Manchester Open Artist Workshops

See below for full details of each session:

Artist workshop: Make with Kate Freeborough - Sat 15 Aug, 13:00-15:00

Join Creative Facilitator Kate Freeborough for this relaxed and supportive creative session inspired by selected artworks in the Manchester Open exhibition. The session will focus on being in the moment and the process of making. Kate Freeborough specialises in creative health and trauma-informed practice.

Artist workshop: Draw with Jenny Leonard - Sat 22 Aug, 13:00-15:00

Have fun in the gallery with artist and live illustrator Jenny Leonard and take part in a series of creative drawing mini challenges within the gallery! Choose a playful creative challenge inspired by artworks in the Manchester Open. Make the ‘worst’ drawing you can of an artwork and temporarily display it beside the original. Design a ticket for the exhibition that captures what you've seen. Or create the missing artwork that belongs between two works in the gallery. There are no wrong answers, just different ways of looking, imagining and responding. Pick the challenge that sparks your curiosity and see where it goes!

Artist Workshop: Weave with Jenny Steele - Sat 29 Aug, 13:00-15:00

In this relaxed and beginner friendly session, we will create a textured and colourful weave responding to an artwork or series of artworks in this year’s Manchester Open exhibition. Following a weaving introduction with artist and weaver Jenny Steele, we will take a walk and talk around the exhibition looking at textures, colours and shapes that may inform our making. On return to the table, we will select materials such as yarn and ribbon to weave with in plain, tabby and inlay weave. During this session you will learn plain, tabby and inlay weaving techniques on a cardboard loom to create a small woven artwork to take away. Participants will learn how to warp the loom and use discarded materials such as wool, cotton and textile rags to create a textile, as well as how to tie off from the loom, and how to source materials in the future.

Suitable for ages 12+ (Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.)

Artist Workshop: Audio Description as a literary and communicative practice with Toreh O’Garro - Sat 5 Sep, 13:00-15:00

A description for a renaissance painting cannot be copied to describe a 21st century contemporary abstract artwork.
Discover the limitations to traditional audio & image description for artworks, how to experiment with writing more subjective descriptions and learn why audio description is an impactful access tool for all.
The workshop will be led by Toreh O'Garro, a visually impaired writer and curator from Moss Side, he will share a more inclusive and creative methodology for writing audio & image description.

(Image credit: Jenny Steele)