New club for creative youngsters
CREATIVE children are drawing inspiration from a new club in Brighouse which aims to encourage artistic endeavour.
The Saturday Art Club is meeting fortnightly in the newly-refurbished Brighouse Library and Smith Art Gallery and gives youngsters aged from eight to 12 the chance to get creative with arts and crafts activities.
The first session attracted 11 keen budding artists and organiser Jeffrey Andrews, senior education officer for Calderdale Libraries, Museums and Arts, is looking forward to welcoming new members to the next session on Saturday.
He said: "We were very encouraged by the response to the first meeting of the Saturday Art Club and hope more children will come along over the next few weeks. We have had a club like this in Halifax for 11 years – first in the Piece Hall, then at Bankfield Museum – and it has operated very successfully.
"After their renovation, Brighouse Library and Smith Art Gallery look fantastic and it is great to be able to welcome children into the building and show them round.
"We are hoping eventually to have upwards of 25 members in the club. Obviously they won't be able to come to every session because of family commitments and so on but the point is that they come when they can and have a good time."
At the first session, youngsters played 'people bingo' and other games to break the ice before having a tour of the gallery and looking at some of the exhibits being introduced to the library and then making a hand-made book to take home.
Future sessions might include a textiles workshop, felt-making, collages and a portrait workshop, based on the collection of paintings in the gallery.
Jeffrey said: "We will be open to suggestions from the members themselves about what activities they want to do. The club is a good way of introducing children to the gallery and library and hopefully they will continue to visit with their friends and families.
"We have a fantastic collection of paintings and it would be great if the children develop an appreciation and a love of art through their visits."
He said another advantage of the club was that it encouraged children to make new friends.
"At the first session only a couple of the children already knew each other so we played a few fun games to break the ice and encourage the children to get to know each other. Most of them were from the Brighouse area so it is a good chance to make new friends as the weeks go by.
"We see the club as an extension of the creative work that a lot of children do in school and an opportunity to try new things."
The library and art gallery in Rydings Park were reopened in November 2008 by children's author Anthony Browne after a 700,000 improvement scheme.
The gallery regularly hosts exhibitions by Brighouse artist Peter Brook and is currently showing a collection of landscape paintings by Yorkshire artist Alan Hardcastle.
Jeffrey said: “We have planned activities until the start of the summer holidays and we are hoping that there has been enough interest from children in the Brighouse area to enable us to resume in the autumn.”
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Weather for Halifax
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 14 C
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