Illuminate Invent and Build: The Day

 This weekend marked the end of the John Plowman: A Life Drawing and Richard Slee: Work and Play exhibitions at Nottingham Castle. Upon opening, Illuminate Collective had the great privilege of an extra insight tour with Deborah Dean, Nottingham Museums Visual Arts and Exhibitions Manager. Upon closing, Illuminate hosted their Invent and Build event to see the end of the exhibitions off in a whirl of creativity.

The two exhibitions inspired Illuminate with contrasting qualities. John Plowman’s use of pattern and collage led to an activity that would recreate Nottingham’s landscape and local history in a new configuration. Museum goers were given a sliced image related to Nottingham and asked to complete it however they desired. Using collage from local magazines, Nottingham was re-invented by the imaginations of not only Nottingham Castle’s visitors but their members of staff too!

 Richard Slee’s colourful play with everyday objects fueled an activity that seemingly had endless possibilities. After visitors had made their own ‘blueprints’ of the Richard Slee’s work they were unleashed into piles of scrap materials sorted in the categories of hard and soft. After their scavenge they would then face the challenge of recreating their Richard Slee blueprint. The John Plowman collage activity may have been favoured by the more adult visitors but it was the little ones that stole the Richard Slee activity and ran with it. The highlight of my day was the realization that armed with plasticine, masking tape and scrap materials, children are geniuses.

With John Plowman’s repetition and Richard Slee’s everyday objects themes in mind, Illuminate designed an activity that even visitors on a strict time limit could participate in. Visitors were able to use their continuous line drawing skills to contribute to larger collective artwork. Each individual drawing was presented on a washing line.

One of the primary reasons I volunteer with Nottingham Castle is its ability to make contemporary art available to a wide range of ages. Illuminate’s objective for the Invent and Build event was to encourage the different age groups to interact with the exhibitions by engaging them in creative play. The event had a promising steady stream of individuals all day that each had their own approach to participating in art. Children didn’t often require too much persuading to dive amongst the materials and colours and start inventing with no plan. A few adults held the belief of ‘I’m not much of an artist’ which dissolved rapidly as they admired their cardboard box television or their milk carton shovel. The success of the event can be summarized with a quote from a previously apprehensive closet artist – ‘it is nice to engaged again’.

Hannah Satchwell, Illuminate member