheme in Wolverhampton #HAF2024. We loved working with the young people and seeing their amazing imaginations create new art in the world that didn’t exist before. Thank you also to our wonderful hosts All Saints Action Network Ltd. See some photos below of what the activities they took part in: Huge Cardboard Fruit SculpturesBritish Sign Language: Healthy LifestylesCD Weaving a la Kandinsky with BeckiCircle Marker art and ceramic tiles with SarahClay creations including Greek Style PotsElizabeth Catlett - biro poster in sections and clay printingFestival Day with JenAkira Toriyama - Kid Goku drawingsMatisse Style Paper Cut OutsPop Art Greetings CardsPlant Pot DesignsQigong movements with SueExpressive WatercoloursOne of the parents made us a cake!Survey Data Report: Week 1 Survey Data - Week 2 Quotes from the young people
Captivating Creativity: Easter HAF Scheme 2024 We loved working with the young people who attended our Wolverhampton Easter HAF Scheme 2024. These and many other schemes are funded with thanks to Wolverhampton City Council and Department for Education and are offered under the council’s ‘Yo Wolves’ scheme. This holiday provision is for school aged children from reception to year 11 (inclusive) who receive benefits-related free school meals. As usual we were blown away by the amazing creations the children made. Here is a snapshot of just a few examples of their work. Drawings in a circle, with WayneEid/Ramadan/Vaisakhi / General greetings cardsClay Creations 'Iris' folded Easter Cards, led by SarahClaude Monet Painting Session: Bridge over Pond of WaterliliesPaper LanternsBSL learning and games with GaryMonitoring DataAs we always do, we surveyed the young people at the end of our scheme and we are delighted with the results. 100% said they enjoyed taking part, 100% said that they learnt something new, 100% felt more creative and inspired. We got a 4.88 star rating and 100% of young people said they'd like to come to our sessions in future. Here is a link to the full report. Here's what the young people told us:I love being here" Winter HAF scheme Jan 2024 We were pleased to be able to offer a varied programme of creativity to young people in Wolverhampton in January 2024, thanks to HAF (Holiday Activities and Food) funding from Wolverhampton City Council and Department for Education. This holiday provision is for school aged children from reception to year 11 (inclusive) who receive benefits-related free school meals and as we were delivering after Christmas we decided to focus on Chinese New Year for some of the sessions. Gary, our Deaf role model, also taught some basic British Sign Language, including signs for food: healthy options like fruit and vegetable, and not so healthy options, as part of a balanced diet, as some education such as this is part of the HAF scheme. Children had the opportunity to decorate their own canvas pencil case Our visiting artist Jen delivered a life affirming session on goal setting and 2024 calendars, started with a presentation by Olivia who spoke about her early years, primary & secondary education, University, traveling and landing her dream job starting this month. Online Survey results:100% of attendees told us that they enjoyed taking part in our activity. 100% of attendees said that they learnt something new. 100% of attendees said they would like to attend RAW sessions again in future. 4.84 out of 5 star rating 🤗 Quotes from the Young people:“It was amazing because I met new people and doing activities was fun so thank you!” We have been successful in securing funding from the Youth Engagement Strategy board in Wolverhampton to deliver a week of arts, crafts and BSL activities for all young people aged 8-16 (25 with an EHCP) living in Wolverhampton. The dates are: Monday 30th October to Friday 3rd November 10am - 2.30pm each day. See advert for details and you can book places for young people using the link below. 
A Wave of Creativity! We were delighted to receive HAF (Holidays Activities and Food) funding from City of Wolverhampton Council and Department for Education, to deliver 2 weeks of activities over the Easter Holidays. There were many other providers in and around the city too. We worked with 8-16 year olds (18 with an EHCP) on a wide variety of creative projects and included some BSL (British Sign Language) teaching too and delivered our sessions from All Saints Action Network. Feedback from the sessions was very positive. We've included young people's feedback and results of online surveys below. Here is a snapshot of what they got up to:Optical Illusion DrawingsOur volunteer Wayne led some 'Howard Lee' style optical illusion drawings on grid paper which the young people really loved. We connected a phone camera to a projector so that they could follow Wayne's drawing on screen. Nature Art with GaryUsing leaves found outside, the young people made cards with acrylic paints JMW Turner landscapesTurner was the inspiration for this watercolour landscapes session. We think they look brilliant and atmospheric. Hokusai meets Van Gogh!This was our most ambitious ever large sectioned artwork. Each person had a square on which to create a section of a specially made reference image. The image is Hokusai's famous 'Great Wave of Kanagawa' print mixed with the background from Van Gogh's 'Starry Night'. The first painting influenced the second so it all made sense. We think the end result is spectacular. Clay workSome amazing sculptures shown here. It's always nice to see new versions of our logo! Elizabeth Catlett style 'negative' drawingsWe looked at the work of African American artist Elizabeth Catlett and the young people created art in a new way: drawing white on black (instead of traditional black on white). Here are just a few examples: Easter CardsOur volunteer Sarah led an Easter Card making session. The YP made a variety of brilliant designs, some shown here: British Sign Language (BSL)Our very own Deaf role model Gary taught the young people some conversational sign language so that if they ever meet a Deaf person they will know how to communicate and not run away!! Tin Can PlantersWe encouraged some healthy eating by decorating tin cans and filling them with soil and seeds. The YP took these away to look after and see the herbs growing at home! The fabulous Lucy visited the from Custom Junkies and got the YP to create personalised caps and T-shirts. Amazing! Cardboard Hogwarts Castle and ExpressEveryone loves cardboard! On the final day of our project we took a load of cardboard and paints and some asked them to create the castle and locomotive from the Harry Potter stories. So much fun! Extra 