Workshops

Here are a few examples of workshops undertaken over the last few years. My aim is to be participant-led and create a safe and nurturing environment where there is no such thing as an artistic mistake.  I am on the DBS update service and have worked with various companies and groups over the years,  creating and facilitating projects with youth groups, in schools, with young parents, children with care experience, neurodivergent groups and adults. A lot of my theatre and film work has included a sense of community engagement and inclusivity in work as well which has always brought me so much joy.

For the last 10 years, I've predominately worked as a theatre designer and maker, illustrator and facilitator, so I'm continually learning new skills and adapting my skill set to fit a project, which brings diversity that can work for many projects. My skills include (but aren't limited to) graphic design, illustration, painting (both small-scale, particularly watercolour and inks, but a range of mediums and large-scale scenic and mural work), model making, puppet making and performing, simple costume design make/ sourcing, and prop making using a variety of materials. I have experience in creating theatre and performance and have also assisted projects where a performative element has been desired. 

For more examples of my work or to enquire about workshops please do get in touch.

Pitch in in the Kitchen- 2020

Workshop packs designed through workshops in collaboration with care experiences children and young people

Follow the link for full packs- http://messupthemess.co.uk/pitch-in/

Designer: Bethany Seddon
Baking Designer: Louise Waring – Y Gegin Maldod
Food Technologist: Sarah Ivens – Food Centre Wales
Activity Creators: Amanda Baglow and Alex Clatworthy – Circus Eruption
Children’s Rights and Participation for Care Experienced Children and Young People: Tom Jones –  Swansea Children’s Services
SQU (Service Quality Unit),  Swansea Children’s Services: Kim Evans
Cefn Hengoed Community School:  Michelle Flynn
Youth Arts Officer: Joanne Shackley – Mess Up The Mess Theatre Company
Swansea Council
The National Lottery Community Fund Wales
Mess Up The Mess Theatre Company

Working online during lockdown these packs were created with young people who wanted ways to connect with friends and family. All the design work and ideas came from our workshops and although the final images and logos were created by myself it was completely a result of all of their hard work. and collating the ideas that brought these packs to life.

Rebranding workshop- 2020

With Care Experienced Children and Young People

Through a series of discussions and art workshops, the participants explored their own identities and relationship with their care experience. The workshops gave the participants a voice and aimed to improve the service and experience of young people in care.


The pictures below showcase items and artwork that represent each of our participants. Not only did they create the artwork they also worked with myself and photographer Jonathan Dunn to styles and art direct their final images in locations that were meaningful to them.

Lead Creative Schools
Glanhowy- 2022

Year 6 Project around the History of Tradegar.

Working with Arts Council Wales and Glanhowy Primary School, Clary Sadler and I were tasked with creating a project that would engage their year 6 pupils with the history of Tradegar through art and music. We were to work with the students to create a school anthem and transform this gym into a vibrant mural with the pupils, hopefully developing their research and language skills, their confidence and their creative expressions.




For the mural, I worked with the year 6’s in three stages.

1. Research

2. Development and designing

3. Realisation


For the research stage, we created a deep dive into Tradegars history through scavenger hunts and role play, allowing the class to work both individually and in teams. In collaboration with the class teacher, we asked them to find out about their own family connections to Tradegar using various interview techniques and finding items within their family that might hold some interesting story which they then used to create newspaper stories.


During development and designing we looked at their own relationship to the town, creating artwork using words and collage as well as allowing each of the students to design their own version of the gym to find out what was interesting to them. As a class we decided to use each of the boarded up windows of the gym as windows into the past to delve into the rich history of the area, not forgetting the recent history that the children themselves could relate to.



In the realisation stage all the year six’s contributed to painting the window boards in the school gym. The exterior work was done with spray painting equipment outside by myself as we could not allow the group to work at height. Within the mural, we attached the newspaper stories the group had been working on as well to show the passing of time.

Mess up the Mess and Rising Stars 2022

Showcase

This project was a showcase of the work done between rising stars and mess up the mess. Set in a dystopian future, our show was aimed to give the diverse group a voice in things they would like to see changed in the future. My role was to create artwork with the participants to display as part of the immersive production, with each plinth highlighting something that participants wanted non-neurodivergent people to understand about their day-to-day living.


Working in a way that created as little waste as possible either was recycled or reused after production.

Mess up the Mess 2020

Jumping Jack Packs

These circus packs were created as a fun end of a project activity, to do online as a group. I have since developed a Christmas version and hope to create more exploring idenity and diversity. These packs can be purchased on etsy the ready to cut out illustrations and all the bits required to make these into jumping jacks.