The Joy Project

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 branding created by Kat Tromans

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 Kids

​In 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 Deaf

In 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.

Digital mock up of the Tree of Joy

The BSL sign for 'JOY'

Plan for Braidwood branding

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 20.2.25

It was great to see the 2 artworks mounted and on show at the exhibition

other works...

Model of the gallery made by Jeremy Hunt in the late 1990s (he also made the profiles for our Tree of Joy)

Wonderful Blue Lights Choir mural

Blue Lights Choir performing

Chocolate cake acrylic painting by Areeba, a member of the Collections Youth Panel

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 22.2.25

The 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 RAW

We 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 ...

GET IN TOUCH TODAY!