'stuff'Some other artworks created by the YP, including some colour theory led by our volunteer Donna, graffiti lettering, jar designs and grid and dot drawings. Results of Online Survey    “I think it was very cool to learn a new language that will help me communicate with others in the future and I hope I will learn more.” Incredible Half Term Creativity We were very pleased to be awarded funding for a week of creative activity in Wolverhampton, over February Half Term Holidays. The scheme is part of the wider #YES (Youth Engagement Strategy funded by City of Wolverhampton Council) offer across many providers in and around the city. We worked with 8-16 year olds (18 with an EHCP) on a wide variety of creative projects and included some BSL (British Sign Language) teaching to boot. SurrealismWe always respond to feedback we receive from young people and in October they told us they'd like to do some Surrealism. So we showed a presentation of what the art movement was all about, who the main artists were and what the lasting influence on our modern day art forms is. They created some fabulous Surreal works (see pics below) British Sign LanguageGary, a deaf director of RAW delivered some British Sign Language including fingerspelling your name, basic 'meet and greet' signs and they played a few games of 'BSL Bingo' to make sure they'd learnt everything properly! Charlie Chaplin montageBecause of the connection between Charlie Chaplin and Wolverhampton and that he was another influential multi talented artist, we delivered a short presentation about him and his work and the young people created this wonderful sectioned piece. They each took a square of the bigger picture and did it in their own way (example of magazine collage shown). When pieced together like a jigsaw, the picture comes into wonderful focus Indigenous style dot drawingsSome beautiful and affective drawings done in an Aboriginal / African style Clay CreationsThe young people made some amazing clay creations, including a delightful daffodil, a wonderful wave and mini replica of the Support Life wolf painted by RAW's director Alex Vann as part of the 'Wolves in Wolves' public art project in 2017. Pop Art greetings cards and canvas tote bagsIt's a wrap!!Final Day: We've had a blast with the team, staff, volunteers and our hosts All Saints Action Network Ltd on our Feb Half term scheme supported by City of Wolverhampton Council’s #YES Youth Engagement Strategy. Donna, one of our volunteers showed the young people her beautiful portrait painting which will soon be displayed in an exhibition at Newhampton Arts Centre One of the young people brought in some cardboard sculpture with moving parts that he’d made at home.  Here's what the young people told us in their daily feedback forms:I enjoyed today as it was a group project. Some of us challenged ourselves to get through it and we did! RESULTS OF ONLINE SURVEYS COMPLETED BY THE YOUNG PEOPLEWhen asked if they enjoyed taking part 100% said 'YES' When asked if they learnt something new 100% said 'YES' When asked if they felt more creative / inspired 100% said 'YES' When asked if they'd like to attend RAW sessions again 100% said 'YES' Comments from the online surveys:They made me feel creative and I had fun and I normally don’t like drawing very much and I don’t normally get creative at school or home From Pumpkins to Pop Art!
We were pleased to receive funding from City of Wolverhampton Council and Youth Engagement Strategy (#YES) to provide creative and BSL activities for young people living in Wolverhampton during the October half term holidays.
Our team delivered a wide variety of activities, something different every morning and afternoon on each day. The artworks they created were outstanding and the young people told us that they really enjoyed the BSL (British Sign Language) activities – which included some games of BSL bingo which got VERY competitive!! We were delighted to be visited by a local councillor and have our project featured in the Express and Star and on the council’s Facebook page. See below for the results of monitoring feedback including some lovely comments from the young people. Our project was featured on the council's Facebook page 'Wolverhampton Today'
Young peoples' feedback (online surveys)Some of these are new things I have never done; my goal is to have lots of cool art on a corner of my room Parent / carer feedback.Thank you for giving him this opportunity to learn. He would be happy to join again. Results of monitoring feedback
Amazing Art by young people - Wolverhampton Easter HAF 2022 We [Real Arts Workshops] were delighted to be awarded a grant from City of Wolverhampton Council to deliver 2 weeks of art, craft and BSL (British Sign Language) experiences for young people in Wolverhampton over Easter school holidays 2022. The HAF (Holidays Activities and Food) Programme was rolled out by the government in 2021 and provides free holiday provision including healthy food and enriching activities for low-income households.
We worked with some children who have additional needs and were able to adapt our activities to make them accessible. Having Deaf staff and staff with mobility issues shows young people that adversity can be overcome, and a sense of achievement is for everyone! But don’t just take our word for it! Here are some photographs of their creations and examples what the young people told us in daily ‘Thought of the Day’ slips and weekly online surveys: “The staff are very kind, they are great at making things enjoyable” In conclusionLooking at the the feedback received from the young people our work falls into these categories:
DOING SOMETHING NEW Trying out something new. Learning new skills. Experimenting with new ideas. Doing things for the first time. Making new friends. BEING CHALLENGED Being challenged by the materials and projects and enjoying that challenge. Doing things that they don’t get to do elsewhere. BEING ENGAGED IN REWARDING ACTIVITY Getting out of the house. Working in a group. Sharing experiences. Doing art as an activity that combats boredom and being sedentary. FEELINGS of WELLBEING Having fun. Feeling safe. Feeling excited. Feeling happy. Feeling included. Feeling supported. Feeling calm. TEAMWORK Making new friends; working in a group; working with others to make art; collaboration. Thanks to our funders for making this project possible and to The Workspace at ASAN (All Saints Action Network) for hosting us brilliantly and to Onboard Corrugated for donating high quality corrugated cardboard to create art and sculpture with the young people.
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